We have always been transreligious: An introduction to transreligiosity

• Published in: Social compass Vol. 69; no. 4; pp. 614 - 630
• Main Authors: Panagiotopoulos, Anastasios, Roussou, Eugenia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.12.2022; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Borders; Personality; Purification; Religiosity; Bruno Latour; religion transnationale; transnational religion; religion vernaculaire et vécue; purification; contemporary spirituality; vernacular and lived religion; spiritualité contemporaine; transreligiosity; transreligiosité
• ISSN: 0037-7686; 1461-7404
• DOI: 10.1177/00377686221103713

This article is a proposition and exploration of the term ‘transreligiosity’. We argue that transreligiosity is more apt to describe the transgressive character of religiosity, focusing more particularly on the transversality of spaces, symbolic or otherwise, which are created in religious phenomena. We examine the porosity of religious boundaries and, ultimately, propose the term transreligiosity to embrace them, placing emphasis on their transreligious character, while perceiving them as significant instantiations of transreligiosity. We take some of Latour’s key concepts on ‘purification’, to argue for the ultimate impossibility of it in the sphere of religiosity. While processes of purification have been powerful through efforts to institutionalize and centralize religiosity, at a vernacular level, this has had a contrary effect. Religious subjects have been distanced from a more direct participation (‘mediation’). Hence, they are constantly creating transreligious instances to abolish and transgress those rigid borders.