Secularization: An Analysis at Three Levels: Second Printing (Dieux, Hommes et Religions / Gods, Humans and Religions)

✍ Scribed by Karel Dobbelaere

• Publisher: P.I.E-Peter Lang S.A., Éditions Scientifiques Internationales
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 220
• Edition: 2
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

In an epoch in which religion has explicitly and sometimes violently returned to the forefront of the global public scene, the process of secularization that has fundamentally marked Western and particularly European societies demands attention and analysis. This book, written from a sociological perspective, takes up that challenge.
The author distinguishes three levels of secularization. Societal secularization which is a typical consequence of the processes of modernity, and of programmes of «laïcisation» promoted by political parties. Individual secularization that is manifested in the decline of church commitment; occurring as individuals re-compose their personal beliefs and practices in a «religion à la carte»; and as the individual's meaning system becomes compartmentalized and religion is separated from other areas of life. A third level, organizational secularization, covers the incidence of the adaptation of religious bodies to secularized society.
The entire work is marked by meticulous description and analysis of numerous theoretical and empirical studies, and by due recognition of the intricate relationship between levels of secularization and the impact of various actors in the many conflicts over religion's roles.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
Series Editor’s Presentation by Gabriel Fragnière 11
Preface 13
PART I. SECULARIZATION: A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL CONCEPT
Introduction 17
Chapter 1. Theories of Secularization 29
Societal Secularization 29
Organizational Secularization 35
Individual Secularization 38
Chapter 2. Societal Secularization 45
The Historical “Base-Line" 45
The Definition of Religion 49
The Integration of Society 52
Societal Secularization: A Mechanical, Straightforward Evolutionary Process? 61
Theoretical Lines of Analysis 82
Other Approaches to the Process of Societal Secularization 96
Chapter 3. Organizational Secularization 105
Religious Change and Organizational Secularization 105
Societal Secularization and Religious Change 117
Chapter 4. The Process of Declining Religious Involvement and Individual Secularization 137
The Comfort Thesis 137
The Secularization Thesis 140
The “Secularization Thesis” and Some Other Theories 146
The “Secularization Thesis”, “Invisible Religion”, and “Alternative Meaning Systems” 148
Conclusions 153
Chapter 5. Conclusions 157
PART II SECULARIZATION: THE THREE LEVELS AND THEIR INTERRELATEDNESS
Presentation 163
Chapter 1. The Interrelatedness of Societal and Individual Secularization 165
The Secularization Process: A Partial Recapitulation 165
Studying the Effect of Societal Secularization on Individual Religiosity 167
Compartmentalization 169
The Causal Link between Church Commitment and Compartmentalization 170
Chapter 2. Individual Secularization 173
Chapter 3. Bringing the Actors Back In 181
Chapter 4. Epilogue 189
Societal and Individual Secularization: A Relationship 189
Organizational Secularization and Sacralization 190
Pluralism: Secularization and Rational Choice Theories 193
References 197