Page 391 - Stati inu obstati, revija za vprašanja protestantizma, letnik VIII (2012), številka 15-16, ISSN 1408-8363
P. 391
SYNOPSES, ZUSAMMENFASSUNGEN
UDC 2-673:329.12
2-18:322(4)
Marko Kerševan
The question of secularization today: the Protestant view
The topic of secularization is an old sociological one: discussions on the
“secularization thesis” are part of the standard repertoire of the sociology of
modern societies, and certainly of the sociology of religion.
The central concern in this study is the question of secularization (and
sacralization) in contemporary Western societies with a dominant Christian
religious tradition, especially in Europe, and of the attitude of Christian
churches to secularization.
By secularization in these societies we understand:
1. The emancipation (autonomization) of different areas of social life, of
different institutions and of the way of life itself from religions and churches
as well as from the domination of their values, norms, orientation and control.
2. The establishment and development of desacralization. Social institutions
are no longer sacred and/or consecrated; in the “disenchanted world” (Weber) of
nature and society there are no longer holy places, times, or holy actions in-
cluded in them.
3. Linked with both these processes is the process of individualization.
The secularization/desacralization of society as if it is accompanied by the
sacralisation of the individual. Secularization/desacralization in modern western
societies thus does not mean the disappearance of the religious, the sacred, but
its transference and the changing of the method and sphere of its expression.
These features of secularization belong to the constitutive features of mod-
ern (western) societies. The question of the relation of Christian churches to
secularization is thus a question of the relation of the churches to modern
western societies.
For a long time the official Roman Catholic Church rejected the principles
of modern society and that society in general. But at the Second Vatican Coun-
cil (1962–1965) the Roman Catholic Church accepted religious freedom and
the legal equal rights of religion as against the state, and this precisely in the
name of the equal rights of each individual as a person. Apart from these ac-
tual shifts, we can say that the Catholic stance against secular modern society is
now ambivalent: it swings between its acknowledgement of the status quo, which
is a framework for the Church’s contemporary evangelizing activity, and its
judgment of modern society as something that must be abolished, because it is
a historical accident, a derailment, an anomaly.
For Protestantism the secularization and secularity of modern societies is
not an accident, an anomaly, a scandal, but in the first place it is a value, a
positive legacy of European historical development and of the Christian contri-
389
UDC 2-673:329.12
2-18:322(4)
Marko Kerševan
The question of secularization today: the Protestant view
The topic of secularization is an old sociological one: discussions on the
“secularization thesis” are part of the standard repertoire of the sociology of
modern societies, and certainly of the sociology of religion.
The central concern in this study is the question of secularization (and
sacralization) in contemporary Western societies with a dominant Christian
religious tradition, especially in Europe, and of the attitude of Christian
churches to secularization.
By secularization in these societies we understand:
1. The emancipation (autonomization) of different areas of social life, of
different institutions and of the way of life itself from religions and churches
as well as from the domination of their values, norms, orientation and control.
2. The establishment and development of desacralization. Social institutions
are no longer sacred and/or consecrated; in the “disenchanted world” (Weber) of
nature and society there are no longer holy places, times, or holy actions in-
cluded in them.
3. Linked with both these processes is the process of individualization.
The secularization/desacralization of society as if it is accompanied by the
sacralisation of the individual. Secularization/desacralization in modern western
societies thus does not mean the disappearance of the religious, the sacred, but
its transference and the changing of the method and sphere of its expression.
These features of secularization belong to the constitutive features of mod-
ern (western) societies. The question of the relation of Christian churches to
secularization is thus a question of the relation of the churches to modern
western societies.
For a long time the official Roman Catholic Church rejected the principles
of modern society and that society in general. But at the Second Vatican Coun-
cil (1962–1965) the Roman Catholic Church accepted religious freedom and
the legal equal rights of religion as against the state, and this precisely in the
name of the equal rights of each individual as a person. Apart from these ac-
tual shifts, we can say that the Catholic stance against secular modern society is
now ambivalent: it swings between its acknowledgement of the status quo, which
is a framework for the Church’s contemporary evangelizing activity, and its
judgment of modern society as something that must be abolished, because it is
a historical accident, a derailment, an anomaly.
For Protestantism the secularization and secularity of modern societies is
not an accident, an anomaly, a scandal, but in the first place it is a value, a
positive legacy of European historical development and of the Christian contri-
389
