The key to the work of the centre will be interdisciplinarity...

The key to the work of the centre will be interdisciplinarity, which is always a challenge to traditional subject divisions. Yet the very word ‘university’ originated from a perception that a universality of mind was required to study any specialism, for unless one knew the topology and boundaries of other disciplines and the nature of the intercourse within and across them, one could not claim to have a rounded university education, or any proper insight into the world.

I have suggested that the postsecular emerges from the seven contexts listed above, but these are not exhaustive and only a guide. Debate and research in postsecular studies will undoubtedly take many new turns and draw from unexpected sources.

However, it will be characterised by a respect for what I have called ‘epistemological pluralism.’ We are seeing this broader respect for different forms of ‘knowledging’ in Universities in the example of the relatively new practice-based Doctorate in Fine Art. This allows art practitioners to submit a body of work which encapsulates their research, and is examined, usually in conjunction with a written contextualisation, by experts who can ‘read’ the artwork as well as the dissertation.

This would have been unheard of 20 years ago when positivism held sway within University research degree committees. But, looking somewhat into the future, what shape might a postsecular society take? In essence it will celebrate a spirituality that has emerged out of the confrontation with the scientific worldview, and as such it will owe much to it.

While the intensely secular nature of the 20th century has involved the very real loss of provision for a fundamental need of the human spirit - a need expressed in the etymology of the word religion ‘to re-bind or re-connect’ - it has provided humanity with a profound recognition of the worth of the individual. The spirituality of the postsecular era cannot but reflect this in a ‘bottom-up’ spirituality, forms of communal spiritual practices that listen rather than preach.

More important still is the ecological imperative, a possible doomsday clock set ticking by technology, anticipated by science, and only resolvable by a science harnessed through a spiritual sense of union with nature and the planet. This is an ecology that goes beyond utilitarian survival or obligations of stewardship, but which instead makes nature a site for a profound spiritual love. This is an ecology that can succeed.