Legitimation Power and Religion in Modern Society

Abstract

This paper suggests that a focus on the relation between religion, power and legitimation in modern society may provide fruitful theoretical directions for the sociology of religion and mitigate against the epistemological problems which the discipline has inherited from traditional sociological perspectives. Such an approach raises the question of the relationship of religion and politics in the context of the modern nation state and involves an examination of the nature of the cultural and moral framework within which power structures and power relations operate in modern society. The almost universal separation of church and state in western societies does not necessarily imply a corresponding separation between religious culture and politics. There is now sufficient evidence to suggest that the sociology of religion cannot continue to treat processes of legitimation and the secularization of political power in modern society as unproblematic issues.