VOLUME 1 ISSUE 1 SPRING 2015

the “demonopolization of the religious market” (Lužný 1999, 79). With the increasing number of religious entities, the credibility and selfevidence of all of them sharply decrease. Individual identity, including its religious dimension, is understood as a private affair. This demand for autonomy is connected with consumer orientation. Religions have also turned into goods on a great market of ideas, worldviews, reference systems of transcendence and rituals. Thomas Luckmann in his book The Invisible Religionsays that the dimension of the Holy is mostly constituted in the “invisible” sphere of privacy, where the deepest and most moving discussions about that sphere occur (Luckmann 1967, 106). 5 Freedom and responsibility It is challenging how to react to all these developments. There are two simplified, but – in my opinion – incorrect answers. One of them is the boundless relativization and the other is fundamentalism. Both of these are an expression of fear: one represents the fear of responsibility, the other the fear of freedom. They comprise an escape from reality and an unwillingness to accept facts as they are. Bryan Wilson describes secularization as a transition from a smaller community (Gemeinschaft) lifestyle to a big society (Gesellschaft) lifestyle. The first is characterized by face-to-face relations, an emphasis on emotionality and a symbolic universe, which refers to transcendence. The second represents a vast rationally coordinated group of people with complicated structures, impersonal relationships and an emphasis on rationality. Secularized society does not need references to transcendence, because there a strong belief dominates that it is fully and coherently explained only by means of rationality (Wilson 1992, 149−160). The Christian Church should take such analyses seriously. Christianity is also threatened by too much rationality and cold institutional relations. This can lead to dissatisfied people leaving the Church and converting to a competitor in the religious market. The personal approach is very important also in the case that the other is neither a present nor a prospective member of the Church. 6 Contrasting expressions of faith In archaic societies an individual was too much bound to her or his community and depended on it, so she or he had to accept all aspects of the community life willynilly. Only later, when individual freedom became greater, was it possible to realize that religion can have its dark side just as all other human activities. The meme theory says that every valuable and successful cultural meme provokes the emergence of many false imitations of thismeme: they are similar to the goodmeme, but they are harmful. False banknotes are good example of this phenomenon (Blackmore 1999). 116 (4) Adrián Slavkovský

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