Múltiplas modernidades, múltiplas secularizações e secularização contextual: novas perspectivas sobre o estudo sociológico da religião

This paper looks at the origins and the developments of the sociological understanding of the binominal modernity-religion. Given the theoretical fragility of classical conceptions on modernization’s processes, the social sciences have produced the paradigm of multiple modernities. Its greater consideration of context and its ability to accommodate the religious phenomenon aroused a new interest in secularization studies. Hypotheses on multiple secularizations have been unveiled. However, its support was inconsequential at both the theoretical and the empirical level. Thus, we propose a methodology that captures with greater flexibility and precision the modern dynamics of the binominal. We use medium-range analytical categories, seeking to balance extension (of case studies) and intention (of each cases’ proprieties), but emphasizing the latter. Hence we propose a contextual analysis of secularization.