THE DISPUTES OVER THE THEORY OF SECULARISATION

During recent decades there has been an uninterrupted discussion in the field of the sociology of religion between the proponents and opponents of the paradigms of secularisation. The aim of this article is to set out the issues associated with the paradigms of secularisation and to reconstruct the main themes of the ongoing debate. The result of the discussions and arguments associated with the theories of secularisation was - on the one hand - to rethink certain of the assumption in that approach and - on the other - the creation of alternative theoretical proposals. A short characterisation of the new, complementary theoretical perspectives on the approach to secularisation forms the last part of the article.