Secularization from the Perspective of Globalization: A Response to Dobbelaere

The perspective ofglobalization often treats global social reality sa single global society. The question of secularization must therefore be addressed primarily to that society and not in the first instance to a re~onal or cultural subunit of it. Following Dobbelaere's three.dimensional model of secularization, it is argued that world society is for the most part secularized in the dimension of "laicization, " but not in those of "reli,~ous change " or "reli~ous involvement. " The three dimensions vary independently justas the corresponding Luhmannian types of social system, interaction, organization, and societal system do. The approach permits the analysis of re~onal differences without hereby having to putforward one or another of these as normative for the society asa whole. In this light, four forros of reli~on are analyzed for their likely dominance in global society, namely the collective cultural, the organized, the politicized, and the individualistic. The conclusion is that global society offers the most favorable conditions for the last three, but that overaU the future of reli~on in this society is fundamentally unpredictable for social theory. The term globalization, much like that of secularization, is subject to a variety of meanings which, while perhaps not contradictory, also do not necessarily imply each other. Without clarity at the beginning as to what w