Western Religion and the Self-Canceling of Modernity
Gustavo Benavides
Abstract The extreme character of western modernity is the result interaction two contradictory processes. On one hand, cultivation interiority, reflexivity, and thus subjective freedom, which antedates Christianity, also found in other cultures, but Christianity intensified by equating religion with 'faith.' other, need to assert one's freedom against attempts on part a church, which, while promoting exploration sinful subjectivity all Christians—understood primarily as believers—sought control reality, external internal. While emergence reflexive, tolerant self has led many West abandonment its traditional institutional religion, that same reflexivity renders difficult dealing demands groups—Christian non-Christian—that seek abolish modernity.
Journal of Religion in Europe