Eternal sacred

“Nostalgia for the sacred”, by Michel Maffesoli. Cerf Editions

By: Geneviève Delrue

Publicity

World Religions - Sunday 23 August 2020 - 11:10 a.m. - 12 p.m. (Paris time) (Replay)

For sociologist Michel Maffesoli , professor emeritus at La Sorbonne and author of numerous works on postmodern man, the sacred is making a comeback.

In a society saturated both with the excesses of rationalism inherited from the Enlightenment and of politics, this need to dialogue with transcendence and mystery through the mediation of the senses would again be expressed by a pendulum movement. His latest essay “  La nostalgie du sacré  ” (Cerf) analyzes the resurgence of an emotional practice.

For its part, Le Monde de la Bible devotes its summer dossier to places of worship through the ages - from the temples of Pharaonic Egypt to contemporary churches - by questioning whether or not they are sacred. Benoît de Sagazan , editor-in-chief of this history review, highlights the Christian specificity and in this case Catholic of having wanted to sanctify the divine presence in a material construction, in contradiction with the teaching of the followers of Jesus of a “deterritorialized” religion. These will be followed in the 12th century by the medieval heterodox, then at the time of the Reformation by the Protestants, all of whom only accorded importance to the "living stones" that are the Christians.

(Replay of June 28, 2020)

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