Secularization

In sociology, secularization (British English: secularisation) is a multilayered concept that generally denotes "a transition from a religious to a more worldly level."[1] There are many types of secularization and most do not lead to atheism or irreligion, nor are they automatically antithetical to religion.[2] 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).[3][4]

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.[5][6] Pew Research Center notes that economic development is positively correlated with less religiousness.[7] According to Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, "virtually all advanced industrial societies" have become more secular in recent decades.[8]

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.[8][9] 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,[8][10][11] but Pew Research Center estimates that between 2010 and 2020, the religiously unaffiliated share of world population increased from 23.3% to 24.2%.[7]

There is no particular monolithic direction or trend for secularization since, even in Europe, the trends in religious history and demographical religious measures (e.g. belief, belonging, etc) are mixed and make the region an exception compared to other parts of the world.[12] 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 infleunce which challenge the underlying assumptions on conventional views on secularism.[13] Global studies show that many people who do not identify with a religion still hold religious beliefs and participate in religious practices.[14][15][16][17] The secular vs religion dichotomy is false and neither concept is mutually exclusive.[2] Both "religion" and "secular" are Western terms and concepts that are not universal across cultures, languages, or time.[18]

  1. ^ Latré, Stijn; Vanheeswijck, Guido (1 January 2015). "Secularization: History of the Concept". International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition): 388–394. doi:10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.03113-5. ISBN 9780080970875.
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Eller was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Bullivant, Stephen; Lee, Lois (2016). A Dictionary of Atheism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191816819.
  4. ^ Ertit, Volkan (2018). "Secularization: The Decline of the Supernatural Realm1". Religions. 9 (4): 92. doi:10.3390/rel9040092.
  5. ^ "The Secularization Debate", chapter 1 (pp. 3-32) of Norris, Pippa; Inglehart, Ronald (2004). Sacred and Secular. Religion and Politics Worldwide. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-83984-6.
  6. ^ Hekmatpour, Peyman (2020-06-01). "Inequality and Religiosity in a Global Context: Different Secularization Paths for Developed and Developing Nations". International Journal of Sociology. 50 (4): 286–309. doi:10.1080/00207659.2020.1771013. ISSN 0020-7659. S2CID 219748670.
  7. ^ a b Hackett, Conrad; Stonawski, Marcin; Tong, Yunping; Kramer, Stephanie; Shi, Anne; Fahmy, Dalia (2025-06-09). "How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020". Pew Research Center. Retrieved 2025-06-14.
  8. ^ a b c Norris, Pippa; Inglehart, Ronald (2011). Sacred and secular : religion and politics worldwide (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. Chapter 1. ISBN 9781139128674. OCLC 767732041.
  9. ^ Karpov, V. (2010-03-01). "Desecularization: A Conceptual Framework". Journal of Church and State. 52 (2): 232–270, 232. doi:10.1093/jcs/csq058. ISSN 0021-969X.
  10. ^ Zuckerman, Phil (2006). "3 - Atheism: Contemporary Numbers and Patterns". In Martin, Michael (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Atheism. pp. 47–66. doi:10.1017/CCOL0521842700.004. ISBN 9781139001182.
  11. ^ Ellis, Lee; Hoskin, Anthony W.; Dutton, Edward; Nyborg, Helmuth (8 March 2017). "The Future of Secularism: a Biologically Informed Theory Supplemented with Cross-Cultural Evidence". Evolutionary Psychological Science. 3 (3): 224–242. doi:10.1007/s40806-017-0090-z.
  12. ^ Davie, Grace (2022). "15. Religion, Secularity, and Secularization in Europe". The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Europe. Oxford University Press. pp. 270, 273, 278, 282. ISBN 978-0198834267.
  13. ^ Kettell, Steven (2019). "Secularism and Religion". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.898.
  14. ^ "Religiously Unaffiliated". The Global Religious Landscape. Pew Research Center: Religion & Public Life. 18 December 2012.
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference Unaff Yet Rel was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Blankholm, Joseph (2022). The Secular Paradox : On the Religiosity of the Not Religious. New York: New York University Press. p. 3,8. ISBN 9781479809509.
  17. ^ Fuller, Robert C. (2017). "Secular Spirituality". The Oxford Handbook of Secularism. Oxford University Press: 571–586.
  18. ^ Eller, David (2017). "Varieties of Secular Experience". The Oxford Handbook of Secularism. Oxford University Press: 500–501, 512. It is commonplace today to note that the term "secular" is of Western origin—and not originally antagonistic to religion ("secular priests" were hardly averse to religion). Frankly, "secular" is not inherently related to religion at all: denoting "of the current age" or "of the present generation," it could apply to any subject...Some societies, as anthropology has discovered, do not even have a term or concept for "religion" and therefore obviously do not have a concept akin to our "secular." For the purposes of the present chapter, they do not have "secular experience" at all, since "the secular"—like religion—is nowhere and everywhere...What investigators can and should do is discover how particular groups, institutions, and societies talk about and practice secularism—if in fact they do at all—rather than to impose a speciously unified concept, derived from one society's experience, on all places and times.
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