Pomiędzy Kwanzaa a Jediizmem. Współczesne konstrukcje tożsamości religijnej i wspólnoty wyobrażone

Abstract

Jarema Drozdowicz – BETWEEN KWANZAA TO JEDIISM. CONTEMPORARY CONSTRUCTIONS OF RELIGIOUS IDENTITY AND IMAGINED COMMUNITIES The modern religious identity is often recalling the idea of communitarism as one of its basic premises. This paper makes an attempt to present the most significant ideas behind the mechan-ism of creation of a modern religious community. The examples of two religious phenomena, the American Kwanzaa holiday and the newly established religion of Jediism are showing, that creating a community on the basis of religion is not just limited to belonging to a existing community. It also might be created in relation to a purely imagined community. The term, introduced by Benedict Anderson, is a useful tool in describing the modern processes of constructing religious identity, which more and more often is also a part of larger ideologies. These ideologies are nowadays also present in our lives through culture and pop-culture. Popcultural identities, just like in case of Jediism, are becoming popular among western societies; a fact which we have to include today in our scientific vocabulary if we want to deliver.