DeChant’s Primer: The Secularization Dispute

Name Instructor Course Date Dechant’s Primer In Chapter 3, Dell DeChant focuses on Secularization and further highlights The Rise of Christianity including the Disenchantment process, the eruption of secularization and the enlightenment, which followed secularization. The author also emphasized that when there is an absence of religious themes in public, it is more likely that the society is becoming secular. Religious beliefs are important in communities, and this is reinforced through myths and rituals. Such is the case of religious holidays where commercialization has resulted to more commercial sales and not the religious aspect of these holidays. However, even when there is religiosity in modern culture, there is now lack of religious myth and rituals in the west more than ever before. The secularization of culture is a common theme in the modern secular society unlike before. Living in a secularized world in the western world then is closely linked to the ‘religion of consumption,’ and the media communicates this through advertisement, and the meaning is embedded in the culture. The rise of the secular institution in the West has been one of the reasons why Christianity is increasingly marginalized. These institutions now have cultural meanings and values that have replaced modern Christianity. Similarly, in the modern world, the word secular has meant nonreligious since the secularized civilization no longer holds many things sacred unlike before. However, the culture system can be sacred despite being considered secular when there are myths and rituals and practice involved just like for sacred issues. Peter Berger is one of the foremost thinkers on the issue of secularization. Peter Berger proposes the study of the sociology of religion and knowledge, by considering religion as a social subject that can be studied. There is a historical element in secularization and Berger defined this by focusing on the socio-structural dimension, the ideological-cultural and the subjective dimension. Such is the case of secularization in the west where there was no longer domination of religious institutions and symbols over time as the society was transformed. Secularization affects the totality of cultural life, and this is observed in the decline of religious themes in public, the arts, literature and philosophy, and especially with the emergence of science as a powerful force in society. Religion has evolved towards pluralism, and not necessarily towards secularism as earlier predicted by the secularization theory. Pluralism has various consequences, such as the end of the absolute truths that allowed closed societies and people being exposed to different religions that are combined. In the pluralized world, there is no absolute tr...