Reconceptualizing Secularization and Secularism: The Value-Inversion Theory

Abstract

This article aims to define a new way of understanding the secularization process, especially in non-Western societies. It conceptualizes secularization as a value inversion process, in which the substantive values that underpin social practices, laws, or institutions are displaced by those that serve instrumental ends. The article defines the historical mechanisms by which value inversion takes place and demonstrates the value of the theory in the case of the Middle East and North Africa. Value-inversion theory complements the two predominant contemporary approaches to understanding secularism, the rationalization method and the genealogical method, synthesizing elements of both approaches.