Le Monde des religions, January-February 2005 —
Editorial —
When I started working in publishing and journalism in the late 1980s, religion held no interest for anyone. Today, in its many forms, religion pervades the media. Indeed, the 21st century opens with an increased influence of "religious phenomena" on the course of world events and societies. Why? We are currently confronted with two very different expressions of religion: the resurgence of identity and the need for meaning. The resurgence of identity concerns the entire planet. It arises from the clash of cultures, from new political and economic conflicts that mobilize religion as an emblem of identity for a people, a nation, or a civilization. The need for meaning primarily affects the secularized and de-ideologized West. Ultramodern individuals distrust religious institutions; they intend to be the architects of their own lives; they no longer believe in the bright future promised by science and politics; yet they continue to grapple with the fundamental questions of origin, suffering, and death. Similarly, they need rites, myths, and symbols. This need for meaning re-examines the great philosophical and religious traditions of humanity: the success of Buddhism and mysticism, the revival of esotericism, and the return to Greek wisdom.
The resurgence of religion, with its dual aspects of identity and spirituality, evokes the word's dual etymology: to gather and to connect. Human beings are religious animals because their gaze is turned towards the heavens, and they question the enigma of existence. They gather themselves to receive the sacred. They are also religious because they seek to connect with their fellow human beings in a sacred bond founded on transcendence. This dual vertical and horizontal dimension of religion has existed since the dawn of time. Religion has been one of the principal catalysts for the birth and development of civilizations. It has produced sublime things: the active compassion of saints and mystics, charitable works, the greatest artistic masterpieces, universal moral values, and even the birth of science. But in its harsher form, it has always fueled and legitimized wars and massacres. Religious extremism, too, has its two sides. The poison of the vertical dimension is dogmatic fanaticism or delusional irrationality. A kind of pathology of certainty that can drive individuals and societies to all extremes in the name of faith. The poison of this horizontal dimension is racist communitarianism, a pathology of collective identity. The explosive mix of the two gave rise to witch hunts, the Inquisition, the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, and 9/11.
Faced with the threats they pose to the planet, some European observers and intellectuals are tempted to reduce religion to its extremist forms and condemn it wholesale (for example, Islam = radical Islamism). This is a grave error that only amplifies the very thing we intend to combat. We will only succeed in defeating religious extremism by also recognizing the positive and civilizing value of religions and accepting their diversity; by acknowledging that humanity needs the sacred and symbols, both individually and collectively; by addressing the root causes of the ills that explain the current success of the political manipulation of religion: North-South inequalities, poverty and injustice, a new American imperialism, overly rapid globalization, and contempt for traditional identities and customs. The 21st century will be what we make of it. Religion could be just as much a symbolic tool used in the service of policies of conquest and destruction as it could be a catalyst for individual fulfillment and world peace within the diversity of cultures.