Bringing the State Back in Secularization: The Development of Laïcité in the French Third Republic (1875–1905)

The secularization literature increasingly recognizes the role of historical state‐building processes and the manifest agency of sociopolitical actors in shaping public secularity. Based on archival data from the French Third Republic, this article offers three contributions to the historicizing agenda. First, to better capture the contingent and agency‐driven nature of secularization, it reoperationalizes the concepts of separation and regulation as contentious strategies of state‐building used toward religious authority. Second, it identifies and exemplifies four interrelated yet uneven spheres in which secularization is prompted through governmental action: politico‐institutional, socio‐pedagogical, symbolic‐ideological, and property‐distributional. Third, it suggests going beyond viewing secularizing agents as disconnected elites operating independently of grassroots movements. The French case shows that the Republicans’ engagement with the pressures of various class forces had a significant impact on their secularizing policies. The analysis advances the study of the mechanisms whereby state‐building engenders and mediates secularization as a nonlinear and heterogeneous process.     

The Charm of Disenchantment: A Quest for the Intellectual Attraction of Secularization Theory

In the course of Western history, philosophy has proven to be an active participant in the process of secularization. This article seeks to examine that philosophical role more closely. The central question is how the role of philosophy must be rethought in light of the contemporary critique of classical secularization theory. The first part of the article sheds light on the current crisis of secularization theory. Drawing on recent scholarship in the social sciences, it explains why the classical tenets and assumptions of secularization theory are no longer being considered as plausible and empirically grounded hypotheses. Against that background, the second part turns to philosophy. It examines the implications for a philosophical tradition of religious criticism that has consciously operated within this once-undisputed model of secularization. The question is how this critique of religion must be rethought, if its prominent role in the history of modern philosophy can no longer be ascribed to a general secularization of the Western mind. The third and final part attempts to answer this question by focusing on one of the most frequently overlooked, yet most significant and crucial elements in the history of philosophical secularization: the intrinsic intellectual attraction of religious disenchantment.     

Secularity and Irreligion in Cross‐National Context: A Nonlinear Approach

As part of the conversation about the characteristics and scope of secularization in contemporary society, the implications of low levels of self‐defined atheism and explicit rejection of religion in nations with low levels of religious beliefs are not yet sufficiently explored. In response, this study uses aggregated data from the World Values Survey, the European Values Study, and Cross‐National Socio‐Economic and Religion Data from the Association of Religion Data Archives to investigate the relationships between nonbelief, atheism, and lack of confidence in churches or religious organizations. Regression findings show a concave curvilinear relationship between secularity (measured as the percentage of the population that does not believe in God) and irreligion (measured as (1) the percentage of self‐defined atheists in a country and (2) the percentage of individuals in a country who have no confidence at all in religious organizations). In other words, this study suggests that nonbelief is associated with an increase in self‐defined atheism and the lack of confidence in religious organizations, but that this effect wanes the more secular a society is. The findings further highlight the complexity of nonreligiosity and imply that a linear association cannot be assumed between measures of secularization, secularity, and irreligion.     

The documentary history of Judaism and the problem of dating sayings

This personal account of a thirty year long encounter with secularization theory indicates its location in sociological culture and its unchallenged status until the sixties. From that time on, the critique of secularization has come from varied standpoints, but arguably the viable core of the notion lies in pluralism and differentiation rather than rationalization and privatization. It emphasizes the variations in the secularization process according to specific historical context. It notes the continuing secularization of western Europe and takes up the issue raised by Peter Berger of 'Europea Exceptionalism'.     

Church Attendance and Religious Change in Italy, 1968–2010: A Multilevel Analysis of Pooled Datasets

The debate over religious change in Italy is far from having reached unanimous conclusions: some scholars point to an unbroken trend toward a decrease of religiosity, while others highlight the signs of a religious revival, especially in younger generations. Besides difficulties with definitions, different conclusions are also due to a lack of information over a sufficiently long period of time. This problem is tackled here by developing a pooled analysis of repeated cross‐section surveys that span over four decades. Using six different studies, the article analyzes the secularization trend in Italy on the basis of church attendance that, despite well‐founded criticism, continues to be a crucial indicator of this phenomenon. The results, estimated using multilevel models, show that the trend of attendance at Mass in Italy has decreased since the 1960s until today, despite a period of stability at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s. The overall trend looks like a “recumbent S” trend (decrease up to the 1970s, stability in the 1980s, decrease afterwards). Thus, the claims of a religious revival in Italy are not supported by our results.     

