Secularization - an empirically consolidated narrative in the face of an increasing influence of religion on politics
| Autor | Gert Pickel |
| Cargo | Professor de Sociologia da Religião na Faculdade de Teologia da Universidade de Leipzig, Alemanha |
| Páginas | 259-294 |
http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-7984.2017v16n36p259
259259 – 294
Secularization – an
empirically consolidated narrative
in the face of an increasing
influence of religion on politics
Gert Pickel1
Abstract
With this research Gert Pickel proposes an updated version of secularization’s narrative,
contrasting it with the growing phenomena of religious pluralism, secular-religious polarization,
and religiosity’s politicization in Europe. This article focuses especially on the European
religious landscape of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, analyzing the empirical
developments in its indices of secularization, namely at the individual level. For this purpose,
the author calls upon several statistical data that consider individuals’ attitudes towards religion,
bearing in mind the different levels of modernization, as well as the political, religious and
historical-cultural vicissitudes of the different countries. Despite religious affair’s proliferation in
public debate, this article concludes that secularization remains empirically more convincing than
the narrative of the return of religions. However, we are still far from speaking of a secular Europe.
Keywords: Secularization. (Re)Politicization of the religious. Europe.
Introduction – Europe between the secularization and
politicization of the religious
If we look at religion, recent debates are characterized by two overlapping
– and yet apparently essentially antithetical – narratives. On the one hand,
reference is made to the social loss of importance of religion (BRUCE, 2002;
NORRIS; INGLEHART, 2004; PICKEL, 2009, 2013; POLLACK, 2003;
POLLACK et al., 2012). However, this narrative of secularization has been
challenged in the last decades by the narrative of a return of the religious or
1 Professor de Sociologia da Religião na Faculdade de Teologia da Universidade de Leipzig (Alemanha).
Secularization – an empirically consolidated narrative in the face of an increasing influence of religion on politics | Gert Pickel
260 259 – 294
of religions.2 Such a narrative often regards secularization as a false, or at least
a short-sighted, interpretation of contemporary developments (CASANOVA
1994; LUCKMANN, 1967), and even sometimes sees secularization theory as
fundamentally outmoded (STARK, 1999; STARK; FINKE, 2006). Especially
the (increasing) visibility of public debates on religion (CASANOVA 1994)
and a seemingly increasing spiritualization of Western societies (HEELAS;
WOODHEAD, 2005; STOLZ et al., 2016) are seen as arguments for the
end of the narrative of secularization, with Casanova (2009) describing
secularization as a “modern myth”, one that belongs primarily to European
discussion and history.
Even if the opposing narrative of the return of the religious has quickly
gained wide acceptance in public and academic domain, there still appears to
be a question, that has not yet been decided once and for all: namely, which
developmental direction can better describe in a way that is as close to reality
as possible the present changes undergone by the religious and the signicance
of these changes to the political sector? It therefore did not take too long before
the empirical validity of the narrative of a return of the religious was questioned
(POLLACK, 2009; PICKEL; SAMMET, 2012). In addition, secularization
theory has been modied. While Norris and Inglehart (2004 also PICKEL,
2009, 2011; POLLACK; ROSTA, 2015) argue for a path-dependent
secularization theory, the tradition represented by Shmuel Eisenstadt (2002)
maps out “multiple secularities” (BURCHARDT; WOHLRAB-SAHR, 2013;
BURCHARDT; WOHLRAB-SAHR, M.; MIDDELL, 2015), i.e., dierent
paths to dierent forms of secularity. Such diversity raises the following
question: which narrative is now most appropriate to describing the reality of the
present in the modern societies of Europe?
My opinion is that the answer should go beyond a simple decision for
one or the other side, and I would like to present three theses:
1. Europe is characterized by a general process of (path-dependent)
secularization, one linked to processes of pluralization, in the sense of an
increase in religious and secular groups and options.
2 Different patterns of argumentation concerning the return of the religious (regarding increasing spirituality and
the transformation into new, private forms of the religious) and the return of religions (in the sense of a gain
in the public relevance of (world) religions elsewhere) are often mixed together here, even though they address
different aspects.
Política & Sociedade - Florianópolis - Vol. 16 - Nº 36 - Maio./Ago. de 2017
261259 – 294
2. Both processes are accompanied by tendencies of a polarization between
secular and religious positions or actors, as well as between social groups of
dierent religious character.
3. Within polarization, there is, despite a further advancing secularization,
also a gain in the importance of religion (only) in discourses in the public and
political sector, in the sense of a politicization of religiosity.
Since the discursive opposition between both narratives has been xed on
the European context, it is worthwhile focusing our attention on Europe, too.
Nowhere else in the world is the development of secularization so intensely
discussed as in Europe.3 Nowhere else can we nd such advanced empirical
ndings that point to secularization. And nowhere else has a stage of moder-
nization already been reached that allows in the rst place for a process depen-
dent on modernization to emerge such as secularization.4 But nowhere else is
reference made to a return of the religious and of religions in an attempt to
call into question the universal validity of secularization. And nowhere else is
the eect of religious developments on the political domain so interesting. It
had become common practice there to consider, with regard to religious free-
dom, the increasing separation of church and state as indicating the declining
inuence of religion on politics. It was only when religion once again entered
into political debates that the view changed in a number of respects – and the
narrative of secularization was called into question. Narratives are now mea-
ningful stories that can be tested for their validity only with regard to reality,
and this is what I intend to do here by analyzing the empirical development
of the religious in Europe. To do so, I use various survey data that consider
people’s attitudes to religion in many dierent ways.5
3 Even though the debate on political secularism may well have a broader focus (FOX, 2015).
4 The background is that secularization theory hardly expects extensive processes of secularization in areas
with a low level of modernization (if we can use such a term without being ethnocentric). The economically
aspiring states of Southeast Asia can alone serve as a litmus test for the assumption that there is a link between
modernization and secularization (POLLACK, 2016, p. 82-91).
5 A similar argumentation in German is used in Pickel (2017).
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