We explain what secularization is, its causes and its consequences. In addition, we tell you how it is related to secularism.
What is secularization?
secularization It is the process of abandoning or moving away from a religious doctrine that a person, an institution or a society goes through. That is, as something or someone becomes more civil and less religious or theological, it can be said that it becomes secularizes, what is done secular either secular.
The term “secularization” comes from the adjective “secular”, which is a derivative of the Latin word saeculariscoming from saeculum (“century”). This term in late Latin was used to refer to mundane or profane matters, committed to the civil and ordinary world, and not to the world of religious transcendence. Thus, people secular They are those who live immersed in the world of their time, as opposed to those who are part of some ecclesiastical organization.
In fact, within the religious order it is usual to distinguish between the clergy secularthose who deal with people and who live immersed in society and its affairs, such as priests and parish priests, and clergy regularone who lives apart from the world and according to a norm or rule dictated by doctrine, such as monks and practitioners of monastic life.
secularization It was, in historical terms, a process that Western society went through between the 16th and 17th centuries a consequence of the collapse of the medieval religious order and the advent of modernity. Over time, other societies went through their own secularization movements, embracing a secular logic, and some others sometimes abandoned secularism to reimpose a religious order (as happened after the Iranian Revolution).
The difference between a secular country and a religious country is that in the former, religion and the church do not play a central role in the running of the State.
See also: Atheism
Causes of secularization
The process of secularization, that is, abandonment of the religious order, can be due to very different and personal causes, when it involves an individual. While In historical and sociological terms, the process of secularization is due to the set of political, social and economic forces of the moment. For example, in the case of Western secularization, produced in Europe from the 16th and 17th to the 19th centuries, it is possible to identify the following causes:
- The end of the Middle Ages and the feudal order, which allowed the rise of a new culture: the bourgeoisie. This brought with it revolutions and a new social class (the middle class), which attacked the traditional religious precepts associated with aristocracy and royalty (such as the king being placed on the throne by God).
- The Renaissance and humanism which changed the cultural order in a radical way, placing the human being and reasoning at the center of modern thought (anthropocentrism) instead of God and religious faith. The French Enlightenment, similarly, laid the foundations for liberalism: secular education, the secular state, and the reduction of the power of the Church.
- The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century which shook the traditional religious order, allowing the emergence of new Christian (Protestant) churches and weakening the political and social dominance of the papacy over Europe. Northern Europe was thus able to have its own versions of religion.
- The religious wars that shook Europe in the 17th century and they confronted Catholics and Protestants, and turned religion into a matter that was best not discussed in public, and relegated it to the private, intimate sphere.
- Starting in the 19th century, new scientific discoveries (such as the theory of evolution and Darwinism) and new philosophical approaches to reality (such as Marxism and other sociopolitical doctrines) that fostered a critical and atheistic stance on life.
Consequences of secularization
Secularization brought with it, in the modern world, a new political, social and cultural order, in which the Church and religion no longer constituted a great political power in charge among other things of education, the civil registration of people and the management of the sick and deaths, for example. All of this passed into the hands of the modern secular State.
The church and religion, therefore, began to occupy an intimate, personal and subjective role in society. This means that it is no longer the state's business what religion its citizens practice, and that the state no longer has an official religion (secularism). As a result, in many regions of the world religious clashes are a thing of the past.
On the other hand, the weakening of traditional monotheistic religions left human beings with a certain spiritual void that other modern and postmodern doctrines have tried to fill. For example, the advent at the end of the 20th century of New Agepseudosciences and conspiratorial thinking have an obvious religious purpose: to reconnect human beings with the idea of the higher order, the transcendent and the universal truth.
Secularization and secularism
Secularization is the process of abandoning religiosity and adopting secularism instead. The latter can, then, be defined as the philosophical, political, social and cultural principle which states that human affairs must be approached rationally materialist, without formally resorting to religious thought.
Secularism manifests itself in different ways, in the political, social and cultural fields. For example, the separation between church and state, the secular nature of education or the control of ecclesiastical properties by civil law. There are different models of secularism, such as French, Anglo-Saxon, Turkish or Indian, which vary more or less with respect to the neutrality of the State in religious matters.
Continue with: Scientific thinking
References
- “Secularization” on Wikipedia.
- “Secular” in the Language Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy.
- “Etymology of Secular” in the Online Spanish Etymological Dictionary.
- “The consequences of secularization. Are we already left without religion?” by David Vilchis at the Mexican Institute of Christian Social Doctrine.
- “Secularism (social movement)” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
