A theoretical framework for analyzing of the postsecular world (review on books by D.A. Uzlaner “The end of religion? The history of the secularization theory” and “Postsecular turn. How to think about religion in the 21st century”)

This review presents an analysis of two books by D.A. Uzlaner: “The End of Religion? The History of the Secularization Theory” (2019) and “Postsecular Turn. How to Think About Religion in the 21st Century” (2020), in which a successful attempt was made to delineate the field of modern discussions about the secular and post-secular world and the position of religious phenomena in modern society. In “The End of Religion? The History of the Secularization Theory” the author explores the prerequisites and formation of the theory of secularization. The structure of the chapters is based on the periodization, which includes the background, formation, criticism and renewal, crisis and decline of the theory of secularization. “Postsecular Turn. How to Think About Religion in the 21st Century” is not a historical research. It is an attempt to build a new theory of secularization, the need for which was justified in the first book. The cross-cutting theme of the book is the ratio of religious and non- religious in the public space. The most notable in this monograph are the elaboration of various details of the optics of the description of the post-secular world and its origins, as well as an analysis of the current situation in Russia of the last decade. Due to the methodological balance and critical premise in the “Kantian” sense, the cartography of the religious and non-religious in the dilogy brings us closer to understanding of the contradictory Modern terrain. The author bases his analysis both on the classics of social thought and on the latest researchers. The proposed theoretical framework clarifies the specifics of religiosity and related phenomena in the current situation both in the global scale and in Russia.