Idea
This claim says that the Enlightenment and modernity did not eliminate religion, as is sometimes assumed, but instead unleashed new forms of conflict around it. Religion did not disappear from the public sphere; rather, it returned in political and fundamentalist forms that reopen questions of legitimacy and identity. The modern era therefore appears as a new arena of religious tension, not the end of religion.
Concise Formulation
The Enlightenment and Western modernity: did not bring an end to: religion in practice
Its Place in the Book’s Argument
This statement lies at the heart of the argument that rejects the celebratory reading of modernity. The book does not treat modernity as a stage of final elimination of religiosity, but as a stage that reproduced the conflict over religion’s place in society. In this sense, the text links modernity to the rise of fundamentalism, showing that historical transformation does not resolve tensions but may reshape them.
Why It Matters
The importance of this claim is that it corrects a common understanding that sees religion as something belonging exclusively to the past. In Arkoun’s reading, religion remains present within modernity itself, but in a more complex and conflictual form. This helps explain why it is not enough to speak of progress in order to account for contemporary religious and political reality.
Brief Evidence
He sees the Enlightenment and Western modernity as not having actually ended religion, but as having unleashed new forms of conflict around it. Religion did not disappear from the public sphere; instead, it returned in political and fundamentalist forms that reopen questions of legitimacy and identity. The modern era thus appears as a new arena of religious tension, not the end of religion.
Reading Questions
- How does the text explain religion’s return within the modern era instead of its disappearance?
- What is the relationship between the failure of the secular promise and the rise of fundamentalism in this context?
Degree of Documentation
High: the claim appears in a clear location in the book’s material.