Taylorean Social Theory and the “Orthodox” and “Counter-Orthodox” Models (original) (raw)
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DergiPark (Istanbul University), 2021
This paper critically and comparatively reviews the basic assumptions of two most prominent secularization theories such as the secularization theory and the rational choice theory. Not denying practical values of their conceptual tools, this paper argues that these two theories fell short of providing (1) theoretically and methodologically wellgrounded articulations (definitions) of religion and secularity and (2) systematic accounts of the role of social forces (collective action) primarily including social movement dynamics in their sociological studies of secularization. In order to address such limitations in the study of secularization, this paper proposes a new framework which combines two alternative perspectives presented by Christian Smith and Charles Taylor. Consequently, this paper argues that (1)
Sociology of Religion, Secularization and Social Theory
observe that secularization theory, and more recently empirical and conceptual debates about its birth, death and possible resurrection have been at the heart of theorizing and debates within the sociology of religion. Much of this debate revolves around two key issues. First, there is contention as to whether secularization can be an appropriate social-theoretical concept if it is accepted that it is inevitably contaminated by the normative investments surrounding its invention. Secondly, on a more prosaic but not unrelated level, it is argued that in any case secularization fails as theory due to a putative return or resurgence of the religious in postmodernity. This paper seeks to argue that secularization and its other, desecularization, are themselves embedded in and inescapably marked by theological metaphors of teleology. This is because of the stakes involved in the emergence of differentiation in modernity (driven initially by a normative secularization between the political and the theological). This tale of origins cannot escape the simultaneous invention of the polar concepts of the religious and the secular in early modernity. What this paper seeks to do is review aspects of the genealogy of secularization paying particular attention to the theological ghosts which continue to haunt sociology's emancipatory self conception as a scientific discipline. The paper will then review some of the arguments against the secularization thesis in light of these themes. The aim of this argument is to suggest that social theorists of religion can still employ secularization as a normative analyticwhen understood reflexively and as itself a social construction -in order to measure aspects of the specificity of the imbrication of the religious with the cultural and political at the turn of the new millennium. The argument will be grounded and illustrated with brief reference to empirical studies of Wicca (Bahnisch 2001) and religion as a cultural resource for political mobilization in both the culture wars of the American 1990s and recent conflicts represented as a "clash of civilizations" between the West (coded as Christian) and its Islamic other (Bahnisch 2003a).
Varieties of Secularization Theories and Their Indispensable Core
In the social sciences, a new discourse on religion in modern societies has established itself. It is no longer the master narrative that religion is waning in significance that dominates the perspectives in the social sciences. The new key words are “deprivatization of the religious” (Jose Casanova), “return of the gods” (Friedrich Wilhelm Graf), “re- ´ enchantment of the world” (Ulrich Beck)—or, quite simply, desecularization (Peter L. Berger). Insights of the sociological classics into the strained relationship between religion and modernity are regarded as no longer valid. Instead of speaking of the decline of religion in modern societies, of a strict contrast between modernity and tradition, scholars nowadays emphasize the blurring boundaries between tradition and modernity and the resurgence of religion in modern societies. Obviously, the logic of reversal governs this new way of thinking: Criticizing the secularization theory has become a new master narrative itself and often has a great deal to do with scaremongering. That’s why what is required first is as precise a reconstruction as possible of what secularization theory is actually saying. The article in its first part provides a reconstruction of the propositional content of secularization theory. The second step will then be to elaborate the various meanings of the concept of secularization. The third part finally deals with the criticisms of secularization theory and discusses the extent to which they are justified or not. Keywords: causal mechanisms, modernity, religion, secularization, social differentiation
Conclusion: A New Approach to Secularization
Springer eBooks, 2022
In the first chapter of this book, I picked up two ideas from Charles Taylor's A Secular Age and ran with them. The first idea was that analyses of secularization should be pitched on the level of unarticulated assumptions underpinning collective practices and technologies. This, I suggested, untethers the process of secularization from the question of people's conscious beliefs, articulated experiences, or preferred identity markers. The second idea was that secularity denotes a specific kind of time mediated on this level; in other words, that secularity is one kind of time that makes certain technological collective practices make sense. This untethers secularity from the concept of 'religion'. Contemporary historiographies of the secular are more or less stuck in a conceptual blind alley debating identity markers and religion's 'others'. In this book, I have tried to show that these two elements of Taylor's thesis, when pragmatically developed and combined with recent theoretical and historiographical turns, offer a possible way out. Of course, many historians are interested in the development of 'religion', or concerned with affirming certain groups' self-identification as 'secular' in the 'nonreligious' sense. I expect some of them might find the idea of removing these questions entirely from histories of secularization a little controversial. Of course, the ways that people articulate their experience of having 'beliefs' and 'non-beliefs' or being 'religious' or 'nonreligious' are important simply because so many are socially and politically
Questioning Secularization , History , and Ethics : A Review Essay of Radical Secularization ?
