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The Traditional Secularization Thesis Predicted That Modernization Would Inevitably and Irreversibly Lead to Secularization

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The Traditional Secularization Thesis Predicted That Modernization Would Inevitably and Irreversibly Lead to Secularization 1 The traditional secularization thesis predicted that modernization would inevitably and irreversibly lead to secularization. Max Weber, Karl Marx, and Emile Durkheim, among other prominent twentieth century thinkers, postulated that key aspects of modernity, such as industrialization, urbanization, and scientific rationalism, would result in the ultimate erosion of religion in society. Church domination of virtually every aspect of life gave way to structural differentiation, in which functions previously performed by the church, such as healthcare and education, became increasingly specialized and carried out by independent bodies or organizations. 1 As the church lost its pervasive social influence, religion became a matter of private and personal choice rather than social obligation. Migration to urban centers, increased literacy and education, and mass communication presented people with beliefs and worldviews quite different from their own and erased the religious homogeneity that characterized much of the pre-modern world. 2 Enlightenment, science, and rationalism provided new ways of thinking and alternate answers for things previously explained through mysticism or faith. According to the secularization thesis, the combination of these and other factors would result in a modern world completely void of religious belief. A brief look at the headlines of any newspaper today reveals that religion is still very much a part of our world. The United States, among the world’s most modernized countries, houses a variety of thriving religious communities and celebrates the diversity that such beliefs contribute to the national culture. Indeed, religion is flourishing all over the world from the growth of Islam and fundamentalist movements in the Middle East to the explosion of house churches in Asia to a revival of evangelicalism in Latin America and Africa. Religion is also 1 John Habgood, Church and Nation in a Secular Age (London: Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd, 1983) 18. 2 Peter Berger, Grace Davie, and Effie Fokas, Religious America, Secular Europe? (Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2008), 12. 2 transcending national borders and becoming increasingly important in the global context. Obvious examples of religion’s worldwide impact include the 1989 Rushdie affair, the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, the 9/11 attacks, the wars in Pakistan and Afghanistan against the Taliban, the controversial Danish cartoons depicting Mohammed, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the unprecedented immigration of religious minorities into the United States and Europe, and the religiously motivated terrorist bombings in London and Madrid. In response to the undeniable presence of religion in the modern world, some sociologists, such as Peter Berger, have retracted their prior adherence to the secularization thesis, believing it to be mistaken. Some argue that secular Europe is actually an exception to the rule rather than the natural standard. Religious sociologists Rodney Starke and Roger Finke believe the secularization thesis has miserably failed to predict the fate of religion and suggest abandoning the theory once and for all.3 Others look to rework the thesis to accommodate and more accurately represent the current state of religion. For example, Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, in Sacred and Secular , present a “revised theory of secularization based on existential security” that seeks to account for the religious variation evident throughout the world. 4 Steve Bruce, in God is Dead: Secularization in the West , defends the secularization thesis, arguing that religion may not completely disappear but will continue to lose its significance and influence in society. 5 While there are many differing perspectives regarding the fate or future of religion, the very need to defend, reject, or rework the secularization thesis reinforces the sustained presence of religion in the world today. While the link between modernization and secularization is 3 Rodney Starke and Roger Finke, Acts of Faith (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), 79. 4 Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, Sacred and Secular (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 27. 5 Steve Bruce, God is Dead: Secularization in the West (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002), 44. 3 unclear, a clear link exists between modernity and the rise of an unprecedented religious pluralism—even in secular Europe. 6 Pluralism describes a society in which “a variety of different groups, with different beliefs, values and cultures exist side by side within a larger whole.” 7 Population mobility, an important aspect of modern globalization, is a significant contributor to the emerging pluralism. 8 Traditionally immigrant-sending countries, European countries are now the destination for a significant amount of global immigration. 9 During the last half of the twentieth century, unprecedented numbers of non-Western immigrants made their homes in Western Europe.10 Migrant workers and immigrants from former colonies brought their diverse cultural backgrounds and religious beliefs with them, introducing Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and Sikh religions into European societies as well as new forms of Christianity such as Pentecostalism. The startling increase of Muslim immigrants to Europe, bringing with them a religion and culture very different from that of their new home, is the most significant new feature of Europe’s diversifying religious landscape. According to a 2005 article in U.S. News & World Report , the European Muslim population has expanded from 1 million in 1945 to about 18 million today. 11 The communication revolution, another aspect of the ever globalizing, modern world, has also contributed to the spread of charismatic and evangelical Christian movements in Europe. 12 Modern nations have approached religious pluralism in strikingly different ways. For example, the United States was founded on the principle of the separation of church and state in 6 Hans Knippenberg ed., The Changing Religious Landscape of Europe (Amsterdam: Het Spinhuis, 2005), 7. 7 Habgood, 29. 8 Knippenberg, 7. 9 Peter Berger, Grace Davie, and Effie Fokas, 102. 10 José Casanova, “Immigration and the New Religious Pluralism: A European Union/United States Comparison,” in Democracy and the New Religious Pluralism , ed. Thomas Banchoff (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 59. 11 Jay Tolson, “European, Not Christian: An Aggressive Secularism Sweeps the Continent,” U.S. News and World Report , May 22, 2005. 12 Knippenberg, 7. 4 order to secure freedom for the religious beliefs of American citizens. The First Amendment to the Constitution protects the religious beliefs of individuals from the control of the government and allows complete freedom of religious expression. Religion is very much a part of American public discourse and shapes and colors the opinions of individuals on a variety of public issues. In contrast, the secular state of France aims to secure the freedom of the public domain from religion. Officially secular since 1905, French society deems religion to be inappropriate for the public sphere based on the French concept of laïcité, which prescribes the absence of religion in public and political affairs as well as the absence of government involvement in religious affairs. The European Union has also defined itself as a secular entity. In 2004, writers of the preamble to the constitution of the European Union, written to establish and define a common European identity as it expands and unifies, chose not to include a reference to Europe’s Christian heritage in order to clearly and firmly establish itself as a secular union founded on secular principles. 13 Secularism aims to promote tolerance among groups and individuals of different religious beliefs and to facilitate peaceful coexistence within ever diversifying societies by removing religion from the public sphere. Through the proclamation of official neutrality in religious matters and the equal treatment of all religions, the secular state hopes to protect freedom of religion and guard against discrimination. The European secular perspective assumes that a “public recognition of the…living religious traditions of contemporary Europeans…would make liberal political coexistence and pluralist toleration in a united Europe nearly impossible…Only secular neutrality is supposed to guarantee liberal tolerance and pluralist multicultural 13 José Casanova, “Religion, European Secular Identities, and European Integration,” in Religion in an Expanding Europe, ed. Timothy A. Byrnes and Peter J. Katzenstein (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 66. 5 recognition in an expanded European Union.” 14 In 2003, former French President Jacques Chirac described France as a country of diversity united by a shared identity that would be “endangered by the release of religious centrifugal forces, by the celebration of distinctions that served to separate and not unite.” 15 In banishing religion from the public realm, the secular state seeks to prevent the clashes, conflicts, and divisions that are assumed to result from public recognition and expression of religion within a pluralist society. Though secularism presents itself as the champion of liberalism and impartiality, some are skeptical. In a 2003 speech, Oliver Letwin, a British politician and Member of Parliament, questioned the neutrality of the secular state. He declared that “a truly secular constitution rests on the fundamental assumption either that there is no God, or that the concept
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