Kavoliškojo modernizacijos diskurso trajektorijos ir naujojo sakralumo paradigma
Trajectories of Vytautas Kavolis Discourse on Modernization and the New Paradigm of Sacrality

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with Lithuanian-American sociologist Vytautas Kavolis’ approach to modernization, globalization and religious revival. His approach is based upon constructive discourse wherein problems can be formulated from both Western and non-Western perspectives. In Kavolis’ writings, Western forms of thought are insightfully compared to Chinese, Indian, Islamic, African and other forms of thinking. According to Kavolis, cultural modernization should be thought of as a universal multidirectional process. It takes place not only in one particular, for example, Western civilization, but also in other (practically, in all) cultures and civilizations. This process takes place on several levels and is multidirectional in terms of space and time. The most obvious conclusion of Kavolean analysis is that religious revivals and upheavals taking place in the West are less likely to become despotic because Western civilizational framework tends to subordinate religion to secular culture. As a consequence, one might ask a question whether the process of secularization should be interpreted as a much more general development towards secular morality. The author of the article suggests that Kavolis’ humanistic vision hopefully predicts that the future of our global culture will not be described in terms of a strife between the “sacred” and the “secular” (irrespective of ideological differences and political orientation that might spell out both these terms – the sacred and the secular), because this cultural future will simply be described in terms of an interaction between mythology and practical humanism.

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