Formulation of the Claim
Arkoun distinguishes between an immanent earthly ontological order within which history and society are situated, and a transcendent or heavenly order in the light of which religious meaning is understood.
Explanation
This distinction understands the human history and social experience as an immanent domain, that is, a domain in which events are read within their earthly conditions and human trajectories. Opposed to it is a transcendent or heavenly level to which religious meaning is referred as a horizon different from the course of everyday events.
This framework appears in the reading of the pilgrimage as a movement of transition between the two levels, not merely as a ritual practice detached from its symbolic significance. The aim is to highlight the link between religious experience and the historical organization of meaning within social life.
Its Place in the Book’s Argument
This atom belongs to the book’s broader effort to deconstruct the ways in which religious meaning takes shape within history, rather than confining it to a single closed interpretation. It comes close to Arkoun’s theses, which reconnect text, ritual, and social representation within a comparative historical horizon.
Limits of the Claim
This distinction should not be taken as a final judgment on the value of either level, nor reduced to a simplified opposition between the earthly and the spiritual. Nor is it sufficient on its own to explain everything related to rituals or religious meaning in Arkoun’s works.