Deus Vobiscum? Esperienze religiose del postmoderno

This volume examines the transformations of religion within the postmodern condition, beginning with the crisis of metanarratives, universal systems of legitimation, and traditional forms of belonging. From this perspective, secularization does not entail the disappearance of religion, but rather its reconfiguration into fragmented, fluid, individualized, and performative experiences that may develop outside established religious institutions. Adopting a historical-comparative and interdisciplinary approach, the chapters investigate the processes through which myths, rituals, symbols, and practices are created, adapted, and experienced across different areas of contemporary culture. The first section, devoted to the construction of religion, discusses the concepts of postmodern and hyperreal religion, the sacramentalization of psychedelic substances within the American counterculture, the encounter between jazz and Neo-Hinduism, the religious roots of American democracy, and the new forms of digital religion emerging through artificial intelligence and immersive environments. The second section focuses on concrete expressions of lived religion, including Jack Kerouac’s engagement with Buddhism and the Beat Generation, contemporary Paganism and the search for a Proto-Indo-European homeland, the sacralization of Diego Armando Maradona, and the reinterpretation of rites of passage in television talent shows. Taken together, the essays demonstrate how postmodern religion develops through hybridizations involving inherited traditions, popular culture, consumption, sport, music, politics, and digital technologies. The sacred does not disappear; rather, it changes its languages, media, and spaces of manifestation, increasingly emphasizing experience, embodiment, visuality, participation, and the formation of fluid communities. The volume therefore offers a pluralistic interpretation of contemporary religion, highlighting both the persistence of mythical and ritual structures and their profound reconfiguration within postmodern culture.