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¿ Pueden las organizaciones religiosas tradicionales adaptarse con éxito a la modernización social ? ¿ Son compatibles la organización eclesiastica de las Iglesias cristianas y la modernización ? El entendimiento de la modernidad y de la secularización se encuentra en parte en las respuestas a estas preguntas. En este sentido, el análisis de la situación religiosa en Italia es interesante. El autor propone un esquema comparativo entre la situación religiosa del norte del país (mas desarrollado) y del sur (menos desarrollado), y muestra que la situación presente parece más como el resultado de una estrategia de modernización religiosa que como una herencia de una situación premoderna. Si bien no es posible imaginar una modernización sin secularización, sin embargo es necesario de no considerar la relación entre secularización y crisis de la religión como directa y unívoca.

As religious societies founded on the Bible, Protestant churches have proved quite receptive to social and cultural changes, and the flexibility of their hermeneutics has allowed them - after a long evolution - to admit women to the office of pastor. After describing how women fulfilled various religious functions in the past history of protestantism, the article, using France as case study, illustrates the elements that have facilitated the admission of women to the pastorate. The function of pastor now open to women has undergone drastic changes, and the author argues that the opening of the pastorate to women is part of a process of increasing secularization of the function of the clergy. This secularization process was initiated by protestantism when it allowed pastors to marry and partly desacralized their function.

France, following the example of other Southwestern European nations, is a country of Old Catholic tradition. However, it distinguishes itself through a strong separation of church & state as well as a strong attachment to the idea of secularization understood as one of the founding values of the Republic. This "French exception" stems from the fact that France is one of the countries that pushed the "logic of state" the farthest. It is the result of a long process, reaching back to the monarchy that accomplished the separation laws of 1905. The Republic has therefore become a secular religion sharing citizens of all religions, believers & non-believers. Today, France is threatened by both secularization as well as communitarianism. 20 References. Adapted from the source document.

A review essay on books by (1) Pedro Madrigal, Hans Blumenburg: Trabajo Sobre el Mito (Barcelona: Paidos, 2003); (2) Faustino Oncina Coves, Reinhart Koselleck: Aceleracion, Prognosis y Secularizacion (Valencia: Pre-Textos, 2003); (3) Antonio Gomez Ramos, Reinhart Kosellek: historia/Historia (Madrid: Trotta, 2004) & (4) Marcos Mayer, Pierre Rosanvallon: Para Una Historia Conceptual de lo Politico (Buenos Aires: F. C. E., 2003).

The question of the death penalty in the United States reveals a near-systematic discrepancy between the opinion of believers & the official position of the church to which they belong. What is the significance of this discrepancy? In addition to supplying evidence of the weak normative capacity of churches, an empirical study carried out in three American churches sheds light on the registers that compete with & even supplant that of religion, bringing a new perspective to bear on interpretations that assign an over-determining power to the religious spirit in American political life. The secularization of American society has not, it turns out, resulted in the disappearance of the religious lexical field but is rather reflected in the combination of the religious register with other registers & a fluid circulation between these various types of discourse. More particularly, if one attends to the manner in which the religious register is employed, it becomes clear that it serves as a repertory from which believers can draw tools for elaborating their opinions. This leads to sometimes radical reinterpretations of the literal meaning of utterances -- rendering the execution of criminals, for example, an "act of mercy.". Adapted from the source document.

Despite the undeniable social influence of Catholicism in Portugal, its power over political arenas has been limited. Divided & split since the 19th century between the secular desires of the republicans but also by Salazar's attempt to instrumentalize religion, Catholicism in this country has never been able to build itself a political identity or, in particular, a party identity. The transition to democracy has only deepened this trend, aided & abetted by the fact that the Catholic religion has slowly but surely lost its grip over Portuguese society. 24 References. Adapted from the source document.

Laïcité et humanisme : un titre et deux mots de grande actualité tant au Québec qu'ailleurs dans le monde. Cet ouvrage, avec des contributions d'acteurs clés qui alimentent le débat sur le sens et la définition de la laïcité dans le Québec du XXIe siècle, arrive à point nommé

Turkey is the only Muslim country in which laicism is enshrined in the constitution. State, politics & in Turkey are for the most part secularized. Moreover, Islam in Turkey has been politicized in two distinct ways: the state, in order to secularize the population, homogenize different ethnical & confessional groups & preserve the country's territorial integrity propagating a republican & ethno-nationalist state Islam; & by & social groups! so as to break the Kemalist monopoly on the interpretation of Islam & end restrictions on religious freedom. On the whole, the Kemalist interpretation of laicism is authoritarian & undemocratic. The extent to which it can serve as a model for other Muslim countries is therefore limited. Adapted from the source document.