Abstract

The author outlines the outcome of the paradigm of secularisation. The importance of this category of historical comprehension lies in the close connection which the majority of scholars establishes between modernity and secularisation. This connection unfolds in two forms: the first, more extended, establishes a continuity between past and present and awards secularisation the function of having transformed the sacred society of the past into the secular society of the present ; the second, more interesting and deeper vision, sets secularisation at the origin of modernity as a brake and interruption of the tradition. The author tries to overcome the oppositional structure of paradigm of secularisation which underlies both forms and suggests that the true characteristic of modernity lies in the new and inclusive role of the political sphere. Rationality, inclusivity and immanence, which are typical characteristics of secularisation, can be traced back to this sphere. It so becomes possible to justify novelty and secularism of modernity in a way which avoids the dualistic scheme of secularisation. Secularisation sets the form of modernity in a somehow transcendental way, but it doesn’t determine its contents.