Esperienze religiose del Postmoderno: un'introduzione

The introduction traces the origins and development of the concept of the Postmodern, from its earliest uses in artistic and theological contexts to its philosophical systematization in the work of Jean-François Lyotard. The postmodern condition is interpreted as a crisis of metanarratives, universal systems of legitimation, and the modern belief in linear progress, within a context shaped by the fragmentation of knowledge, its commodification, globalization, and the exhaustion of the paradigm of unlimited growth. These transformations have had a particularly significant impact on traditional religions, especially Christianity, whose universal narrative and historical project of salvation are directly challenged by the decline of teleological conceptions of history. However, the weakening of religious institutions and doctrines does not entail the disappearance of religion. Rather, it encourages the emergence of localized narratives, fluid communities, and forms of religious experience centred on embodiment, emotion, participation, and performativity. The transition from the culture of the book to that of the screen also reshapes religious languages, symbolic spaces, and modes of transmission: faith increasingly circulates through media, digital platforms, and popular culture, taking on visual, immersive, spectacular, and hyperreal forms. The volume therefore aims to investigate selected religious experiences arising within the postmodern world, with particular attention to lived, hybrid, and mediatized forms of religion that are often overlooked by traditional theological and institutional approaches.