Religion, secularization and social tensions

In the study of the process of secularization, functional differentiation, which is a distinctive and even defining feature of modern societies, is particularly important. In this sense, different sectors of society (e.g. politics, economy, education) are becoming increasingly autonomous and no longer require religious legitimacy. According to Niklas Luhmann, who approaches sociology from the perspective of systems theory, social systems such as law, politics, and economics operate according to an autonomous logical mechanism. Two years after Luhmann’s death in 1998, André Kieserling published his systems theory interpretation of the sociology of religion, which was itself a theoretical milestone. Religion, Kieserling suggests, is a functional subsystem of modern society, which, like all other subsystems, is shaped by autopoietic and meaning-rich communication. Religion purports to explain, without contradiction, the relationship between the transcendent and the immanent in everyday life. Faith becomes a personal end product the power of which rests in its uniqueness and intimacy. In modern society, religion has become a social subsystem, now so complex that a separate science, theology, has been built around it. The systems theory of religion addresses important issues ranging from meaning and development to secularization, and it turns decades of sociological assumptions on their head. It offers a new vocabulary and a fresh philosophical and sociological approach to one of society’s most fundamental phenomena.