Navigating Bereavement With Spirituality‐Based Interventions: Implications for Non‐Faith‐Based Counselors

The relationship between spirituality and bereavement has been studied in a multitude of disciplines, yet there is a significant gap in the counseling literature on this topic. The authors explore how spirituality is often avoided in secular counseling settings, discuss adverse effects of unresolved grief on clients' functioning, and propose the concept that spirituality can be used to help clients through the bereavement process. Finally, the authors offer research and clinically based interventions that counselors, particularly those who do not identify as faith‐based, can use to incorporate spirituality into their work with bereaved clients.     

Why God Has Left the Netherlands: Explanations for the Decline of Institutional Christianity in the Netherlands Between 1966 and 2015

Why has the Netherlands witnessed such a strong process of secularization? This article examines this process very extensively. Based on modernization theory, it follows several social cultural developments in Dutch society over the last 50 years and distinguishes between effects on the individual level as well as on the level of society. We are able to do so because of rich data availability, derived from micro‐level longitudinal surveys (God in the Netherlands, Social and Cultural Developments in the Netherlands) enriched with macro‐level statistics (Statistics Netherlands). With this integrated approach, we provide explanatory insights into the transition of the Netherlands from a predominant Christian nation to a predominant secular nation. Our analysis clearly shows that macro‐level educational expansion has affected this process of secularization in the Netherlands, supplemented with the increase in social security, as a so‐called cohort effect. Moreover, the long‐term effect of Christian socialization is waning; Dutch people who were raised in a religious way increasingly lapse later in their life.     

Religiosity and Aging: Age and Cohort Effects and Their Implications for the Future of Religious Values in High‐Income OECD Countries

It has long been noticed that older people tend to be more religious than younger people. However, it is still disputable whether this fact should be attributed to people generally becoming more religious with age per se (age effect), or to the process of secularization, wherein earlier cohorts (to which the now older people belong) used to be more religious than those that appeared later, younger cohorts (cohort effect). We try to distinguish between these two effects using a multifactor model applied to World Values Survey data (1981–2014) and find that at least in the developed countries the age effect strongly prevails over the cohort effect. This finding has important implications, e.g., that population aging in OECD countries can possibly slow down the transition from religious to secular values. This effect is already visible in some countries, such as Japan.     

Religiosity and Economic Development in Singapore

This paper examines religiosity in modern and industrialized Singapore. Several theories argue that economic development brings about secularization and the general decline of personal religiosity in modern and industrialized societies. Using data gathered from the World Values Survey-Singapore (2002) as well as data from other sources, this article finds that Singaporeans are not very secularized; they are religious (religion is important in people's lives); they have a high level of belief in (metaphysical) religious aspects; and they fulfill their religious obligations and activities. The main reasons for this apparent lack of secularization are, firstly, that religion is deeply embedded in Singapore society; secondly, that the state has both directly and indirectly promoted religion; and thirdly, that a process of religious rationalization has taken place.     

The Persistence of Faith Among Nonheterosexual Christians: Evidence for the Neosecularization Thesis of Religious Transformation

The neosecularization thesis, which combines the "secularization" and "postsecularization" paradigms, argues that religion is in a constant state of transformation (thus persistence). It also argues that the examination of "secularization" needs to be conducted on three levels: macro, meso, and micro. Drawing from a quantitative and qualitative study involving 565 nonheterosexual Christians in the United Kingdom, this article aims to lend credence to the neosecularization thesis, focusing on the micro, or individual, level only. This article highlights the lack of influence and impact of religious authority structures on the respondents' views of sexuality and spirituality. Data also demonstrated that, in the construction of the respondents' identity and Christian faith, as well as the fashioning of Christian living, religious authority structures were considered the least significant factor, compared to the respondents' employment of human reason and biblical understanding, within the framework of lived experiences. On the whole, data suggested that the self, rather than religious authority structures, steers the respondents' journeys of spirituality and sexuality. This is evidence of the impact of the "detraditionalization" process on the late modern religious landscape, where the basis of religious faith and practice is primarily predicted on the self, rather than traditions and structures.     

