The Myth of Secularization

(Click on link for episode) The Myth of the Secular, Part 2

The secular is often defined as the absence of religion, but secular society is in many ways a product of religion. In conversation with David Cayley, British sociologist David Martin (author of On Secularization) explores the many ways in which modern secular society continues to draw on the repertoire of themes and images found in the Bible.

It was once common to define secularization as the overcoming of religion.  Karl Marx’s famous description of religion as the opiate of the people is typical of countless modern theories that saw religion as false consciousness, an ideological façade that hid humanity’s real situation.

Philosopher Charles Taylor (author of A Secular Age) calls these theories “subtraction stories” religion is a kind of ideological froth, the secular is the underlying reality that is revealed when this froth is blown away.

This was the dominant view when British sociologist David Martin began his academic career more than half a century ago. Fifty years later it no longer is, and Martin can certainly claim some of the credit. He has been one of the pioneers of a new style of secularization theory which has argued that Christianity shaped the very foundations of modern Western society – that it’s the seedbed from which our social imagination has grown – shaping secular sensibilities just as surely as religious ones. Martin is now in his 80’s and retired as professor of sociology at the London School of Economics and various other universities.