World Diffused Religions

Having theorized that “new modern topics” like individual autonomy, the ethos of mobility, self-expression, self-achievement, sexuality, familism and the private sphere were destined to replace historically institutionalized religions (Luckmann 1963), giving rise to a kind of “invisible religion” (defined as such by the publisher, not by the author, but only for commercial reasons), Luckmann has addressed the issue once more. He has acknowledged the fact that religion has not disappeared from the modern world and that various minor, intermediate and major degrees of transcendent experiences, seen as existential components, are to be found and that they cause differentiation at social-structural level and an institutional specialization of religion. This tends towards privatization, thus becoming a matter for single social actors who pass from major extra-terrain transcendence to one of an intermediate socio-political kind and, finally, to minimal individual realization, subjective autonomy and personal expression (Luckmann 2014: 40-44). Along this pathway one finds an increasingly marked gap between religious institutions and individual actors. Empirical investigations, however,  even the most recent (Campiche 2010; Abbruzzese 2014), seem to reveal a tendency for traditional religious institutions to remain firm and maintain a certain link with individuals despite formal estrangement and radical criticism. Rather than  as a breach or a separation, it appears more opportune to interpret the dynamics at work at present from the point of view of a substantial continuum.