Abstract

This article discusses Dewey’s The Public and Its Problems (1927), Ethics (1932), “Theory of valuation” (1939), Art as Experience (1934) and A Common Faith (1934), for the socio-anthropological analysis of the religious, in a context of diversity and anxiety about identities. This pragmatist approach enables to consider religious in the making, experience and self-construction. The concept of ideal, taking into account intersubjectivity and context, allows treating aspirations and ideals. Finally, the idea of public and pre-political, permits to pay attention to processes which are different from differentiation and where people contribute to the common good from their specific (minority) situation.