The Territorial Articulation of Secularization in Italy: Social Modernization, Religious Modernization / Territoire et sécularisation en Italie : modernisation sociale et modernisation religieuse - article ; n°1 ; vol.107, pg 77-108

Luca Diotallevi.

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Archives des sciences sociales des religions - Année 1999 - Volume 107 - Numéro 1 - Pages 77-108
Can traditional religious organizations successfully adapt themselves to modernization? Are the ecclesiastical organization of the Christian churches and modernization compatible? The answers to these questions may determine our understanding of modernity and secularization. In this respect, a look at the religious situation in Italy is particularly interesting. The author presents a comparison between the religious situation in the North (more developed) and the South (less developed) regions of the country and concludes that the present situation results more from a strategy of religious modernization than from a legacy of a previous premodern situation. While it is impossible to imagine modernization without secularization, it is nevertheless necessary to reject a direct and univocal relationship between secularization and the crisis of religion.
Les organisations religieuses traditionnelles peuvent-elles s'adapter avec succès à la modernisation sociale ? Y a-t-il compatibilité entre l'organisation ecclésiastique des Eglises chrétiennes et la modernisation ? La compréhension de la modernité et de la sécularisation dépendent en partie des réponses à ces questions. L'analyse de la situation religieuse en Italie à cet égard est intéressante. L'auteur propose d'offrir un schéma de comparaison entre la situation religieuse dans le nord (plus développé) et le sud (moins développé) du pays, et souligne que la situation actuelle apparaît bien plus comme l'effet d'une stratégie de modernisation religieuse que comme l'héritage d'une situation pré-moderne. S'il n'est pas possible d'imaginer une modernisation sans sécularisation, il est néanmoins nécessaire de refuser d'envisager une relation directe et univoque entre sécularisation et crise de la religion.
32 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

