The Lasting Impact of the ‘Sociological Moment’ on the Churches’ Discourse of ‘Secularization’ in West Germany

Abstract

This paper focuses on the effect of the religious sociology on the churches’ discourse of “secularization.” The research results refer to transformations within the Catholic and Protestant Church(es) in West Germany since the 1950s. At this point the purpose is not to give comprehensive insight into that topic. Rather, a few general trends are to be considered here. The secularization discourses within the West German Churches can be described as a periodization with three stages. In the period from 1945 to the late 1950s “secularization” was used to give an orientation after the devastating experiences of the Second World War. The concept was at that stage most understood in the classical meaning of a religious decline. “Secularization” was the mirror-image of past, present, and more importantly, the future. The chance of a religious revival on the one hand and the fear of a godless communism on the other hand were the main topics of the secularization discourse in the postwar period. In the 1960s we can find a kind of “theologization” of “secularization.” Based on the work of theologians such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Paul Tillich, and Friedrich Gogarten it was the aim to integrate a changed understanding of “secularization” in the sense of a necessary “Verweltlichung” or “Weltlichkeit” into a “modern” and future oriented church model. The churchly debate was influenced and inspired by the general politicization of the West German society. The third period began in the 1970s, but was fully developed in the 1980s. The secularization discourse followed the trend of a scientification of the Churches. The definition of “secularization” was more and more affected by sociological patterns and the theological dimension moved into the background. The churchly discussion benefited primarily from the extension of Church Sociology to Sociology of Religions. This impact of the “sociological moment” improved the future prospects of the Churches, as long as they were willing to adapt to modern society by changing their symbolic, ritual, and institutional form. Already, at the end of the 1970s the first indications of a changed perception of the significance of religion were seen. This also involved attempts to replace the theory of secularization with more plausible accounts of the future of religion.