The Religious in Contemporary Western Societies

(2.5-3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

The course will show how religion has changed in the Western world over the past few decades, particularly under the pressure of population exchanges (migratory movements), social developments, philosophical and theological reflections. The course will include three entries: - The religion of individuals: the recompositions of belief have profoundly modified the forms of religious adherence, leaving room for a double process of deinstitutionalization and subjectivation of belief. - The religion of institutions: secularization and pluralization have led to internal changes in the religious world, in the field of territorial arrangements (reorganization of parishes for example), decision-making (synods) or doctrinal. - State religion: . What are the relations between theology and politics today? . How have the regimes of public regulation of belief (regimes of secularism) been recomposed? An analytical and historical presentation of the specific characteristics of each religion will be given, whenever necessary, at the different stages of this journey.