Postmodernity and Religion

Lambert
Modernity produces 2 processes;
Decline, evidenced by;
1)Fewer people engaging in religious practices
2) More people defining themselves as atheists Or agnostics
3) A general loss of secular political influence. Adaptation and
reinterpretation, whereby Religions;
1 Adapt to their changed position in modernity
2 Reinterpret their roles and functions to carve Out a new niche in
different sties.
Lambert pt 2
Modernity produces 2 further effects;
1) Conservative reactions [result in various Forms of fundamentalism as
people struggle With demands of change]
2) Innovation where religions adapt to the new And different
challenges people face. A Defining feature of religion is their ability to
Reinvent themselves for a variety of purposes.
2) Taylor; PM approaches include:
Arguments that;
1) God is dead
2) We are witnessing a ‘return of Traditional faith’ [resacralisation]
Religion evolves and takes new forms.
3) Metanarratives
For postmodernists, knowledge about the
World is organized atound a series of
Competing metanarratives; all encompassing
Stories that explain ‘everything about Something’.

4) Lyotard;
postmodernity involves a ‘incredulity
Towards metanarratives’- the idea that no
Single set of beliefs has or can sustainnthe
Claim to a monopoly of truth. Thus suggests 2
Things;
-decline in ability of religion to exert significant Control over people’s
lives as it did pre- and Early modernity.
-a gradual retreat into ‘local narratives’- small Stories about people’s
situations; religion loses Power but still influences identities.

5) Contradictions
PM reflects and encourages contradictory set Of beliefs about
significance of religious ideas, Practices and organizations, both in past
and Present. Simultanueously, religion faces;
1) decline- as organized religions lose ability to
Control and influence events in secular world
2) development, as beliefs and practices shift And change.
 Beliefs may be in ‘supernatural Phenomena’ but not expressed
in organized Religions.
 Religions constantly reinvented to reflect how People choose
and discard forms of personal Identity.