The New Leviathan Blog

Towards a diffuse spiritual consciousness?

Switzerland is a true religious laboratory. Most of the world’s religions are represented there. Today, the country has 491 religious groups. A tremendous diversity, which contains risks, but also opportunities. In a book which will be published soon, around twenty researchers present the issues – political, cultural, social, legal, media, etc. – of this plurality.

For example, that of Islam. In the public mind, Muslims are a monolithic community. However, it is not. “Muslims in Switzerland do not display any cultural, ethnic or linguistic unity,” note the authors. It was the attacks against the World Trade Center towers in 2001 that highlighted the religious affiliation of the members of these different communities. However, according to the authors, “it is above all the feeling of belonging to an ethnic group which forges their identity”. Despite their diversity, the Muslim communities of Switzerland, however, have common demands (wearing the veil at school, construction of minarets, etc.) which lead to fears and even conflicts. “The acceptance and integration of Islam within Swiss society have not yet been achieved,” the researchers emphasize.

The issues linked to Islam have completely eclipsed the interest in sects. The “new religious communities” (NCR), as the authors call them, were widely talked about at the time of the crimes committed within the Order of the Solar Temple. Since then, the debate raised by these communities, whose number is uncertain (100 to 200) and which represent approximately 1.5% of the population, has significantly lost steam. In addition, “many NCRs are observing stagnation, or even a decline, in the number of their members,” note the authors. This development comes in particular from disaffiliations, the low number of births or the failure of socialization within communities.

However, the Swiss are showing a growing interest in unorganized religiosity and esoteric and alternative spiritualities. Thus, 33% of them believe in reincarnation, 35 to 45% approve of para-religion, such as beliefs in miraculous healings, good luck charms, and prediction of the future, 30% consider spiritualism to be probable, and 30% believe in the existence of extraterrestrials. “The esoteric idea that there is a source and underlying truth common to all religions is supported, at least indirectly, by 52.8% of Swiss,” note the researchers. (Le Temps 04/11/2009).

The fact that these researchers write that the acceptance and integration of Islam within a Western society have not YET been acquired is undoubtedly a tribute that they pay to the master who pays them. The so-called “monolithic perception of Muslims” is a false problem. By designating them in this way, people are only using a convenient name to express a problem that they feel and that they observe. This problem concerns an ethnic group more than a religious one. This does not prevent this group from being diversified nor from having shifting contours.

The figures relating to sects must be taken with caution, because the “observations” made by the sects about themselves are very unreliable, not to mention the confusing use of the word “community” – which the Power has every interest in confusing meaning. It is implausible that 33% of Swiss people firmly believe in reincarnation – perhaps at most they accept the idea in principle. It is inappropriate to call the new spirituality “esotericism” – which either designates a historically specific religious movement or denotes something hermetic and hidden, when that is not what it is about. acts. The new spirituality is simply called spirituality. Predicting the future is not a religious practice or belief. We know nothing about the “inevitable” future decline of the Churches. In short, once again… independence of mind, conceptual clarity and absence of prejudice do not seem to be the primary characteristics of social science researchers.

If this research does not seem to be able to teach us much, it nevertheless reminds us of the strength of spiritual renewal in Western societies. Notions and approaches to spirituality – some associated with therapeutic processes, others not – are spreading and becoming commonplace. We are also witnessing a certain return of religion in politics. This may have been the case with Al-Khaida and the so-called “war against terrorism”, but also with recent reinterpretations of state secularism in France. The spiritual void that results from the values ​​of Power – economic materialism, hedonism, individualism, consumerism – is opposed by new and powerful aspirations. Today we are far from the death of God announced in the context of European secularization in the 19th century.