Diffused Religion Theory

Modern diffused religion is not very different from that of the past. Indeed it is precisely its persistence that gives it its peculiar characteristic which Claude Lévi-Strauss would have understood as a hard core not easily touched by time but subject, nevertheless, to variations that may not be easily perceived. If anything has changed, it has done so at a secondary level that regards details rather than substance. Diffused religion is the result of a vast process of religious socialization that continues to pervade cultural reality and not only that. The pervasive character of religion arises from the religion itself and is heavily imbued with religious connotations.

Religion of diffused values embraces central categories of religious behavior. In particular the area that can be ascribed to the religion of values runs from the category defined as religious (church) critical to that described as religious (distancing self from church) critical, and thus includes both a part of church religion and the whole gamut of diffused religion, along with all forms of critical religion. Thus the framework of non-institutional religion appears much broader, being based on shared values which are represented by choices in terms of guiding principles of life. It is reasonable to maintain that we are faced not only with a religion based on values largely shared, since they have been diffused chiefly through primary and, later, secondary socialization, but these very values can be seen in themselves as a kind of religion. This religion has lay, profane, secular threads.