Secularization: A Genealogical Study

Religious change is one of the most important research subjects of social sciences. In this manner secularization is used in social sciences literature as main framework to explain religious change in modern societies. The theory of secularization asserts that religion and metaphysical beliefs will fall and they will lose significance societally, politically, economically and individually with the advent of modern industrial society. The main subject of this study is to present a conceptual analysis of secularization which is one of the most debated issue in social sciences especially in sociology of religion. In other words, this study that excludes the theoretical debates of secularization aims to present a genealogical analysis of secularization in light of historical resources and to determine its Christian roots. The study questions applying secularization as a framework in order to explain religious change in non-Christian societies