Secularization definition

Secularization means a process that characterizes mainly Western countries of the modern era which resulted in the gradual loss of religious patterns and a religious-like behaviour. According to the theories of secularization, modernity inevitably goes hand in hand with the decline of the sacred, which would be inversely related to the increase of progress, generalization of education, the processes of urbanization and industrialization», Jürgen HABERMAS - Benedict XVI (Joseph RATZINGER), Reason and faith in dialogue, by G. Bosetti, Marsilio, 2005; see also the word "Secularization" by Silvano BURGALASSI, in Dictionary of Vocational Pastoral Care, cit.
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Secularization here means ‘the "temporalization" of the spiritual or of the eternal’ culminating in the view that ‘the ways of God are scrutable to sufficiently enlightened men’ and therefore that man can take his bearings from God’s providence rather than God’s law. ‘In proportion as the providential order came to be regarded as intelligible to man, and therefore evil came to be regarded as evidently necessary or useful, the prohibition against doing evil lost its evidence.’ Strauss, Natural Right and History, 317.
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Examples of Secularization in a sentence

  • A Contribution to the Secularization Debate from Psychology of Religion”, Journal of Religion in Europe 3, 34‐67.

  • Sociologists and Historians Debate the Secularization Thesis (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1992); God is Dead: Secularization in the West (Oxford: ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇, 2002); ▇▇▇▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ (ed.), Secularism and Its Critics (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998); See also ▇▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇▇▇, “Introduction”, in ▇▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇▇▇ and ▇▇▇▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇▇▇ (eds.), The Decline of Christendom in Western Europe, c1750-2000 (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003).

  • Beckford & Karel Dob− belaere (redactie), Secularization, rationalism and sectarianism: Essays in honour of Bryan R.

  • Secularization and Religious Change in the Netherlands”, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 41(3), 455‐473.

  • Secularization theory uses the model of European governments with state churches to understand how religion’s position in the modern world has changed (▇▇▇▇▇▇ 1990[1967]; ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ 1991; ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ 1994, 20–25; ▇▇▇▇▇▇ 1994; ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ 1995[1912]; Yamane 1997; ▇▇▇▇▇▇ 2000; ▇▇▇▇▇ 2002[1930], 1991[1922]).

  • Secularization and modernization changed many western Europeans’ assumptions about Jewishness by separating religion from citizenship, offering Emancipation or full citizenship to Jews, and turning religion into a private, individual affair.

  • Secularization deemphasized the coupling of partnership and sexual activity.