Beyond Salvaging Solidarity

Over the last two decades, the ‘postsecular’ has become an increasingly popular concept in various disciplines. For some (Milbank, 1992a, 1992b), the concept represents the emergence of a new age, an era that requires the rethinking of most fundamental social and political categories that we use to make sense of social and cultural life. For others (McLennan 2011; Bader 2012), there is not much clarity as to what, if anything, the concept offers to social and normative political theory. In this contribution, I intend to show that despite its eclectic nature and various shortcomings, the concept has much to contribute to normative thinking and theory. But to reveal this potential, I argue that we need to go beyond the instrumental, solidarity-oriented direction that most scholars of the postsecular have taken the concept and redirect it towards a fuller, more substantive affirmation of religion which challenges what I call the modern ‘seculanormative truth-regime’.