On the benefits of mythologies for sociological imagination

Abstract

The article is a sociological review-reflection on the non-sociological book by P.A. Sapronov Mythology of Secular Culture (Saint Petersburg: Publishing House “Petropolis”, 2023. 380 pp.) and aims at proving the usefulness of ex-disciplinary reading for understanding one’s subject field. From the title of the book, it is obvious that it is interesting for the sociological reader for at least two reasons. First, secularization is clearly a sociological topic associated with the origins of our discipline, and secular culture/society is an undeniable object of sociological analysis. Second, the concept ‘myth’ has an ambiguous status in sociology: on the one hand, it is a generally recognized attribute of any archaic/ancient culture/society; on the other hand, today the word ‘myth’ has a rather metaphorical connotation, thus, serving as synonym for other concepts (ideology, misconceptions of mass consciousness, non-religious cults, common journalistic images, etc.). Although the book is declared as a course of lectures, it is rather a detailed monographic narrative that does not meet the formal requirements for the declared genre: the book does not have an introduction, footnotes or references - only a summary of the author’s theses in the conclusion and numerous references to relevant authors, concepts, examples and discussions in all three sections - “Myth and its variations” (historical transformations of the mythological), “Mythologems of secular culture” (progress, individualism, great man, freedom, revolution, religion in secular culture and nationalism) and “On the necessity and possibility of overcoming myth in secular culture” (prospects for demythologization on the paths of science, philosophy and theology).