La transmission religieuse en modernité: éléments pour la construction d'un objet de recherche

Abstract

Religion, as a specific mode of believing, is characterized by a permanent reference to the continuity of a tradition that forms a “line of believers”. It does not mean that religion does not change: it means that religious change itself is religiously interpreted within a constant call for continuity, which induces a conception of religious socialization as a linear process. Modern societies, however, are dominated by the imperative of change and mobility. In this context, social identities are less and less inherited from one generation to another: they are built out from the diversity of the social and personal experiences in which individuals are involved. After exploring this contradiction, the author proposes a theoretical framework with view to identifying the different ways of restructuring religious identification, beginning by reconfiguring and combining the various dimensions—communitarian, cultural, ethical, emotional—of the “line of believers”.