Secularization implies that the ecclesiastical becomes secular.
Secularization is the act and result of secularizing : making the ecclesiastical secular . The term has various uses depending on the context.
Before moving forward it is important to clarify some ideas. The ecclesiastical is that linked to the clerics or the Church . The secular or secular , meanwhile, refers to those who do not have clerical orders .
What is secularization
Secularization, in this framework, can refer to the authorization given to a religious person to live outside the cloister . The notion can also refer to positioning a priest in the lay state, beyond the votes granted to him by an authority.
In simpler words, secularization involves someone or something moving from the realm of religion to a civil environment . Thus, those who were under the protection of a religious doctrine are now located in a secular structure.
Many times the secularization of a State occurs. In this case, assets or institutions that were administered by religious leaders are transferred to civilian command. In this way, religion is situated in the private lives of people, leaving the public in secular hands.
Origins of secularization
Although it is not possible to specify the point in time that marked the emergence of secularization, we do have evidence of the first movements that chose the "secular" label for their own denomination. To find undocumented cases, we should study each society of the past and the relationship with its religion: it is likely that as soon as it began to decline we would be facing a case of secularization.
Speaking of the European continent, we can say that in the 15th and 16th centuries we noticed a combination of the political and religious spheres within the framework of a monarchical society. This meant that the government authorities justified the rules they imposed on the people on religious bases; Curiously, in many cases these statements were not in accordance with the principles of the Church itself, or were even contradictory to them.
Taking as reference the statements of Arnold J. Toynbee , an English philosopher and historian born in London in 1889, it was only around the end of the 17th century that philosophers and thinkers lost interest in religion and focused on promoting technique and science , a process that was not at all arbitrary or unconscious, and that may have had its origin in the so-called wars of religion , which began in 1524 and lasted until 1697.
From that moment on, the secularization movement began to spread considerably, in part thanks to the creation of organizations such as the Royal Society of London for the Advancement of Natural Science , which was officially established in 1662. Some time later, various Influential groups, both from the nobility and the privileged classes , began the creation of reforms that sought to modify the bases of politics and the path to power.
The Protestant Reformation marked an acceleration of secularization in the Western world.
A process that advanced after the Protestant Reformation
Western societies developed a process of secularization after the Protestant Reformation. This development meant that the religious interpretation of reality and the theological foundations in the organization of the community remained in the background.
As part of secularization, societies became more rational and complex . The power of religious leaders to order how to live was limited and people, at a general level, began to make decisions about the public sphere through democratically elected representatives.