Secularization

Secularization names a cluster of shifts: fewer institutional ties, religious practice moving to choice, public reason sidelining explicit theology in some spheres while spirituality migrates to wellness apps and pop culture. Classic sociology (Weber, Berger) wondered about disenchantment; recent scholars nuance resilience—religion privatized, hybridized, or resurgent in politics under new flags.

The concept is not a scoreboard for God’s death. It tracks how default becomes optional in certain societies, how law and science become languages of shared coordination, and how arguments about meaning relocate from pulpits to universities and museums.

Outdeus treats secularization as a modern-frame concept—descriptive more than celebratory or mournful—naming disagreements about what is lost, gained, or simply reshuffled.