From Religious Decline to Relocations of Religion. Recent Trends in Sociological Research on Religion and the Secular in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland

Abstract

This article examines trends in research on secularization, secularism, and secularity over the past 15 years, focusing on work from, or carried out with the involvement of, scholars from the German-speaking world. It maps a discursive field, the distinctive features of which include, among other things, the importance of a differentiation–theoretical perspective. The essay begins with the earlier juxtaposition of secularization versus individualization and discusses the approach of a secular transition. It then turns to the analysis of sacralizations and subsequently focuses on secular–religious contestations in various domains. In this context, it introduces the approach of “multiple secularities”. The author argues that across the different areas of research, a tension becomes apparent between an individual and a collective understanding of religion, and that the shift toward analyses of secular–religious contestations also signals a trend toward relocating religious authority outside traditional religious institutions—into public space, the courts, and the internet.