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Secularization: An Analysis at Three Levels

Second Printing

by Karel Dobbelaere (Author)
©2004 Monographs 214 Pages

Summary

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.

Details

Pages
214
Publication Year
2004
ISBN (PDF)
9783035261462
DOI
10.3726/978-3-0352-6146-2
Language
English
Publication date
2002 (November)
Keywords
Säkularisierung Religionssoziologie Katholische Theologie Sociology Culture Modernity Secularization Rational Choice Religion
Published
Bruxelles, Bern, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Oxford, Wien, 2002, 2004. 214 pp., 1 table

Biographical notes

Karel Dobbelaere (Author)

The Author: Karel Dobbelaere is emeritus professor of the Catholic University of Leuven and the University of Antwerp (UFSIA). He is an elected member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and Arts, the Academia Europaea, and a former President of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion. He was a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College (Oxford, Great Britain), the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture (Nagoya, Japan), and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (Paris, France).

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Title: Secularization: An Analysis at Three Levels