Beyond Modernity? On Some Problems in Post-Secular Interpretation of Russian Religious Philosophy

Abstract

The article puts itself in the context of rethinking Russian religious philosophy as a post-secular phenomenon. The author delineates the relationship between conceptualization of Russian religious philosophy as primarily shaped by secular modernity in historical scholarship and the newly emerging post-secular interpretation. Although these approaches differ, the combination of both of them is possible through the transition from the historiosophical to a structural conceptualization of post-secularity. The latter considers post-secularity as a certain type of positioning religion within the condition of the secular modernity that is already there. Developing this approach to post-secularity, the author connects it with the current attempts to overcome essentialist understanding of modernity by describing the latter as a variety of local historical situations, within which demodernization tendencies can be detected as well. Furthermore, such an interpretation of Russian religious philosophy as a post-secular phenomenon avoids two main problems of applying the post-secular theory to the contemporary Russian context, namely: a) disregarding the presence of the given secularity and modernity, and b) instrumentalizing the concept of the post-secular by aggravating the conflict be tween the secular and the religious. To conclude, the author outlines possible further avenues for the post-secular interpretation of Russian religious philosophy and highlights the significance of this strategy for the current debates.