Local and regional secularization
Jørgen Straarup, University of Gävle
Although a notion of secularization in the line of reasoning
proposed by Bryan Wilson has generally been refuted, i.e as a world wide,
general process of religious decline, the concept still has valuable
potential for those parts of the world to which it has recently been
limited, Western, and perhaps particularly North Western Europe. One might
say that the concept has been confined to analyses on the levels "macro" to
"micro", whereas the level "omnibus" is to be abandoned by secularization
theoreticians.
Already David Martin noted that there are many kinds of secularization. In
the workshop this line of thought is to be explored, on macro, meso and
micro levels. Martin concentrated on macro levels in his analysis of
national differences, but it seems that the variation on the regional
(meso) and local (micro) levels still leaves a lot to be analysed. How come
that some regions and localities among church historians and church
practitioners have acquired a reputation of being more "pious" or
"religiously indifferent" than others? What factors (at different levels)
have been influential in such a development?
The workshop will attempt to reach a practical, as well as a theoretical,
understanding of secularization at different levels.