The politicization of religion is a central feature of the modern world, pointing to the continued relevance of the secularization debate: does modernization result in the decline of the social and political significance of religion or rather in a reaffirmation of religious values? This book examines the emergence of different patterns of secularization. It identifies the circumstances under which religion may remain or cease to be politically active and legitimate in societies where secularization has been initially inhibited given a strong identification with the nation. Arguing that in such societies the Church draws its power not only from its relationship with the state but also its relationship with the nation, this book identifies two patterns of secularization: (a) co-optation, and (b) confrontation. The redefinition of the Church, state and nation nexus is likely to result in secularization if (a) the church obstructs the modernisation process (church and state), and (b) if external threat perceptions decline (church and nation). The simultaneous presence of these constraints serves to redefine the role of religion in the formation of national identity. Comparing Greece and the Republic of Ireland as two cultural defence cases with a strong variation in the political and social salience of religion, this book explains Ireland's current secularization drive in terms of the fluidity of Irish national identity and the rigidity of the Irish Catholic Church (confrontation). It contrasts this with the Greek case where the Church's resilience is linked to institutional flexibility on the one hand and a reliance on an ethnic/religious national identity on the other (co-optation). In conceptualizing the contemporary role of religion in the Republic of Ireland and Greece, this book draws a number of generalizable conclusions about the political role of religion in cultural defence cases.

The politicization of religion is a central feature of the modern world, pointing to the continued relevance of the secularization debate: does modernization result in the decline of the social and political significance of religion or rather in a reaffirmation of religious values? This book examines the emergence of different patterns of secularization. It identifies the circumstances under which religion may remain or cease to be politically active and legitimate in societies where secularization has been initially inhibited given a strong identification with the nation. Arguing that in such societies the Church draws its power not only from its relationship with the state but also its relationship with the nation, this book identifies two patterns of secularization: (a) co-optation, and (b) confrontation. The redefinition of the Church, state and nation nexus is likely to result in secularization if (a) the church obstructs the modernisation process (church and state), and (b) if external threat perceptions decline (church and nation). The simultaneous presence of these constraints serves to redefine the role of religion in the formation of national identity. Comparing Greece and the Republic of Ireland as two cultural defence cases with a strong variation in the political and social salience of religion, this book explains Ireland's current secularization drive in terms of the fluidity of Irish national identity and the rigidity of the Irish Catholic Church (confrontation). It contrasts this with the Greek case where the Church's resilience is linked to institutional flexibility on the one hand and a reliance on an ethnic/religious national identity on the other (co-optation). In conceptualizing the contemporary role of religion in the Republic of Ireland and Greece, this book draws a number of generalizable conclusions about the political role of religion in cultural defence cases.

In A Need for Religion: Insecurity and Religiosity in the Contemporary World Francesco Molteni analyses the decline in religiosity observed in developed countries in relation to the diminished need for reassurance and support that religion provides.

The place of religion in society has changed profoundly in the last few centuries, particularly in the West. In what will be a defining book for our time, Taylor takes up the question of what these changes mean, and what, precisely, happens when a society becomes one in which faith is only one human possibility among others.

'Secularization' has been hotly debated since it was first subjected to critical attention in the mid-sixties by David Martin, before he sketched a 'General Theory' in 1969. 'On Secularization' presents David Martin's reassessment of the key issues: with particular regard to the special situation of religion in Western Europe, and questions in the global context including Pentecostalism in Latin America and Africa. Concluding with examinations of Pluralism, Christian Language, and Christianity and Politics, this book offers students and other readers of social theory and sociology of religion an invaluable reappraisal of Christianity and Secularization. It represents the most comprehensive sociology of contemporary Christianity, set in historical depth.

Presents a historical and philosophical overview of the twentieth-century German debates on secularization, and their significance for contemporary discussions about the relationship between theology and modernity. While the concept of secularization is traditionally used to define the nature of modern culture, and sometimes to uncover the theological origins of secular modernity, its validity is being questioned ever more radically today. Genealogies of the Secular returns to the historical, intellectual, and philosophical roots of this concept in the twentieth-century German debates on religion and modernity, and presents a wide range of strategies that German thinkers have applied to apprehend the connection between religion and secularism. In fundamentally heterogeneous ways, these strategies all developed “genealogies of the secular” by tracing modern phenomena back to their religious or theological roots. This book aims to disclose the complex prehistory of the contemporary debates on political theology and postsecularism, and to show how prominent thinkers continue this German tradition today. It explores and assesses the classic theories of secularization that are epitomized in Carl Schmitt’s writings on political theology, but also addresses German philosophers whose work has been rarely associated with secularization, including Walter Benjamin, Ernst Cassirer, Martin Heidegger, Immanuel Kant, and Hannah Arendt. Attention is also paid to two thinkers whose role in these discourses has not been fully explored yet: Jacob Taubes and Jan Assmann. By introducing their thinking on religion, politics, and secularization, the book also makes two of their own key texts available to an English-language readership. “What makes the book so valuable pedagogically is the clarity and scope of its synthetic gestures about the dense questions congealing around the topic of secularization. It offers a pronouncement of central significance, emerging from some of the most important contemporary voices in these fields. The scholarship is internationally informed and engaged, even as it feels vibrant, immediate, and agenda setting.” — Ward Blanton, University of Kent, Canterbury