Abstract
Much has been written about secularization, but there have been few profound researches on its internal layers and on the most solid and systematic alternatives that followed. In our view, this has had two consequences: constraints of interpretative understanding and of analyticaltheoretical deepening that must and can be overcome. To achieve this goal, we have chosen a research design that encompasses the strategy of thick description as well as the comparative method and we divided the paper in two basic parts. First, we analyse the main substrates of secularization, namely functional differentiation, rationalization, societalization, existential security and diversity, egalitarianism and individualism. Secondly, we introduce the main and most challenging alternative to secularization theories, according to the state of the art – the religious economy -, examining it in the light of secularization’s central assumptions. At the end of the paper, for a more systematic exam, we provide a table analysis comparing the main axioms of both theories.
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