2016
Gathering together papers from a 2012 conference in Antwerp, the edited collection Radical Secularization?: An Inquiry into the Religious Roots of Secular Culture advances a philosophical inquiry into the meaning of secularization. In an increasingly postsecular world, debate and reflection on secularization now acknowledges the obsolescence of the linear secularization theories that dominated sociological thought in the 1970s and 1980s. The idea that religion would decline as modern industrial society progressed has now been repudiated by its own advocates, and now more nuanced assessments of the role of religion in the public sphere have been set forth. In particular, the idea that social and cultural “progress” is a value-neutral term has been called into question. Through the discourse on political theology the realization that many modern concepts are religious in nature has called into question the idea that the secular offers a value-neutral basis for culture and politics, an...
Secularization and the Rise of Individualism
2010
Contents INTRODUCTION 1. CURRENT THEORIES ON RELIGION 1.1 Approaches to the sacred 1.1. a The explanation of the sacred through non-religious analysis 1.1.b The explanation of the sacred with reference to the religious phenomenon 1.2 The secular religion 1.2.a The à-la-carte religious reference of the individual 1.2.b The individual and the secular religion 2. THE INDIVIDUAL 2.1 Aristotle and the tension between the individual and the community 2.2 Christianity as the origin of the individual 2.3 Modern trajectories of the individual 2.3.a The political trajectory of the individual: the social contract, the citizen and the human rights 2.3.b The theoretical trajectory and the problems of the individual 3. POWER AND COMMUNITY 3.1 The Church and the State 3.1.a The Christian and the natural world 3.1.b Types of relations between the Church and the State 3.1.c Mutual influences between the Church and the State 3.1.d The citizen's options after the separation between the Church and the State 3.2 The social conditioning of religion 3.3 Power and individuality 3.4 The relativity of the available world 4. SECULARIZATION 4.1 Secularization, a discussed and disputed process 4.2 The secularizing effect of Christianity on the other religions 4.3 The secularization caused by the Enlightenment 4.3.a The maturation of thought 4.3.b The emancipation of society 4.4 The contesting of the innovating status of modernity and Nietzsche's nihilism 4.5 The individual as the result of secularization CONCLUSION Index of names Index of terms BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Debate on Secularization and Religion. What Is Left?
There is a common view in the field of sociology, particularly, and social sciences, in general, that the world, as we know it, is a secular world and the role of religion in the public space is therefore minimal. This view has been challenged by a few sociologists of religion that pretended to see in the appearance of new religiosities and spiritualities, in the late 1970s and 1980s, a reawakening of the reality of the sacred and belief, now bound for the personal sphere and aside from the institutional functioning of churches and main denominations. Some of them have even talked about the privatization of religion and the disenchantment of the world, exhibiting mixed feelings of revivalism and nostalgia. They consider the thesis of secularization elaborated by important figures of sociology, like Max Weber, Durkheim and Marx, historically rooted and discredited by recent events in America and Great Britain and by the evolution of former atheist societies such as Russia and Eastern Europe. Modern sociologists of religion that subscribe to the thesis of secularization of the world, like Bryan Wilson, Steve Bruce and Charles Taylor, reformulated their initial outline of the model. These changes have not convinced those who shield themselves in the essentiality of religion in human society. The debate has somehow become frozen, in the two camps, around previous arguments. This essay looks to portray the evolution of the secularization thesis, taking in consideration other contributions beyond those originated in the English-speaking world. The Secularization Paradigm It was common, during the 1970s, to state that the Western world was more and more secularized and that only a few people recognized themselves as religious and pious.
Between Secularity and Post-Secularity: Critical Appraisal of Charles Taylor's Account
Bogoslovni vestnik
The article deals with Charles Taylor's account of the secular age. In the first part, the main constituents of Taylor's narrative account are presented: the central concepts, distinctions, definition of the subject, the aims etc. The author pays special attention to the notions of secularity, secular age, religion, and transcendence. In the second part, Taylor's genealogy of the secular age is outlined and comparatively placed in the context of other main relative forms of genealogical account. Because our age is an age of authenticity, a special section is devoted to it. The final section presents some reproaches to Taylor and evaluates their strength and the value of Taylor's contribution. Besides, some speculative »forecasts« about secularity and post-secularity in Europe, the USA, and at the global scale are presented (by reference to Taylor's account). The author concludes that despite some (serious and cogent) reproaches and second thoughts about Taylor...
ucalgary.ca
My lecture this evening focuses on the latest book by Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor entitled, A Secular Age (2007). 1 The book has been attracting wide attention in the scholarly community and, I think, justly so. He offers valuable insights into the complex factors that have given rise to secularism in the West. Taylor also offers insight into the continuing strength of religious faith in our day and explains why many secularization theorists, who prophesied the demise of religion, have been wrong. It is in a spirit of respect and appreciation that I offer my reading of Taylor's new book.
Notes for a general theory of secularisation
European Journal of Sociology, 1969
A General theory of secularisation is closer to realisation in the sociology of religion than might be expected, in spite of the field being poorly developed. However, the sociology of religion has the advantage of being able to draw in a synthesising manner on neighbouring areas which are more developed, and in so doing will be able in return to suggest broad schemata of interpretation for use in those fields, especially political sociology. No doubt the notion of a general theory of secularisation remains premature, but premature statements do elicit more precise or even alternative formulations incorporating and subsuming wider ranges of material. In any case what follows is less a complete statement of a general theory than a specification of some of its components. Yet in another sense it is a theory, since it could be reduced to sets of overarching propositions and their integrally related sub-propositions, with appropriate qualifications and marginal rubrics.