W sferze ontologicznego półcienia. Ku postsekularnej i teologicznie zorientowanej antropologii
Occupying the Ontological Penumbra: Towards a Postsecular and Theologically Minded Anthropology

Summary/Abstract: In the wake of the postsecular turn, we call for a renewed appraisal of both the religiousas an object of anthropological inquiry and how anthropologists with religious or spiritualcommitments may participate in shaping an emerging postsecular anthropology. Suchan anthropology recognizes the failure of secularization theory to dissolve the dichotomybetween the religious and the secular. We propose that anthropologists consciouslyinhabit the ontological penumbra, an ambiguous and plural space in which we engagewith various counterparts, both human and nonhuman. This requires our opennessto the real possibility of the existence of gods, spirits, and other nonhuman entities. Weshould treat them not only as subjects of study, but as valid counterparts with whomwe can engage in the ethnographic encounter. While this necessitates relinquishing theformer privileged position of secular and Western epistemology, it opens up the disciplineto a potentially unprecedented ethnographic productivity that is epistemologically andontologically innovative. Without neglecting its secular heritage, such a theologicallyattuned postsecular anthropology places anthropology in a better position to explorewhat it is to be human, especially in terms of understanding religious and spiritualexperiences.

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