Conceptualising religion in the 21st century: Examining the proposal of Mark C. Taylor in After God

Abstract

This article summarises and evaluates Mark C. Taylor’s theory of religion as presented in After God. Taylor redescribes religion as an emergent, complex, adaptive network – a term he adopts from the biosciences and physics. Such networks operate as non-totalising wholes. They are co-dependent and co-evolve. It follows that everything is related and there are no absolutes. Taylor
points to the co-determination of religion and secularity as well as theology and theory in the West. Such networks are also self-organising and self-maintaining. As open systems, they thrive at the edge of chaos. Hence, Taylor rejects any closed, rigid system of neo-foundationalism as found in our postmodern, globalised world. For Taylor, there are no solid grounds; there is only creative emergence, from which reality is figured and disfigured in an oscillating interplay. The article closes by pointing out some inconsistencies in Taylor’s own application of religion as complex adaptive system. Due to these inconsistencies, Taylor falls short
of offering a constructive role for contemporary religious traditions and communities.