O sposobach kultywowania mitologii mocnych i osłabionych

The article is devoted to the difference between the ways of cultivating mythologies referred to here as “strong” as well as “weakened” mythologies characteristic of modern culture. The sources of this “weakening” may be found in the secularisation process, conceptualised in a variety of ways. In the present author’s approach, the ways of cultivating “strong” and “weakened” mythologies do not constitute a historical sequence — as could be concluded from a simplified secularisation thesis — but, rather, two extremes of a certain continuum. The author analyses the models of cultivating mythologies that can be placed within this continuum; worthy of note among them are: participation, mimesis of participation and mimesis of trace. What is also important in the present reflection is a re-interpretation of the notion of participation mystique in the spirit of the concept of cultural practices.