Religion is not what it was

Dr Neville Buch

Thinking Religion in Place

Thinking Religion in Place: A Critique of the “Post-Religious” Lament

Abstract

The colloquial observation that “religion is not what it was” often masks a deeper cognitive tension between Historical Forgetfulness and the requirement for a topological understanding of existence. While populist discourse frequently mourns the decline of institutional “Christendom” or celebrates a move into “secularism,” Dr. Neville Buch’s Matrix of Sociology and the Spiral Historiographical Thesis suggest that religion is not vanishing but being re-situated. Drawing on the “spatial turn” in the Academic Study of Religion and the philosophical topology of Jeff Malpas, this essay argues that “Thinking Religion in Place” requires a movement away from simplistic literalism—treating religion as a set of static, unmoored dogmas—toward a recognition of the historical contingency of our social worlds. By integrating the insights of Bernard Williams, Don Cupitt, and Bernard Lonergan, the analysis demonstrates that a “post-religious” identity is not a rejection of the sacred but a humanistic ascent toward Human Authorship, where the “who” (the human person) remains the proactive operator of the “what” (social and technical systems).

https://www.academia.edu/165975120/Religion_is_not_what_it_was

Attached: Thinking Religion in Place. Religion is not what it was

Featured Image: Neville at Union Theological Seminary, New York City, New York State, the United States of America, on 28 January 1992.

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Neville Buch

Professional Historian at Professional Historians Association (Queensland) Inc.

Neville Buch (Pronounced Book) Ph.D. is a certified member of the Professional Historians Association (Queensland). Since 2010 he has operated a sole trade business in history consultancy. He was a Q ANZAC 100 Fellow 2014-2015 at the State Library of Queensland. Dr Buch was the PHA (Qld) e-Bulletin, the monthly state association’s electronic publication, and was a member of its Management Committee. He is the Managing Director of the Brisbane Southside History Network.

Latest posts by Neville Buch (see all)

• Agency, Cultural Construction, and Synoptic Vision: On Matt Patterson’s Comprehensive Examination in Sociological Theory (2009) – September 20, 2026
• Human Existence, Existential Angst, and the Protestant Worldview: An Essay on Buch’s Existential Thesis – September 20, 2026
• Salus Populi Suprema Lex Esto. Ciceronian Statecraft, Spinozan Toleration, and Prophetic Praxis – September 19, 2026