Sacrality and worldmaking: new categorial perspectives

Authors

• William Paden The University of Vermont

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67251

Keywords:

Holiness, Categories, Concepts, Authority, Hermeneutics, Cross-cultural studies

Abstract

The category of the sacred in particular and the role of transcultural concept-formation in general have undergone an obvious crisis. For the most part, "the sacred," if not an empty label, has been linked with theologism, and transcultural concepts have been condemned for their general non-comparability and colonialist intent. The author approaches the matter of transcultural templates through an analysis of certain concepts of sacrality. With some exceptions, the discourse of sacrality has indeed been dominated by a single model, where "the sacred" became a reified noun—a substantive term for a supernatural reality, a label for the transcendent, or even an epithet for divinity, mystery, the wholly other. As such, the expression has functioned to bestow a sense of unity to the diversity of cultures, link that unity with a transcendent reality, and offer a simple way of making sense of otherwise foreign beliefs and practices by giving them a familiar, generic referent.