The secularization in European Catholic ultramodernity: a proposal of contextual and multidimensional analysis of the secularization phenomenon

Abstract

Europe’s ultramodernity has brought a new understanding over the concept of secularization. More sensitive to the plurality of contextual expressions of this phenomenon and to its multidimensionality, sociology of religion redefined secularization within a more comprehensive sphere, despite not entering on its empirical and factual fields of analysis. This desideratum seems to have been left to political science. Our research is thus a proposal for finer studies and clearer epistemological scrutiny on the dislocation and reinstallation of the religious. For that purpose we have selected a particular set of European countries – Austria, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain – and we have introduced certain research criteria – sociocultural, politicohistorical and legal dimensions – that will help us to ponder more carefully on the modern contours of this phenomenon. With the introduction of this specific type of analysis on secularization we hope not only to put forward an original methodological contribution, but mainly to reply to the demand for operational and measurable elements to interpret it in the light of European ultramodernity.