Harvey Nichols’ Fashion Shows, Vintage Fairs and the Holy Eucharist: Manchester Cathedral as Post-Secular Place.

Abstract

In my studies of the public theology of Manchester Cathedral, one area of my research has been to understand how the space of a Cathedral has (and is) being reconfigured in a post-secular age. Jürgen Habermas coined the term ‘post-secularity’ in 2001 to describe the phenomenon of the breakdown between conceptual categories of the secular and the sacred. For Habermas, the secular thesis of modernity had in some ways failed, and the resurgence of religion in the public sphere presented and still presents challenges of how our common life can be built together in an age of pluralism and globalisation. I want to demonstrate in this paper the ways in which Manchester Cathedral, and other Cathedrals that use their spaces in similar ways, embody this post-secular reality and attempt to provide a sense of place in the context of increasing plurality in their cities. The Cathedral seeks to act as a “common place” where various groups and individuals in the region of Greater Manchester can in some way claim ownership of the Cathedral.