A religious explanation of difference that permits exit becomes unfit when boundaries erode
Evidence
The inherited religious explanation of the boundary – the rejection of Christ by the Jews – was singularly unfit for the new task. Such an explanation inevitably entailed the possibility of exit from the segregated field. As long as the boundary remained clearly drawn and well marked, that explanation served a good purpose. It provided the needed element of flexibility which tied the fate of men to their assumed freedom to earn salvation or commit a sin, to accept or to reject the Divine grace; and it achieved it all without in the slightest detracting from the solidity of the boundary itself. The same element of flexibility, however, would prove disastrous once the practices of segregation had become too half-hearted and lackadaisical to sustain the ‘naturalness’ of the boundary – making it instead a hostage to human self-determination. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 176
Categorization
- DEFINE: Explains why the inherited religious justification breaks down under modernity: its built-in possibility of conversion/exit now threatens rather than supports the boundary.
- XREF: connects to: Religious markers fade when not needed to secure supremacy in a settler context