Holy Ignorance: When Religion and Culture Part Ways. By OliverRoy. Trans. by Ros Schwartz. Pp. xiv, 259, London, Hurst and Co, 2010, £20.00.

On a certain level, contemporary trends in religious thought and practice defy explanation. In the West, we are witnessing diverse religious phenomena, from the Vatican-sanctioned revival of Tridentate Latin liturgy in the Roman Catholic tradition to the practice of Torah-Yoga and Eco-Kosher amongst Orthodox Jews. In Holy Ignorance, Oliver Roy navigates such examples to explore the consequences of the separation of religion and culture in our globalized context Roy is best known for his scholarship on Islam. As such, it is not surprising that Muslim case studies abound in the monograph. However, he also draws extensively on a number of other faith traditions in presenting his thesis. Roy's main contribution is to demonstrate how trends towards de-culturing and de-territorialization in religious expression can be understood as generating a religiosity of ignorance. According to his analysis, this de-culturing and de-territorialization both accompanies and contributes to globalization as religious communities place themselves within an emerging spiritual marketplace. The days of societal-level religious conversions emanating from a ruler of territory are over. Conversion now takes places amongst communities and most commonly amongst individual spiritual seekers ‘shopping’ in the religion market. Within these structures, which Roy repeatedly associates with a globalized world, the tendency is to remove religions from their territorial heartlands and cultural frameworks. As a result, for example, neo-Hindu communities in the West abandon the caste system. Further, Eastern traditions become ‘formatted’ as a religion in a sort of protestant mode, with, for instance, Buddhist come and go worship replaced by services conducted by a professionalized clergy complete with group meditation, a sermon and announcements. Roy argues that the sum effect of such transformation is an emphasis on experience that downplays knowledge, even religious knowledge. In contrast, when culture and religion remained joined, texts can be investigated for their social and historical contexts and faithfulness can be assumed by participation in basic rituals. Decoupled, religious and cultural markers acquire their own spheres. The imam, priest or rabbi can no longer be a judge. These religious figures are ‘reformatted’, no longer serving as counsel to societies but, rather, as administrators to faith communities. The tendency and the ability generated by a ‘glocal’ marketplace of religion to interpret texts as devoid of context, encourages the growth of fundamentalism. In this case, beliefs become paramount and the focus is on conversion and the affirmation of faith through conviction. Through the dynamics of ‘exculturation,’ the surrounding culture is then viewed with suspicion and understood as profane or even as pagan. Such an expression of faith becomes centered on simple norms, often impossible to practice systematically, which are devoid of nuance. Attempts to establish nuances, to give fundamentalism a cultural element, are condemned as corruption or sin. The result is a form of anti-intellectualism that Roy calls ‘holy ignorance’. He cites the Christian fundamentalist practice of glossolalia as the perfect example of such ignorance because ‘speaking in tongues’ erases comprehensible language (the vehicle of knowledge and culture) in favour inspired soundings of ‘true faith.’ It follows, for Roy, that de-radicalization requires the re-culturation of religion. In the case of Islamic radicalism this approach would mandate, for instance, challenging Arabic's status as a ‘magical’ language by encouraging the creation of Arabic literature. Hence, Roy approves of offering financial incentives and prizes for Arabic fiction as a conflict-reduction strategy. However, he continues, de-radicalization also requires an element of re-territorialisation, so that, for example, a Roman Catholic priest in France serves those living in his parish and the wider society, as opposed to thinking of himself as solely dedicated to his faith community or requiring those seeking to get married in a church to prove their connection to that faith community by attending spirituality classes. In tracing the above presented elements of Holy Ignorance's argument, I can only give a flavour of Roy's work. However, I would add that reading the monograph is a something of an experience. At least in translation, the book displays a certain type of entertaining bravado while summarily dismissing the potential of concepts like multiculturalism to make a contribution toward the resolution of some of the tensions that Roy discerns. In fact, there are a number of sweeping statements that are sometimes qualified many pages later but nonetheless come across as unduly summative, if not as rough treatments of complex subject matter. Yet, in a book about ignorance this feature of the monograph is stimulating, encouraging a reader to reflect upon these vivid statements and be attuned to the nuances when they are presented latter on in the text. In any case, over the longer arc of his writing, Roy's analysis is almost invariably bolstered by a poignant example drawn from the contemporary era. As such, Holy Ignorance is valuable reading for scholars with an interest in issues at the intersection of religion and culture.

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