The Hermeneutic of Demystification

Abstract

This chapter is an attempt to analyze the role of religion in social change in the paradigm of “demystification.” The choice of this term is inspired by the characteristics of the wax and gold paradigm and the varying, even opposite, philosophical trajectories that the demystifying agents I will be discussing in this chapter followed. This is because demystification has to do with unveiling mystery. Deeply connected to the underlying dualistic worldview, mystery had a profound impact on Ethiopian society. It not only legitimized the political status quo, it also frustrated social, political, and economic changes because of its negative perception of the material side of reality. As a result of lack of social mobility, it incubated a hierarchical social structure. The paradigm of demystification, therefore, not only reacts against the worldview of the wax and gold paradigm, it also is concerned with the understanding of social order. It can be called modern because it opposes the traditional religious view of reality with a newly found appeal to science and rationality. It is related to modernization as far as that implies a strategy for changing the political, social, and economic order.