ABSTRACT

Religion explodes, multiplies, and must comply with the law of competition. The religious institutions become, on occasion, market agents, while religious traditions turn into consumption goods. Examination of recent developments in the various European countries as regards religious issues and churches prompts a number of considerations. Religious experience finds one of its moments of maximum expression in worship, especially in the form of ritual celebrations. Among young people in general, religious beliefs are still strong, but it should also be noted that their convictions extend beyond the boundaries of Christianity and encompass eastern religions, spiritualism and other practices that fall under the heading of ‘supranatural’. In explaining the decline of religion, it is pointless to draw a dualistic opposition between religion and reason, demonizing the latter and confining the former to an exclusive domain. The general evolution of religiosity is the consequence of a change in religious sensibility due mainly to cultural change in people’s universes of meaning.