On the (Im)Possibility of Religious (Dis)Engagement

Abstract

This article begins with the premise that the word “religious” implies having a connection with the human being, rationally and spiritually. In other words, we cannot talk about an experience of a religious kind if people, and their sense of rationality and spirituality are absent. Humans internalise a religious experience if they happen to connect with one another in some way or the other, (re-)examine one another’s claims of reason, and disclose their spiritual connections in the presence of one another. If any of the above constitutive notions of what makes religious experiences religious is not present, one cannot talk about any kind of religious experience. This article examines these three constitutive notions of religious experiences as the author (with a Muslim identity) endeavours to argue in defence of religious engagement. The argument for religious engagement is premised on the notion that people are social beings by their very nature—that is, they live together and are transformed by their contexts, including religious affiliations. And when human conditions for religious engagement prevail, as is the case in South Africa, exclusion and alienation are subverted.