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Abstract
This paper argues that the modern secularization thesis is in the first place an explanation of the past of European societies and their colonial offshoots and that, contra its critics, it was not intended as a universal template. Such momentous historical changes cannot simply be repeated if only because, while the secularization of Europe was unprecedented, largely secular societies, that can attract emulation or rejection, now exist. What we might expect, and why, is detailed before the case of Brazil is considered. The paper concludes that, while it is too early to be certain that Brazilian changes fit the expectation that modernization weakens religion, we can probably conclude that they are minimally consistent with that expectation.
Keywords: Secularization. Brazil. Modernization.
Resumo2
Este artigo defende que a tese moderna da secuiarizaçâo é, acima de tudo, uma explicaçâo do passado das sociedades europeias e de seus territorios coloniais e que, contrariamente a seus críticos, nâo foi concebida como um modelo universal. Tais mudanças históricas relevantes nao podem ser simplesmente repetidas porque, embora a secularizaçâo da Europa nâo tenha tido precedentes, atualmente existem sociedades amplamente seculares que podem atrair emulaçâo ou rejeiçâo. O que se pode esperar e por que, é detalhado antes de se considerar o caso brasileiro. O artigo conclui que, nao obstante seja cedo para garantir que as mutaçöes brasileiras se encaixam na expetativa de que a modernizaçâo enfraquece a religiâo, provavelmente podemos concluir que sao mínimamente consistentes com essa expetativa.
Palavras-chave: Secularizaçâo, Brasil. Modernizaçâo.
Recebido em: 03/02/2017.
Aprovado em: 24/04/2017.
Introduction
It is no surprise that ideas are accidentally caricatured by scholars whose interest in them is slight. What is remarkable about the debate over the secularization thesis is that it is often caricatured by sociologists of religion. It is frequently asserted that the secularization thesis predicts the complete disappearance of religion from Western societies and the inevitable secularization of the rest of the world - for example, Joppke (2016, p. 43). The first is clearly a mistake. Bryan Wilson sensibly defines secularization as the decline in the social significance of religion (WILSON, 2016, p. 4). That should have some reciprocal relationship with popular religiosity: as religion loses social power, it also loses persuasiveness and as the proportion of the population that...