Reaching the Limits of Secularization? Turkish‐ and Moroccan‐Dutch Muslims in the Netherlands 1998–2006

This research note focuses on Muslim minorities living in a secular context, the Netherlands. The question is whether mosque attendance among Turkish‐ and Moroccan‐Dutch changed between 1998 and 2006, testing mechanisms of religious decline and religious vitality. Elaborating on previous research of the same Muslim groups, this study examines a longer time span and adds contextual‐level explanations. Whereas previous research reported a linear trend towards secularization over time and over generations, in recent years the trend has become more complex. The revival of religious attendance among the second generation is most striking. Forces of secularization such as educational attainment and generational replacement gradually lose their predictive power. Over time, processes of secularization are therefore not inevitable.     

Enhancing Cognitive‐Behavioural Therapy (CBT) Skill Acquisition Through Experiential and Reflective Learning: A Commentary on Studies Examining the Impact of Self‐Practice and Self‐Reflection in CBT

Self‐practice and self‐reflection (SP/SR) is a targeted training tool that is intended to increase CBT competency in therapists. The four articles reviewed in this commentary examine the benefits of SP/SR with various types of therapists, and survey the significant obstacles faced in implementing this tool with clinicians. Collectively, these articles conclude that SP/SR is a valuable tool in improving CBT skill acquisition and preventing burnout, particularly with difficult patients, but that most therapists elect not to use it largely because of the time involved in engaging in it. In this commentary, I suggest that empirical studies with larger samples and controlled designs are needed to build on the wealth of qualitative data collected to date in order to assess the value added by SP/SR compared with other training methods, and in order to determine its impact on a range of therapeutic outcomes. I also suggest that future studies should examine the efficacy of required SP/SR engagement, isolate its critical ingredients, and assess if there are clients and therapists for whom SP/SR is comparably more effective.     

Measuring Long‐Term Patterns of Political Secularization and Desecularization: Did They Happen or Not?

Political secularization theories have predicted religion's decline in public and political life, and desecularization theories have predicted the reverse trend. However, there is little agreement on the timing of either phenomenon or even their existence. Until now, deep empirical tests of any of these were hampered by lack of historical country‐level data on religious preferences of governments (previously used data sets go back only to 1990). However, the new Government Religious Preference data set (GRP) measures state religion from 2015 back to the 1800s. Using GRP data, this article offers the first long‐term quantitative measurement of political secularization and in doing so, weighs in on competing claims regarding its timing. This article finds strong support that political secularization happened gradually over the long 19th century, accelerated after World War II, and peaked in the 1970s or 1980s. In contrast, the article finds only tepid support for the existence of political desecularization overall.     

Religion, Denomination, and Education in The Netherlands: Cognitive and Noncognitive Outcomes After an Era of Secularization

After 1850, The Netherlands developed into a strongly pillarized or denominational society. Starting in 1965, however, a process of secularization and depillarization emerged and the influence of the institutionalized denominations declined greatly. Today, there are indications that the process of secularization has reached its peak. Remarkably enough, such secularization and depillarization has had little influence on the educational system in The Netherlands. In this article, the relations between the religious affiliations of parents, the denominations of the schools attended by their children, and both the cognitive and noncognitive educational achievement of their children are examined. A representative sample of nearly 8,400 kindergarten students from 432 elementary schools is studied. The results show that the denomination of the school does not appear to affect educational results. Effects of the religious affiliation of the parents on the cognitive achievement but not the self-confidence or well-being of their children were found. When the socioethnic background of the students was taken into consideration, however, the observed effects disappeared.     

