"Secularisation" revisited

Abstract

The notion secularisation has been extensively written about. It has become part of the jargon conveniently resorted to by sociologists of religion to describe their findings on what happens to the interface between religion and society particularly during periods of rapid social change. The concept has been used in numerous, at times mutually exclusive ways, to the extent that David Martin once suggested that the term should perhaps be "eliminated" from the sociological dictionary. This paper seeks to revisit this concept, and to examine the relevance it has to understanding some of the deeper structures of the issues which appear to dominate the concerns of the contemporary world, even if not so overtly related to religion. It is accordingly divided into four parts. [excerpt]