Religion and Modern Man. Is there a Future

distinguishes man from the other a n i r n a l~.~ The study of man cannot be complete unless it includes the study of his religion, for it is a very important and outstanding feature of human life. The religious faith and practices are intimately connected with human nature and life in general. However unrefined a religion might have been in its origin, and however gross the superstitions with which it has often been associated, its omnipresence and centrality in the history of humanity are facts to be reckoned with.3 The religious perceptions and sensitivity helped man a lot to keep alive and hopeful in his hazardous journey through history.4 In many cases the bonds of religion have proved stronger than the bonds of race or climate or even descent.

Modernity can be defined by a number of metaphysical commitments – materialism, naturalism, scientism, and humanism. This web of metaphysical assumptions influences how we think and act in the world in ways both mundane and profound. When humans become the measure and measurer of all things, we are necessarily ignorant of transcendental and spiritual truths and values as promoted by the world’s religions. Religious and postmodern critiques of modernity’s metaphysical assumptions, however, provide an important corrective to the ideology of modernity. In order to counter act the pervasive anti-religious and secularizing tendencies of modernity, it is necessary to develop “Religious Science” through which humans can obtain both mundane and spiritual happiness.

In the nineteenth century, sociologists boldly predicted the death of religion. Max Weber (1904/5, 1918-19, 1968) pointed to the growing rationalization of many fields of human enterprise and the corresponding decline of magical thinking and religion. At about the same time, Georg Simmel was conducting research on different realms of modern life. Simmel (1900, 1903, 1950, 1971) who was well aware of religion's sway over various facets of communal life, drew attention to the intellectualization of modern urban society. He estimated that religion would continue to be felt in all social relations, but business transactions, politics, family life, fashion, and music was becoming more calculated. Furthermore, Simmel averred that religion itself would be transformed by these same developments, as it too would become yet another commodity that is consumed by human beings. Emile Durkheim (1912) also underscored the importance of religious beliefs and practices as catalysts of social solidarity throughout the course of human existence. In his study on totemism in various cultures, Durkheim unveiled the common denominators between religious and scientific thinking. Analyzing the organizational complexities of Australian aboriginal society, he explained how tribes divide and subdivide into exogamous moieties, classes, and clans. Each of these cohorts is associated with different species on the totem, in a system that incorporates all natural phenomena and reflects the particular society's classifications of identity and belonging. This process demonstrates how people form groups and classify all the surrounding elements within the shared framework of the clan. As such, totemism is not only a way of thinking about culture, but a system that enables tribe members to define their actions, express their feelings, and organize life events around codes that distinguish between the sacred or profanethe orderly and disorderly. Put differently, totems are the symbolic representations of a much greater forcethe mana: the way society portrays itself to its members. In light of the above, the mana is always concomitantly external and internal to the worshiper. Alternatively, Durkheim (1912) argued that when a society develops and variegates from a technological standpoint, the nature of magic and religion also change. In fact, this process of differentiation, according to Durkheim, is the main feature of what we call modernity. Due to the fragmentation of communal conscience and activities, the spheres that society usually considered to be sacred realities are increasingly subject to the individual's own volition and thus separated from mundane activities (1912). He believed that solidarity will eventually be reconstituted, but this process will not necessarily be underpinned by religious or magical frameworks and practices.

C. Ando, T. Habinek, G. Sissa (eds.), Cultural History of Ideas in Antiquity. (Oxford Cultural History of Ideas)., 2022

About a decade ago John Coffey and Alister Chapman issued a call for a collaboration among those studying intellectual and religious history, intending to chart a new space for integrating these two fields, especially with regard to the modern and contemporary eras. 1 While fields studying these distinct aspects of the Greco-Roman world may not have developed quite as fully separate disciplinary identities, historians attempting to contribute to an intellectual history of ancient religion, as I am doing here, may still be tempted by narratives that dichotomize the generally secular intellectual developments in understanding the world, on the one hand, and traditional religious practices, superstition, and magic as backward forces, on the other. This temptation is further complicated for classical antiquity because in questioning the rationality of Greco-Roman religious practices we follow in the footsteps of those late antique and later Christian writers who sought (and at times celebrated) those ancient figures who questioned "paganism." Yet it was exactly these Christian authors who transmitted most of what we know about ancient religions. The primary difficulty in discussing the intellectual history of Greco-Roman religions in the past century has been the long-standing sense that, especially in the inevitable comparison to modern world religions, non-Judeo-Christian, Western antiquity prioritized practice over theology in religion. 2 Although this stark dichotomy of the before, "practice," and the after, "theology," is now disappearing in scholarship-as both the theological interests of the ancients and the practical varieties of modern religions are highlighted-we should still acknowledge that the absence of a strict theology and of an associated specifically theological authority significantly and somewhat uniquely shaped Greco-Roman religions. 3 Religious authority existed, but the focus was primarily on proper religious practice, or lack thereof. The pull of such a practice-oriented religious culture tends to separate scholarly discussion into two distinct areas: first, into a primarily action-oriented engagement with religious practices, bracketing their potential meanings, and, second, into an idea-heavy focus on ancient thinkers who supposedly questioned or challenged the frequently unwritten assumptions that were implied by common religious customs. The problems with each of these approaches on their own are rather obvious: in the first case, the influence of emerging notions constantly changing those practices and their representations can be easily missed; in the second case, the influence of changing social realities and imagery may be underappreciated in shaping those ideas. But my main interest here is in how the bifurcation itself challenges our study of ancient religion in its full richness of practices and ideas by denying the connections among its many theoretical and practical manifestations. 102 Accordingly, the main goal of this chapter is to engage the possibility of a dynamic study in which ancient Greek and Roman religions are appreciated primarily for their intellectual richness, yet with an eye to the ongoing practices and, to the extent possible, their wider sociohistorical context. Especially when it comes to religion, the mutual influence of discourses and practices on each other are key: representations shape our engagement with what is A CULTURAL HISTORY OF IDEAS IN

As progressive beings we are endowed with faculties such as reasoning, discerning, probing, inquiring, critiquing and exploring. Nowadays we could proudly say that 'sky is not the limit' and human aspirations is such that to get to know and get into the unexplored terrains and conquer everything at one point of time termed as 'mysteries', now a reality. With the application of our critical and creative faculties and questioning and exploring capacities we keep moving on to greater heights. Inquiring and questioning mind and reasoning power are the greatest components endowed in human beings that enable and extend the urge in us to move forward and higher. Homo sapiens per se have been innovative, creative and ground breaking. Science and technology contributed to approximate these achievements. Parallel to these developments, side by side, religion co-exists. Organized religion from time to time instills or refills its adherent not to drift from the basic tenets, rituals, religious practices, traditions and belief system. The belief in God as the center of being continues and for this the organized religion sustains their belief in varied ways. In trials and tribulations and frustrations and hopelessness, the leverage of hope is extended only by religion apart from cementing the