The classical conception of
secularization was presented by Max Weber within his sociology of religion where
secularization was presented mostly as the compromise between the religious values and the values of secular institutions.
The authoritarian-laic pattern, which constitutes the dominant
secularization pattern in Tunisia, is represented by the winning party of the 2014 elections, Nidaa Tounes and its leader Essebsi, who led the liberals, leftists and the former regime factions.
Chapter 4, the Polarized Mosaic, is arguably the most important contribution of the work, as it details Bibby's approach to measuring religious polarization and corroborates his plain-spoken rebuttal to much of contemporary sociology of religion's stubborn emphasis on either
secularization or desecularization.
Many studies have found a positive association between economic development and
secularization. Inglehart and Baker (2000), for example, investigate modernization across countries by computing a secular value index from the World Value Surveys and find a significant and quantitatively important association of income per capita and the secular value index.
In particular, I want to contrast Catholic approaches to
secularization in the 1960s with the conversation on
secularization today.
As such, the book will be of great interest to scholars in Middle Eastern studies, Ottoman studies,
secularization and modernization studies, and the sociology of religion.
Contrary to the
secularization thesis, which was developed in the past few decades by prominent scholars in the sociology of religion--supporting the idea that as a society becomes modern, the need for religion will decrease--recent global developments indicate that a direct link between scientific-economic progress and
secularization is less obvious than has been thought.
In the Arab world
secularization was also an integral part of the modernization processes under military dictatorships.
The pope said at the time of the inauguration of the council that one of the reasons behind its creation was that
secularization had caused "a serious crisis" of the sense of the Christian faith and the role of the church.
Bringing many texts into gothic criticism for the first time, Gothic Riffs relies on a similar method, for it often provides a quick plot summary, juxtaposes similar texts to highlight a repeated narrative scenario, interprets that scenario as a means of working through a basic cultural problem, and links that problem to the wider process of
secularization. As a result, this study often elides many complicating factors, such as key details of the texts it examines or a panoply of theoretical questions to which its argument gives rise, emphasizing instead how the period's texts construct "a few fairly basic cultural scripts ...
It is clear from his account that, while
secularization was not a monopoly of the wealthy, they were everywhere well represented in the ranks of libertines and scoffers.
From the questions of multiple jurisdictions in Canada (5) to United States Supreme Court decisions on the use of tax payers' money to fund religious themed displays in public spaces (6) to debates about the Islamic veil in France (7), recent debates on
secularization focus predominantly on application.
