Formulation of the claim
Sacralization is not a fixed state; it changes historically, and an older form of sacralization may weaken so that a new one appears in its place, tied to science or to control over nature.
Explanation
The idea is that human beings never cease searching for something that transcends them and gives them meaning, but the object of this transcendence does not remain the same. The forms and meanings of sanctity shift from one era to another and do not settle into a final shape. Sacralization is therefore not understood as a rigid given, but as a historical phenomenon that changes within cultural and intellectual transformations.
Its place in the book’s argument
This idea lies at the heart of the book’s concern with the historicity of major categories, including sanctity itself. It accords with the argument that beliefs and sacred things are formed and transformed within history, not outside it. In this way, it helps read Arkoun’s treatment of sacralization within the movement of cultural transformation, rather than as a fixed truth outside time.
Brief evidence
”And the other books branching from it (books of exegesis, theology, law and doctrines of faith, teachings of faith, translations, etc.). It is in precisely this sense that I personally had spoken about generalized biblical societies and coined the term. The Bible is still active in mediating and directing the production of the other books, and thus directing the activity of knowledge, even in highly educated societies (52). But we also find, conversely, that the Bible’s cultural expansion and its spread through all milieux lead to its insertion into earthly history, and thus gradually to its being stripped from the summit of its transcendence. This reciprocal interaction between the Bible and ordinary books has remained a fundamental feature”
Nearby links
Critique and Ijtihad in Islamic Thought Where Is Contemporary Islamic Thought?