Postsecular Refigurations of Religion and Secularity in Maarten Van der Graaff’s <i>Wormen en engelen</i> (2017)

This article offers a postsecular reading of Wormen en engelen (Worms and Angels, 2017) by Maarten van der Graaff, a novel that critically engages with the Dutch literary tradition of representing Protestant upbringing. While authors such as Jan Wolkers and Maarten 't Hart framed religion within narratives of secular emancipation, Wormen en engelen questions the validity of such stories and shows a renewed interest in Christian religion. First, the novel ascribes a specific spatiotemporal logic to classical secularization narratives, based on a spatial dichotomy and a teleological time frame. An analysis of the novel's spatiotemporal organization reveals how the narrative can at first still be read as playfully engaging with these conventions, but ultimately transcends them. Second, the novel introduces new metaphors for understanding religion and secularity. These metaphors frame religious institutions and experiences through phenomena the narrator elsewhere associates with secularity, such as the post-Fordist economic order and technologically mediated, embodied experiences. By foregrounding these dynamics, Wormen en engelen oscillates between a renewed appreciation of religion and the awareness that religion is equally influenced by secularity, rather than existing in opposition to it.