secularisation

Secularisation is the process by which religious institutions, beliefs, and practices lose social significance and influence in public life, often accompanied by the privatization of religious identity. In sociological usage, secularisation denotes a decline in the authority of religion over politics, education, and public rituals, and a decline in religious observance among the population. It is not uniform; patterns vary by country, region, and social group.

Approaches differ on its trajectory. The secularisation thesis argues that modernization—industrialization, urbanization, rising literacy, and state formation—will progressively reduce religious influence. Critics contend that religion can adapt and persist in public life, or even expand in certain spheres. Regional patterns show decline in much of Western Europe and parts of North America, while growth or resilience is observed in Africa, parts of Asia and Latin America, and among new religious movements or private spiritualities.

Indicators often used include church–state separation, privatization of belief, declines in formal affiliation and attendance, and shifts in moral and cultural authority from religious to secular institutions. However, attendance alone is an imperfect proxy, and belief can remain high even as affiliation falls. Secularisation is widely described as multi-dimensional—social, political, cultural, and epistemic—with ongoing debate about its causes, pace, and regional variation, including secularization through pluralism and education, as well as cases of revival and religious nationalism in different contexts.