Abstract

The article proposes a systematisation of the most recent debate on the secularization thesis, identifying two theoretical positions: the «radical» position arguing for the decline of religion and the «moderate» position arguing for a return of religion. According to our hypothesis, these two positions are not incompatible with each other, but can shed light on complementary aspects of secularization, accounting for the characteristic polysemy and multiformity of the phenomenon. This hypothesis intends to overcome two assumptions that implicitly unite the radical and moderate positions: (1) a conception that assumes an intrinsic opposition between religion and the secular; (2) a unilinear historical narrative that sees secularization as a transition from a condition of greater to one of lesser religiosity. The article aims to enrich the sociological debate by showing that secularization is not an antithetical force to religion, but rather the civilisation process, already begun at the origins of Western society, of the «making of the secular», the construction of a lay public space alongside, and in relation to, the religious space. In every era there has been a coexistence of cultural drives toward secularisation, and cultural drives toward religious revitalisation, which have been articulated in changing and heterogeneous configurations