Western Europe: secularisation light

Abstract

This article presents a biographical approach to the history of the changes in the theoretical appraisal of the secularisation concept, grounding on personal relations of the author with its two major theoreticians: Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann. The theory of secularisation is gradually presented as unsuitable for interpreting the ideological/religious dimension of the liberal cultures of Western Europe. It states, that what is currently interpreted as secularisation is in fact the dissolution of imposed fateful ideological monopolies. The result is the development of not mono-colored/secular, but ideologically multicoloured/pluralistic societies. The group of the atheised and of consistently believing and practicing Christians are typologically on the fringes of the society, while the largest groups are the skeptics, the insecure, but also the privately-religious. The question is raised about coping strategies of contemporary people, living in the inconsistent world of constant collusion of the secular and the religious realities.