Engaging R. Scott Appleby’s The Ambivalence of the Sacred in the Time of Confident Religions

Abstract

R. Scott Appleby’s notion of the “ambivalence of the sacred” and his approach to interreligious dialogue link the analytic and normative components of the study of religion and thus carry a particular weight in our moment—a time of confident religions, in which the discourse of power reigns over our analyses and politics. Re-engaging these two elements of Appleby’s work has significant repercussions for understanding the relationship between the agency and responsibility of religious actors, and for reframing our investigations into the “thicker” meaning of power, which religious actors especially have a capacity to inaugurate into the arena of politics.

Keywords:

• Ambivalence
• sacred
• interreligious dialogue
• confident religions
• religious agency and responsibility
• discourse of power

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Notes on contributors

Slavica Jakelić

Slavica Jakelić is Associate Professor of humanities and social thought at the honors college of Valparaiso University. Her work explores religion and nationalism, religious and secular humanisms, and theories of religion and secularism. She is co-editor of The Future of the Study of Religion and Crossing Boundaries: From Syria to Slovakia, co-editor of The Hedgehog Review’s issue “After Secularization,” and author of Collectivistic Religions. She is currently working on two books, Chastening Religious and Secular Humanisms and Ethical Nationalisms.