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Been thinking about the phenomenon of modern confessional states giving way to collapse of religious belief.
I suspect the answer might be in the nature of the modern state, and how it integrates religious authority and practice into its logic.
I suspect the answer might be in the nature of the modern state, and how it integrates religious authority and practice into its logic.
The phenomenon is not restricted to any religion or political orientation. It happened to conservative Spain and decolonizing Ireland, and might still happen to Poland. It seems to be affecting the Islamic MENA world and upwardly mobile Hindu populations in India.
What got me thinking about this was reading about the Catholic Church in Haiti. It seems to buck the trend. It's active in popular life. It apparently has no vocations crisis.
What's different in Haiti?
What's different in Haiti?
- Successive leaders blocked the Church from state influence. Its locus was among the populace.
- Catholic practice was tied in w/ everyday concerns. "Folk" practices are alive here (in tension w/ voodoo).
- Ecclesial authority was an intermediary w/ the state, not its advocate
- Catholic practice was tied in w/ everyday concerns. "Folk" practices are alive here (in tension w/ voodoo).
- Ecclesial authority was an intermediary w/ the state, not its advocate
One of the reasons evangelicalism is rising in Latin America is because it deals with very everyday concerns. Work, addiction, the desire for improvement.
Meanwhile, Catholicism became highly intellectual and activist.
Meanwhile, Catholicism became highly intellectual and activist.
But the relation with the state is my focus here.
Catholic confessional states were still states: corporative public entities whose members were an administrative, professional class defined by that identity.
Membership in this body distinguishes one from the civic populace.
Catholic confessional states were still states: corporative public entities whose members were an administrative, professional class defined by that identity.
Membership in this body distinguishes one from the civic populace.
In many confessional states, the religious structures become slowly integrated into the political one. Education is a major example in Catholic countries. Public ideology is another, across the world. In Iran, they even form the executive.
But this means they also get assimilated to the structural form of state power, and its professional classes. They are not dispersed among the populace, but socially/physically centralized and distinct from it. Their authority gets bound up with that of the public power.
This is beneficial in the short run, but makes them participants in any crisis of power which the state undergoes in future. Most regions we're talking about here have indeed had such crises. They also become legitimate targets for reform, conflict, or "modernization."
Moreover though, they no longer serve the localized functions they once did. Everyday leaders, guides, authorities, arbiters of conflict. Of course, the modern state also creates a mass populace, so these niches can disappear--but new ones aren't found.
So we shouldn't be surprised that people now relate to religious practice in two ways: partisans or opponents of an ideological identity. This is just what conflict in a public state + mass society looks like.
Catholics vs anticlericals, Hindutva nationalists vs modernists, etc.
Catholics vs anticlericals, Hindutva nationalists vs modernists, etc.
But the damage was state assimilation of religious authority into its structures. Previously, the *whole* polity is considered part of the Church/Ummah/etc. Political authority structures have religious character, but don't consume it.
See this: https://newpolity.com/blog/church-and-state
See this: https://newpolity.com/blog/church-and-state
There is generally a priestly/clerical distinction, but widely dispersed among the populace, often w/ multiple ranks, and structurally diverse.
The modern state forces them to choose between assimilation, or being shunted aside by mass society. But it's not a long-run benefit.
The modern state forces them to choose between assimilation, or being shunted aside by mass society. But it's not a long-run benefit.
Of course, religious modes are alive as ever in the forms of ideology, folk practice like astrology, etc. But I think it awaits to be seen how religious authority finds social stability in the mass society, operating under the public state.
Neither confessional states nor the mere embrace of secular liberal norms seem to have actually kept things alive. Nor has just trying to flee modernity, which merely delays the process. Something else is probably needed.
I suspect it will look somewhat medieval, in the sense of breaking out of mere "sovereignty" in both the confessional and secular modes. I think it will have to de-professionalize religious authority in some key ways.
And importantly, lose the modern fear of folk religion.
And importantly, lose the modern fear of folk religion.
If you're interested in the state theory here, there's a couple of great pieces at @palladiummag:
@NicolasDVillar1: https://palladiummag.com/2020/01/08/who-has-authority-in-the-american-state/
K. Christopher Dahlke: https://palladiummag.com/2019/05/25/the-case-for-a-new-state-consciousness/
@NicolasDVillar1: https://palladiummag.com/2020/01/08/who-has-authority-in-the-american-state/
K. Christopher Dahlke: https://palladiummag.com/2019/05/25/the-case-for-a-new-state-consciousness/
