Sacralising Nation and Market: Migrations of the Secular and the Religious in an Age of Post-truth Politics

The progressive decline of secularisation theory as a conceptual framework to account for the relationship between religion and politics in modern societies has encouraged the development of a number of contending theoretical approaches, from the notion of ‘public religions’, to the ‘return of religion’ approach, to the ‘power of the secular modern’, to the ambivalence of the sacred, to postsecularism, to the ‘secular-religious competition perspective’. In different ways, these approaches signal (whether empirically or normatively) a growing dissatisfaction with the capacity of existing secular arrangements to fully promote inclusion, democratic participation, equality, and pluralism. In different ways, these perspectives challenge the traditional secular divide between ‘secular facts’ and ‘religious beliefs’ by inviting us to consider the ‘truths of faith’ and their relevance for a ‘decaying’ secular order (Habermas). However, recent debates on ‘post-truth politics’ prompted by the Brexit referendum in the UK and the election of Donald Trump in the US suggest that the divide between facts and belief is the object of a growing political struggle not just between secular and religious outlooks, but within them (consider, for instance, the debate as what counts as true Islam in relation to ISIS). From this perspective, what are traditionally considered secular categories, such as the market, are increasingly surrounded and supported by a widespread system of beliefs, with religious institutions such as the Vatican criticizing the market from being detached from the real life of the people. This Paper will attempt to track these developments, with a particular focus on the sacralisation of the market and the nation and their impact on populism and pluralism in Europe and the US, and their implications for relationships with the MENA region.