Postsecularity: Theoretical Concept and Historical Experience

My purpose in what follows is to use ‘postsecularity’ as a transhistorical concept that underpins a new reading of modern religious history. My understanding of postsecularity is inspired by Jürgen Habermas. The postsecular is thought based on the dialectical conjunction of a farewell to traditional religious orthodoxy and a plea for a heterodox revival of religious intuitions and symbols. My main contention would be that postsecularism thus understood is hardly a new phenomenon and that it is in fact a persistent undercurrent within Western modernity, bringing together such authors as William Blake, Franz Rosenzweig, and Max Weber.