Explaining a Religious Anomaly: A Historical Analysis of Secularization in Eastern Germany

The sociology of religion is engrossed in a debate concerning the process of secularization. Some theories of secularization hold that religiosity decreases under the effects of modernization. In opposition, supply-side models of religious change maintain that declines in religiosity can be explained only through changes in the supply of religious goods. To further examine mechanisms of secularization, this article investigates the emergence of the most secularized society in the world today—eastern Germany. The extremely high percent of atheists in contemporary eastern Germany suggests that the public demand for religion has diminished. But the process of modernization did not bring about this change; instead, current drops in religious demand and religiosity in eastern Germany are the result of dramatic interventions in the supply of religious goods over the past two centuries. We trace the historical conditions that have created the most atheistic society ever.     

Investigating the Sect-Church-Sect Cycle: Cohort-Specific Attendance Differences Across African-American Denominations

Varying religious commitment across generations plays a key role in explaining transitions from sect to church, and the formation of sectarian movements. Within a sect, elite members of younger generations are seen to spur internal secularization that transforms otherworldly sects into world-affirming churches. In this paper I examine how cohort differences in religious commitment across denominations evidence the sect-church transformation process, and point to sources of sect formation among African-Americans. Using data from the 1972–1998 General Social Surveys, I analyze denomination-specific cohort differences in religious participation among African-Americans. Cohort-specific shifts in religious participation across denominations demonstrate the secularization of African-American mainline Methodist and Baptist groups, the continued vitality of sectarian denominations, and the nascent ascendance of "nondenominational" churches on the fringes of the religious marketplace.     

Development and evaluation of the evidence‐based practice classroom observation measure (EBP‐COM)

Due to the increased emphasis on evidence‐based practices (EBPs) in recent education initiatives, classroom observers need an objective way to measure teacher use of EBPs. Although some measures for this purpose exist, these measures are limited by their reliance on self‐report. Therefore, we created a direct observation tool titled the Evidence‐Based Practice Classroom Observation Measure (EBP‐COM) for observers to assess the use of EBPs by teachers of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We evaluated reliability and validity of the EBP‐COM, as well as whether the assessment tool could detect change in teacher behavior. A measurement refinement process involving six raters collecting 65 data points revealed the EPB‐COM to have sound psychometric properties. With this tool, researchers can conduct comprehensive and objective assessments of teacher EBP use.     

Church Attendance,Problems of Measurement,and Interpreting Indicators: A Study of Religious Practice in the United States, 1975–2010

Church attendance is usually measured in surveys by asking a direct question about frequency of churchgoing over a preset period of time, which is typically a year. Different studies have cast doubt over the validity of this indicator as it tends to overestimate actual attendance to a significant degree. The aim of this article is to compare data on church attendance provided by two different types of research conducted in the United States between 1975 and 2010: survey data (GSS) and data obtained from time use surveys (ATUS). This comparison has three main objectives: (1) to confirm the hypothesis that survey data tend to overestimate actual attendance; (2) to show that this overestimation is not constant over time and space, but tends to vary in an erratic and unpredictable way; and (3) to demonstrate that data provided by time use surveys are more reliable than the frequencies of churchgoing provided by traditional surveys when the objective is to identify trends in religiosity in a population.     

Gender Violence as a Social Problem in Spain: Attitudes and Acceptability

Although violence against women (VAW) is not strictly a new phenomenon, its visibilization and the social rejection it produces are recent and, in this sense, it would be appropriate to consider it as an emerging social problem. This paper analyses how a particular form of this violence, intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW), is currently considered as a social problem in Spain. We present some data from different surveys carried out previously in Spain. Specifically, this review provides an overview of acceptability and public attitudes that support the use of this violence and focuses on the effect of gender and gender role attitudes. The data review shows that Spanish society as a whole, considers IPVAW as a social problem and rejects it, but there are still some violence-supportive attitudes, such as victim blaming, and also a gender gap in the consideration of this violence. We discuss the implications of these data on the management and prevention of IPVAW.