Modèles institutionnels de la gestion du croire dans la sphère catholique

Abstract

The diachronic analysis of the institutional administration of belief—in a spatio-temporal context too limited to permit any attempt whatsoever at generalization—allows us to distinguish three models which differ principally with regard to the relations that they institute between religious authority and believers: the model of unanimity, markedly hierarchical and quite territorial; the pluralistic model, characterized by a high degree of organizational segmentation and by a very militant attitude; the governance model, which results from the implementation of a synod-based direction along with a process of declericalization.