SECULARISM
WEEK 4
COURSE MATERIALS
By Asst. Prof. Dr. Selman Yılmaz
Secularism
Almost all the founding figures of modern social science—Auguste Comte, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, Ferdinand Toennies, Georg Simmel, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud—
believed that modernization—the process of industrialization, urbanization, and raising levels of education and wealth—
greatly weakens the influence of religious
institutions in modernizing societies and
erodes the role of religion in society and in the
minds of individuals.
Secularization
Secularization had been understood as a single path that all nations follow.
This idea was so strong that it converted from a social theory to prophecy.
The early figures promised the end of religion is soon, just in 1800s, early 1900s, in a few
decades, etc.
But even at the end of the 20th century, it was observed that religion was important and
widespread in society and as a result, some
serious criticism was directed toward the theory
of secularism itself, and questions were raised.
Religious Revive
After these questions about increasing secularism were raised, currently, a new saying is becoming widely used to
characterize the religious attitude in
Turkey and the Islamic world in general:
“the return of the divine” and “the religious revival” or “the Islamic
Resurgence.”
Critics
Actually religion never leaved the society and
so it is not much possible to call a resurgence.
Revising Secularism Theses
Demand-side and supply-side theory
Existential security and cultural traditions
Secularization as decline of religious
beliefs and practices; or privatization of
religion; or differentiation of the secular
spheres
Review
Any further comments and questions?
References
Stark, Rodney (1999). Secularization RIP.
Sociology of Religion. 60:3, pp. 249-273.
