Religion, Quo Vadis? Secularization in the Modern World
A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2023) | Viewed by 34946
Special Issue Editor
Interests: religion–state relations; secularization; cultural diversity; religious freedom; religions in Europe
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Secularization is not a myth (?). Several authors have been trying to answer this question in recent scientific works debating the future of religion and its dialogue on the topics of ageing, individualism, fundamentalism, and insecurity.
In effect, modernization processes have been changing the world’s religious landscape even if it presents forms and consequences different from those traditionally described by secularization theorists. As Peter Berger prophetically said in one of his last works, the world will have many altars (religious and non-religious).
This Special Issue seeks to understand and challenge secularization theories, trying to grasp not only the place of religion in modern societies but especially which of these theories, if any, is currently more useful to describe this socioreligious reality. In other words, it will try to comprehend which modernization processes have more (positive or negative) effects on religion.
As many researchers pointed out, we have come to a stalemate or deadlock in the secularization debate. Some are now asking, more assertively than in the past, that secularization theories be abandoned, namely because of the phenomena of the (public or private) revitalization of religion on a global scale. Others still advocate that its assumptions are too rich to be lightly abandoned and that secularization remains a good way of understanding the workings of contemporary societies in relation to religion.
Despite these divergences, most social researchers converge in the same direction, namely in the idea that, to test the validity of secularization prepositions, there is a need for new methodological and conceptual strategies, new qualitative and quantitative analyses, and new analytical frameworks.
This Special Issue aims to be a step in that direction. To meet this goal, it invites all researchers to explore, for example:
- The state of the art of the theoretical debate on secularization.
- New or revised qualitative or quantitative approaches to explore the impact and scientific accuracy of secularization.
- The relationship between religion and different independent variables, such as: cultural diversity, ageing, science and digital consciousness, demography and geographic mobility, education, populism, individualism, the COVID-19 pandemic, and gender.
- Global, regional, and local perspectives on secularization.
- How (non-)religiosity is changing the global religious landscape and what its impacts are in different regions of the world.
- The future of religion in modern societies and, depending on regional contexts, whether it is undergoing displacement, recomposition, revitalization, or decline.
Dr. Jorge Botelho Moniz
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- secularization
- religion
- modernization
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