Secularism and the State: Towards Clarity and Global Comparison
Author(s)
Keddie, Nikki R.
Abstract
Recent debates about secularization have focused on the work of sociologists and historians, and ‘the secularization thesis’, which correlates modernization with secularization. The conclusions of the secularization thesis can be challenged, and the limited concept which focuses on declining religious belief and church membership. The states and other political forces may be more important to secularization than is usually stated, and sociological discussions should not be restricted to large impersonal trends.
