Secularization

Secularization is the process by which social institutions and public life become less governed by religious authority. It can involve institutional separation, declining religious influence, or changes in religious belief and practice.

Church–state separation: The institutional division of religious authority from the powers and functions of government. It removes religious institutions from direct control of state decisions.
Auguste Comte: A French philosopher who proposed that human thought progresses from theological explanations toward scientific knowledge. His account made declining religious authority part of a broad theory of historical change.
Secularization theory: A family of theories linking modernization to the declining social power, public influence, or prevalence of religion. It turns the process into a testable claim about how modern societies change.
French Revolution: A period of political upheaval in France from 1789 that ended the monarchy and transformed state and church relations. Revolutionary governments nationalized church property and recast religious authority in public life.
Disestablishment: The formal withdrawal of a state’s official support for or recognition of an established church. It is a legal route by which religious authority loses privileged public status.
Max Weber: A German sociologist who analyzed rationalization, authority, and the changing role of religion in modern societies. His account of disenchantment shaped influential explanations of secularization.
Desecularization: The renewed public or political influence of religion after a period of declining influence. Religious resurgence challenges any assumption that secularization proceeds steadily or irreversibly.
Kulturkampf: A political conflict in the German Empire during the 1870s over the Catholic Church’s influence and state authority. It illustrates a state’s direct effort to limit a church’s institutional power.
Rationalization: The increasing organization of social life through calculation, formal rules, and technical procedures. It shifts public decisions toward procedures that do not depend on religious authority.
Émile Durkheim: A French sociologist who studied religion as a social institution that binds communities and expresses collective life. His work frames religious change as a transformation of social functions, not simply belief.

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