The Meaning and Scope of Secularization

Bibliographic Data

ID20009690
AuthorsKarel Dobbelaere (University of Antwerp, corresponding author)
Year2009
Publication date2009-09-02
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueThe Oxford Handbook Of The Sociology Of Religion (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199588961.013.0034
OpenAlexW2504892224
ISBN9780199588961
LanguageEN
Citations received10

Standard religion is experiencing change and challenges on an unprecedented scale. Addressing mainly the situation in the West, and more specifically the European Union, this article argues that there are clear indications that what it refers to as ‘manifest secularisation’ or ‘laicisation’, as it is known in France, will increase in the years to come. It takes up the question of the continuing sensitivity to religion displayed by individuals under the label of ‘individual secularisation’, considered as the loss of control by religious authorities over the form and content of what people believe and how they practice. The article also contends that the continuation of religious belief and practice at the individual level confirms rather than refutes the theory of secularisation

Epistemology · Meaning (existential) · Political science · Scope (computer science) · Secularization · Sociology · Computer Science · Law · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions