Building Religions 26: Secularization

To recap my last post: according to Peter Berger, the functions of religion are to legitimize social institutions, provide continuity, and create meaning by connecting the human nomos with the sacred cosmos. It's not a stretch, then, to argue that these functions work best in communities in which the religion in question operates as a monopoly. But what happens when that's not the case, and how could such a situation occur? The second half of The Sacred Canopy addresses these questions. By considering Berger's theories on secularization, you can not only add depth to secularized cultures that you create, but also develop some interesting ideas for more traditional fantasy worlds.

As with most terms in religious studies, secularization has been defined differently by different scholars, but since I'm dealing with Berger here, I'll provide his:

By secularization we mean the process by which sectors of society and culture are removed from the domination of religious institutions and symbols. When we speak of society and institutions in modern Western history, of course, secularization manifests itself in the evacuation by the Christian churches of areas previously under their control or influence—as in the separation of church and state, or in the expropriation of church lands, or in the emancipation of education from ecclesiastical authority. When we speak of culture and symbols, however, we imply that secularization is more than a social-structural process. It affects the totality of cultural life and of ideation, and may be observed in the decline of religious contents in the arts, in philosophy, in literature, and most important of all, in the rise of science as an autonomous, thoroughly secular perspective on the world. Moreover, it is implied here that the process of secularization has a subjective side as well. As there is a secularization of society and culture, so there is a secularization of consciousness. Put simply, this means that the modern West has produced an increasing number of individuals who look upon the world and their own lives without the benefit of religious interpretations.

By this definition, secularization involves three changes: in the power of religious institutions; in the influence of religion on cultural symbols; and in the internalized narrative by which individuals make sense of their lives. In each case, non-religious structures (institutions, arts, narratives) rise to claim some of the cultural territory that religion once dominated.

The practical effect of secularization is twofold. First, it grants more authority to non-religious entities, allowing them to act as meaning-making systems for individuals and society in general. Scientific rationalism, for example, or capitalist ideologies can move in to fill the vacant spaces and offer their own justifications for the state of the world. Second, secularization forces religions themselves to adapt: without a monopoly on defining the world, they are brought into a marketplace of competing ideas in which they must sell themselves to prospective consumers. As social institutions, Berger argues, these religions will more and more begin to resemble the secular ones that have sprung up around them.

Combined, these effects transform the life of the individual believer. No longer completely immersed in a single worldview, she is free to pick whichever religion appeals to her most or which offers her the greatest benefit. She can switch her beliefs whenever she chooses, but even if she doesn't, she is always aware that alternatives exist; it is up to her how to integrate those sub-worlds into her own.

As for the origins of secularization, Berger admits that there is no single historical cause, but he proposes that at least one source in our world was actually Christianity itself. By creating a special sacred sphere of life, the Church, Christianity opened the way for there to be a purely secular sphere. In Catholic Christianity before the modern era, secular influence could be held at bay through emphasis on ritual, mysticism, the intercession of saints, and heavens populated with choirs of angels. These things filled the world, giving the impression that everything that existed was part of an elaborate hierarchy that stretched from humanity to God.

It was only with the Protestant Reformation and its rejection of so many elements of Catholic Christianity that the march toward secularization began in full. To quote Berger, "A sky empty of angels becomes open to the intervention of the astronomer and, eventually, of the astronaut." Without the world-encompassing embrace of the Catholic worldview, Christians' connection to God depended on their individual relationship; when that connection was threatened, it could easily fall apart.

Before I started writing this post, I was already starting to think that most of the major settings of Dungeons & Dragons are secular ones. Even though there are priests wielding verifiable miracles and divine agents who can make their presence known in no uncertain terms, religion in these worlds has been secularized. No single religion can dominate a culture in which the clergy of all gods have access to more or less the same power. Likewise, no one has any especially persuasive nomos when the structure of the cosmos (Ethereal, Astral, Inner, and Outer planes) is the same across religions. There's no reason for characters not to shop for the most advantageous religion (just as their players do) in such a situation.

Could it be done differently? Perhaps. If you removed or greatly limited access to the planes and played in a setting in which one religion had a monopoly on belief, and if its influence was felt in all levels of society, you might succeed. That religion could still be polytheistic, but it would have to represent a single culture of the gods. The kind of religious pluralism that arises from multicultural games is just as dangerous to religious worldviews as the exclusion of some parts of life from the realm of the sacred.

On the other hand, you could just embrace it, and imagine what such a world would look like as the influence of religion gradually declines. What would replace it? What sort of secular institutions and political structures might arise, and how would existing religions adapt to them? What professions would take over the roles previously held by different clergies? You don't just need to focus on technological change to advance a fantasy world through history. The social changes can be equally important, or even moreso.