Religion in modern projects: between alarmism, political expediency and utopia

M.M. Mchedlova

doi:10.17976/jpps/2024.02.05

Religion in modern projects:
between alarmism, political expediency and utopia

Mchedlova M.M.,

RUDN University; Institute of Sociology of FCTAS RAS, Moscow, Russia, mchedlova-mm@rudn.ru

elibrary_id: 569349 | ORCID: 0000-0002-4635-1741 | RESEARCHER_ID: A-4465-2017

Article received: 2024.01.11. Accepted: 2024.01.31

DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2024.02.05
EDN: ZAMWYG

Rubric: Theme of the issue: Political science faced by the challenges of interdisciplinary diffusion and social practice

For citation:

Mchedlova M.M. Religion in modern projects: between alarmism, political expediency and utopia. – Polis. Political Studies. 2024. No. 2. P. 50-64. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2024.02.05. EDN: ZAMWYG

Abstract

The permanent shift of modernity, the epistemological crisis, and the politicization of all social spheres determine an atmosphere of global political anxiety. The ever-expanding security deficit becomes an attribute of modernity, as a fragmentation as a response to globality and the emergence of alternative ways of political genesis reflects new socio-cultural semantic nodes. Existential threats raise a persistent appeal to religion. The loss of epistemological certainty in political constructions contributes to the theoretical confusion about the future. The diffusion of political and value contexts forces people to turn to religion while developing projects and setting the goals of modernity. This creates cognitive and political- instrumental difficulties in using legitimizing and, at the same time, mutually exclusive religious meanings. The simultaneous truth in different types of discourses and in theory makes it impossible to find a common denominator. We argue that the projects and goal settings of modernity, claiming to be universal, but not achieving it, are structured primarily based on the logic of alarmism and eschatology. A positive project, trying to overcome the limitations of politicization, moves to the value plane. We consider three perspectives of the teleology of modernity, including religious meanings: theoretical, metaphysical, and instrumental. The research methodology is based on the problems of political goal setting in the logic of, traditional/ modern, explaining the religious coloring of political strategies and the splitting of future visions. The othering based on religious differences as a tool of political goal setting, the political instrumentalization of religious identities, simultaneously with religious creation of the world, puts two possible projects of modernity at opposite poles - the World of Religions and the World of Faith. Among the possible projects arising at the intersection of religion and politics, the author suggests three large clusters: alarmism, political expediency, and utopia.

Keywords

religion, modernity, security deficit, anxiety, eschatology, tradition, faith, politicization, future, goal setting.

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