The Hospital: On the Interface Between Secularity and Religion

Excerpt

Social scientists studying contemporary religion have come to agree that the classical secularization theory (central thesis: modernity leads to a decline in religion) has been effectively falsified: We don’t live in a “secular age”; rather, we live in a pluralistic age. Secularization has for a long time served as a paradigm for the relation of modernity and religion. Thomas Kuhn has taught us that, if a paradigm collapses, sooner or later another takes its place. I proposed some time ago that the most likely candidate for such succession would be pluralization theory. A group of us have convoked a series of conferences, generously funded by the Bradley Foundation, trying to imagine ingredients of such a theory. An active member of this exercise has been Jonathan Imber (sociology professor at Wellesley College and editor of Society magazine, which has been publishing several of the CURA papers. …