Concept

Secularization

Overview

In sociology, secularization (British English: secularisation) is a multilayered concept that generally denotes "a transition from a religious to a more worldly level." There are many types of secularization and most do not lead to atheism or irreligion, nor are they automatically antithetical to religion. Secularization has different connotations such as implying differentiation of secular from religious domains, the marginalization of religion in those domains, or it may also entail the transformation of religion as a result of its recharacterization (e.g., as a private concern, or as a non-political matter or issue).

The secularization thesis expresses the idea that through the lens of the European enlightenment modernization, rationalization, combined with the ascent of science and technology, religious authority diminishes in all aspects of social life and governance. Pew Research Center notes that economic development is positively correlated with less religiousness. According to Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, "virtually all advanced industrial societies" have become more secular in recent decades.

The secularization thesis was challenged in 1999 by Peter L. Berger, who coined the term desecularization to refer to a resurgence of religion after a period of secularization, with examples such as the Islamic revival since the 1970s, in particular the Iranian Revolution, and the resurgence of religion in post-Soviet Russia. Some researchers have said that people with religious beliefs may be increasing as a share of world population, due to higher fertility rates in poorer, more religious countries, but Pew Research Center estimates that between 2010 and 2020, the religiously unaffiliated share of world population increased from 23.3% to 24.2%.

There is no particular monolithic direction or trend for secularization since, even in Europe, the trends in religious history and demographic religious measures (e.g., belief, belonging, etc.) are mixed and make the region an exception compared to other parts of the world. There are many debates about the boundaries of both religion and secular and some have suggested "post-secular" models since there are areas of growth of religious influence which challenge the underlying assumptions on conventional views on secularism. Global studies show that many people who do not identify with a religion still hold religious beliefs and participate in religious practices. The secular vs religion dichotomy is false and neither concept is mutually exclusive. Both "religion" and "secular" are Western terms and concepts that are not universal across cultures, languages, or time.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

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e., that the same value is present in a double form: at one pole, as a commodity in the hands of the seller; at the other pole as money in the hands of the buyer. This simultaneous existence of the two equivalents at opposite poles and their simultaneous change of places or mutual alienation presupposes in its turn that seller and buyer enter into relations as owners of equivalents that are on hand. But in the…
Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy
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"Piety," again, or, as the Greeks say, εὐσέβεια, is commonly understood as the proper designation of the worship of God. Yet this word also is used of dutifulness to parents. The common people, too, use it of works of charity, which, I suppose, arises from the circumstance that God enjoins the performance of such works, and declares that He is pleased with them instead of, or in preference to sacrifices. From this…
of Hippo Augustine, The City of God, Volume I
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From hence arose the several orders, with or without a monarch (which are called states), in every European country; the strong traces of which, where monarchy predominated, were never wholly extinguished or merged in despotism. In the few places where monarchy was cast off, the spirit of European monarchy was still left. Those countries still continued countries of states; that is, of classes, orders, and…
Edmund Burke, Selections from the Speeches and Writings of Edmund Burke
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Secularization

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