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• Publié par: Archives-des-sciences-sociales-des-religions
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1999
• Nombre de lectures: 15
• Langue: Français
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Luca Diotallevi
The Territorial Articulation of Secularization in Italy: Social
Modernization, Religious Modernization / Territoire et
sécularisation en Italie : modernisation sociale et modernisation
religieuse
In: Archives des sciences sociales des religions. N. 107, 1999. pp. 77-108.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Diotallevi Luca. The Territorial Articulation of Secularization in Italy: Social Modernization, Religious Modernization / Territoire et
sécularisation en Italie : modernisation sociale et modernisation religieuse. In: Archives des sciences sociales des religions. N.
107, 1999. pp. 77-108.
doi : 10.3406/assr.1999.1164
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/assr_0335-5985_1999_num_107_1_1164Resumen
¿ Pueden las organizaciones religiosas tradicionales adaptarse con éxito a la modernización social ? ¿
Son compatibles la organización eclesiastica de las Iglesias cristianas y la ? El
entendimiento de la modernidad y de la secularización se encuentra en parte en las respuestas a estas
preguntas. En este sentido, el análisis de la situación religiosa en Italia es interesante. El autor propone
un esquema comparativo entre la situación religiosa del norte del país (mas desarrollado) y del sur
(menos desarrollado), y muestra que la situación presente parece más como el resultado de una
estrategia de modernización religiosa que como una herencia de una situación premoderna. Si bien no
es posible imaginar una modernización sin secularización, sin embargo es necesario de no considerar
la relación entre secularización y crisis de la religión como directa y unívoca.
Abstract
Can traditional religious organizations successfully adapt themselves to modernization? Are the
ecclesiastical organization of the Christian churches and modernization compatible? The answers to
these questions may determine our understanding of modernity and secularization. In this respect, a
look at the religious situation in Italy is particularly interesting. The author presents a comparison
between the in the North (more developed) and the South (less developed) regions of
the country and concludes that the present situation results more from a strategy of religious
modernization than from a legacy of a previous premodern situation. While it is impossible to imagine without secularization, it is nevertheless necessary to reject a direct and univocal
relationship between secularization and the crisis of religion.
Résumé
Les organisations religieuses traditionnelles peuvent-elles s'adapter avec succès à la modernisation
sociale ? Y a-t-il compatibilité entre l'organisation ecclésiastique des Eglises chrétiennes et la
modernisation ? La compréhension de la modernité et de la sécularisation dépendent en partie des
réponses à ces questions. L'analyse de la situation religieuse en Italie à cet égard est intéressante.
L'auteur propose d'offrir un schéma de comparaison entre la situation religieuse dans le nord (plus
développé) et le sud (moins développé) du pays, et souligne que la actuelle apparaît bien plus
comme l'effet d'une stratégie de modernisation religieuse que comme l'héritage d'une situation pré-
moderne. S'il n'est pas possible d'imaginer une modernisation sans sécularisation, il est néanmoins
nécessaire de refuser d'envisager une relation directe et univoque entre sécularisation et crise de la
religion.Arch de Sc soc des Rel. 1999 107 juillet-septembre 77-108
Luca DIOTALLEVI
THE TERRITORIAL ARTICULATION
OF SECULARIZATION IN ITALY
SOCIAL MODERNIZATION RELIGIOUS
Introduction
The uncommon ability of Catholicism at least until the mid 1990s to endure as
dominant religion in Italy as pointed out by long series of studies 1) still remains
to be fully understood
In the present study we propose to link this ability to the partial success of the
project of modern Christianity conceived and developed between the pontificates
of Leon XIII and Pius XI asking ourselves if in the development of this project
kind of winning compromise between Catholicism and modernization has emerged
in Italian society We also have to ask whether the deep and prolonged influence of
certain kind of Italian Catholicism social par essence has resulted in kind of
defensive modernization 4) or protected modernization characteristic which
could explain the limits typical of the Italian process
From broader interdisciplinary perspective we could further evaluate whether
and to what extent this defensive Italian modernization has been an opportunity taken
or lost and by whom In the present study it is more important to affirm that the
relationship between Church and modernization cannot be analyzed through the sole
quantity of ritual practice attendance This relationship must also be analyzed in
We shall refer to series of frequently cited studies Amongst them the first national survey on
religiousness by the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore CESAREO et alii 1995 in 1994 and the second
national study twenty five years later by BURGALASSI 1970 See also Luca DIOTAVELLI Religione chiesi
moderniu.asione Roma Borla 1999
Probably more realistically modern than the Catholic modernism Fogazzaro Murri Bo-
naiuti)
SeePouLAT 1974 pp 12-13
MORO R. 1988 the conclusions in particular
77 ARCHIVES DE SCIENCES SOCIALES DES RELIGIONS
terms of how the extensive post World War reforms of the ecclesiastical organiza
tion from the new seminaries to the transformation of the Azione Cattolica into
contemporary mass-movement were successful attempt at managing structural and
strategic innovations which enabled the Catholic Church to reposition itself in
society undergoing modernization process The Catholic Church may not always
have been at the center of this process but it was almost never at the margins either
and this gave rise to an obvious form of internal secularization
To understand the relationship between Church and society it is crucial to widen
our perspective beyond the limits of individual religiousness Different social contexts
must be considered as well as the forms taken by ecclesiastical organization As Carlo
Prandi recently affirmed religious membership can be understood only if one analyzes
it in terms of the relative offer Prandi 1996 It is probably the right moment to turn
our attention to the call Kaufmann put out more than 20 years ago and to bring the
present sociology of religion back as its classics did to the task of studying the
larger religious organizations as well 6)
The fact that in the Northern Southern and Central areas of Italy different models
of Church or to be more precise various doses of various types of ecclesiastical
organization and various types of Church oriented religiousness can be found is by
now sufficiently obvious And the different quantities that we can measure become
significant only where the possibility for religion to be able or unable to cope with the
social context is taken into account Secularization in the North in the Center and
in the South of Italy is at least of three different kinds Cartocci 1994 173) owing
to the form and the dynamics of the social context and to this religious
component There are probably areas of the country especially in the North
where high levels of secularization are matched by more than average performances
of the ecclesiastical organization and by higher than average levels of diffusion of
Church oriented religiousness 10)
bid
En dépit des travaux de Troeltsch et de Weber le développement de la sociologie religieuse
pas traité de fa on substantielle les aspects organisateurs des phénomènes religieux La recherche empirique
est concentrée sur étude des phénomènes religieux observables chez les individus attitudes comporte
ments ou les groupes élémentaires paroisses cercles religieux communautés religieuses) mais elle
négligé les organisations religieuses envergure plus large tels les ordres les diocèses les glises
réformées voire la curie romaine KAUFMANN 1974a 101)
In this regard several issues become relevant the adaptability of religiousness and Christianity to
modernization and functional differentiation the emergence of limits embedded within the process of
functional differentiation LUHMANN 1977 54 Limits for which according to Luhmann theory is
necessarily lacking SIMMEL in his essay on social differentiation 1982) considers these limits as both valid
and fortunate in regard to the symmetrical process of individuation
Southern Catholicism appears to be more strongly characterized by ritualistic and conformistic
aspects CARTOCCI 1990 188 see also CARTOCCI 1983)
From the late 70s to the late 80s Cartocci found transformation in the relationship of positive
correlation between religious identification and participation in the country as whole and in its various
areas
10 Cartocci prefers not to evaluate this hypothesis If repeated after about twenty five years the
historic survey on the hidden Christianities would show very different territo