Talcott Parsons and the enigma of secularization

Abstract

During the last ten or fifteen years of his life, Talcott Parsons (1902–79) discussed religion and secularization in a number of papers and essays. This work was left unfinished; in the last book that he saw into print, Parsons depicted these papers and essays as work-in-progress. This article focuses on Parsons’ approach to secularization in this late work. Building upon his AGIL-scheme, Parsons analyzed the relation between processes of inclusion and increasing differentiation, on the one hand, and secularization at the value-oriented level, on the other. This article presents a reconstruction and an immanent critique of Parsons’ approach, which highlights both its possibilities and its limitations in order to contribute to the development of a contemporary social theory of secularization and religious change.

Do we need a radical redefinition of secularism? A critique of Charles Taylor

“…Some Républicains opportunistes wanted to see the new education law invoke religion in general as a source of morality. This position prefigures Robert Bellah and Talcott Parsons' notions of civil religion (Bellah, 1967;Parsons, 1990;Vanderstraeten, 2012). Bellah, following Parsons (1990) and de Tocqueville ([1840] 1966) supports the concept of "civil religion" using speeches by American presidents who referred to God without specifying any particular religious tradition (Bellah, 1967, 3-4).…”

The Spirit of Mattola Palallo in Educating Children of Farmers’ Family in Bulutellue Village Sinjai Regency

“…productive human beings (Maunah, 2016;Sidi, 2014). The functional approach sees that the community always maintains the order life quality or a harmonious social balance using the AGIL framework, namely Adaptation, Goal Attainment, Integration and Latency (Chriss, 2007;Fuadi, 2021;Vanderstraeten, 2013).…”

What's Behind the “Nones‐sense”? Change Over Time in Factors Predicting Likelihood of Religious Nonaffiliation in the United States

“…Examination of the rise of the Nones has, as a backdrop, the much larger debate over whether or not modernity would bring with it secularization, or the significant erosion of religious belief within society. Introduced conceptually, but diffusely, in Weber's examinations of religion (Hughey ), the concept of secularization grew into sociological theory of religion through Parsons (Vanderstraeten ) and Berger (Hjelm ), among others, and secularization theory was taken almost as a given through the middle and later years of the 20th century. Today, though, secularization theory has given way to the realization that (a) assumptions of religious ubiquity and omnipotence in historical society were suspect and (b) what appeared to be the decline of religion to Western scholars was, more accurately, a pluralization of religious presence in society due to modernity itself and globalization trends (for orientations to this discussion, see Fordahl ; Martin ; Pollack ; Smith ; Swatos and Christiano ).…”