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Secularization has many levels of meaning, both as a theory and as a political process. Karl Marx (1818–1883), Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), Max Weber (1864–1920), and Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) postulated that the modernization of society would include a decline in levels of formal religiosity .
Dobbelaere is known for his defense of the classic theory of secularization and has been criticized as such. In fact, however, Dobbelaere's theory of secularization argues that the phenomenon should be studied at three different levels. He calls them "macro-secularization," "meso-secularization," and "micro-secularization."
Stark was one of the most vocal critics of theories of secularization. In 1999, he published an article entitled “Secularization, R.I.P.” [8] that became both famous and controversial. [9] He expanded his theory in subsequent works, claiming that statistical data does not support the theory of a decline of religion in modern societies.
Berger was a moderate Christian Lutheran conservative whose work in theology, secularization, and modernity at times has challenged the views of contemporary mainstream sociology, which [clarification needed] tends to lean away from any right-wing political thinking. Ultimately, however, Berger's approach to sociology was humanist with special ...
In Berger's studies, religion was found to be increasingly marginalized by the increased influence of the trend of secularization. Berger identified secularization as happening not so much to social institutions, such as churches, due to the increase of the separation of church and state, but applying to "processes inside the human mind" producing "a secularization of consciousness."
Taylor rejects the "subtraction" theory of secularization: that religion has been 'subtracted' (ie removed) from society. Rather, he argues that a movement of Reform in Christianity, which aimed to raise everyone up to the highest levels of religious devotion and practice, caused the move to secularization. This led to a disciplinary society ...
In The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory, [55] there is one chapter called "Political secularism", by Rajeev Bhargava. It covers secularism in a global context, and starts with this sentence: "Secularism is a beleaguered doctrine."
In Taylor's sense of the term, a society could in theory be highly "secular" even if nearly all of its members believed in a deity or even subscribed to a particular religious creed; secularity here has to do with the conditions, not the prevalence, of belief, and these conditions are understood to be shared across a given society, irrespective ...