Introduction: A World After Spiritual Liposuction
Modernity is often defined by the profane—a sphere of experience from which the sacred has been "suctioned" out. It is a purely functional reality where space is flat and time is measured only by the clock. However, a completely secular existence proves to be a psychological phantom. Although traditional religions are losing their influence, the need for meaning remains indelible. In this article, you will learn how the sacred migrates into politics, technology, and consumption, taking on new and surprising forms.
Eliade and Otto: Phenomenology and Desacralization
For Mircea Eliade, the distinction between the sacred and the profane is fundamental. Sacred space possesses a central point (axis mundi) that orders the world, while profane space is homogeneous and lacks depth. Similarly, sacred time (in illo tempore) is a cyclical return to the mythical beginning, contrasted with linear, "wearing out" secular time. Desacralization makes the world ontologically thin, turning nature into a mere resource.
Rudolf Otto complements this vision with the concept of the numinous. This is the experience of the "wholly other," accompanied by the mysterium tremendum et fascinans—a blend of paralyzing awe and magnetic fascination. Although modern man has removed these terms from his vocabulary, the sacred survives in "sacred remnants": morning coffee rituals or sentimental places that preserve the structure of a hierophany.
Civil Religion and Rituals of Power
Holiness does not disappear; it simply changes addresses, moving into the public sphere. Robert Bellah points to the existence of civil religion—a system of symbols and rituals (anthems, constitutions) that bind the state together without referring to a specific Church. Meanwhile, Carl Schmitt, in his political theology, argues that national sovereignty replicates the sacred matrix: the sovereign who decides on the state of exception takes the place of God in the legal order.
Community is also built through rites of passage. Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner described the state of liminality—a moment "in between" where social roles are suspended, allowing for the birth of communitas, or a community of absolute equality. However, critics of Eliade, such as Clifford Geertz, note that the sacred is not always a universal revelation. It is often the result of painstaking symbolic work that gives meaning to local social structures.
Algorithms and Simulation: The New Axis Mundi
In the postmodern era, the sacred undergoes a transformation into technophany. Jean Baudrillard warned that we live in a world of simulacra, where signs no longer refer to reality but instead erase it. In this hyperreality, technology takes over sacred functions. Algorithms become an invisible liturgy deciding the visibility of being, and data centers serve as the new axis mundi, keeping the world in motion.
Consumer culture creates its own micro-liturgies: product launches become worship services, and devices become relics. The modern foundation of the moral community is becoming awe. This secular experience of "vastness"—felt in stadiums or during mass protests—allows the individual to feel part of something larger. Understood this way, the sacred is not an obsolete relic, but a universal structure of meaning that today, instead of incense, smells of server room ozone.
Summary: The Irremovable Question of the Center
The process of disenchanting the world is not the end of the sacred, but its reshuffling. The sacred migrates into ecology, technology, and politics because the human psyche does not tolerate an axiological vacuum. One can tear down a temple, but one cannot tear down the question of meaning and orientation within chaos. Today's secular hierophanies prove that community is still generated not only by dogma, but above all by a shared capacity to be moved by that which transcends the everyday profane.
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