Holy Ignorance: When Religion and Culture Part Ways

Olivier Roy

Paperback

9781849044479

‘A highly complex book that critically examines the relationship between religion, culture and globalization, Holy Ignorance provides theoretical keys to unlocking the riddle of the religious imagination and the “deculturation” of religious movements in the modern world.’ — Fawaz A. Gerges

Olivier Roy finds in the modern disconnection between faith communities and socio-cultural identities a fertile space for fundamentalism to grow. Instead of freeing the world from religion, secularisation has encouraged a kind of holy ignorance to take root, an anti-intellectualism that promises immediate, emotional access to the sacred and positions itself in direct opposition to contemporary pagan culture.