The Analytical Potential of the Research Category “Religious Other†: Towards the Formulation of the Problem

The paper addresses the problematization of the analytical category religious other and its relation to the category cultural other. It focuses on whether it is justified to distinguish the “religious†as a specific mode of othering, or whether it should rather be seen as a variation of cultural alterity. The study partly draws on the censorship files of the Committee of April 2nd, 1848, where the practice of controlling publications reveals the mechanisms of constructing religious difference. Particular attention is given to the situations in which the secular, claiming the role of a neutral arbiter, becomes involved in the binary opposition of the secular and the spiritual closely linked to the sacred/ profane divide and turns into a full participant in the dynamics of othering within both secular and post-secular contexts. The paper also considers the significance of this analytical category in relation to such notions as heterodoxy, schism, superstition, and heresy. The analysis of the nineteenth-century materials thus raises a broader question: whether a distinct analytical category of the “religious other†is necessary for describing historical processes, or if the concept of cultural alterity is sufficient. The analysis of the applicability of the religious other category to modernity identifies two areas: the transformation of relations between believers of different religions (interreligious dialogue), as well as the problems of interaction between religious and secular consciousness. The religious other may be perceived as an “opponent†, “interlocutor†, “neighbor†, or “partner†. The latter two forms are of particular importance for modern interreligious dialogue or “spiritual diplomacy†, when believers of different religions emphasize peacemaking and cooperation for the common good.