Dino Abazovi M.A.

(Bosnia and Herzegovina) SECULARISM AND SECULARIZATION IN THE PRESENT PUBLIC DISCOURSE FROM A NON-RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVE In the introduction to the collection of works entitled The Desecularization of the World, which appeared in the Ethnic and Public Policy Center, Washington D.C., the editor of the publication very effectively highlights what is actually happening at this current stage of our global development. According to him, the world today is as furiously religious as it has always been...and in some places even more so than ever.1 One of the reasons behind this lies in the fact that modernity, for entirely understandable reasons, undermines all the ancient certainties; uncertainty is a condition that many people find very hard to bear; therefore, any religious movementthat promises to provide or to renew certainty has a ready market.2 Perhaps it may seem then a little predictable, but I cannot think of a more efficient means of starting a deliberation on the theme of secularization from a sociological perspective or, to be more precise, from the perspective of the sociology of religion, than with Peter Berger, whose words I have just quoted. Moreover, this is also because of the less well known fact that Berger, after having dedicated most of his scientific work to the development of theories on secularization, in fact not long ago deviated publicly from the majority of his previous opinions. Berger stated:
I think what I and most other sociologists of religion wrote in the 1960s about secularization was a mistake. Our underlying argument was that secularization and modernity go hand in hand. With more modernization comes more secularization. It wasn't a crazy theory. There was some evidence for it. But I think it's basically wrong. Most of the world today is certainly not secular. It's very religious.3

At that early stage of the scientific approach to the phenomenon, secularization implied in essence a decline in the social importance of religion, particularly in the areas of politics, education, and public life. These were the areas of life in modern society in which religious institutions, actions, and awareness were losing their social importance. Through this process of the separation of religion from the other areas of public life, it had been thought that, ultimately, the influence of religion on the everyday life of an individual would also, in turn, decrease significantly. As has been demonstrated, this was a fundamentally incorrect assumption.

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BERGER, 1999, p. 2. BERGER, 1992, p. 7. 3 BERGER, 1997, p. 974.

Unfortunately I do not have time, on this occasion, to go into a more indepth overview of the theories of an earlier secularization debate (P.L. Berger, D. Martin, B. Wilson), the works of post-secularists (R. Finke, R. Stark, W. Bainbridge, W. Hadden), neosecularists (S. Bruce, D. Yamane), or of those authors focused on the multidimensional nature of the secularization phenomenon (K. Dobbelaere, J. Casanova, M. Chaves, P. Beyer). Much like religion, secularization has turned out to be an extremely complex phenomenon. It is, therefore, unlikely that we will be able to arrive at an unequivocal answer to the questions posed. It would seem that, in this regard, Malcolm Hamilton is right in his belief that the key question of the secularization debate, or discussion, is in fact the defining of religion itself (Hamilton, 2003). This process would, however, take us too far from the point and would obscure the focus of this piece of work.. Before we proceed, it is, therefore, very important to acknowledge the perspective offered by Talal Asad. According to him:
the secular is neither continuous with the religion that preceded it (which means that it is not the last stage of something originally sacral), nor is it a simple break from the religious (therefore, it is not in opposition to the sacral, as some essence that excludes the sacral). Secular is a concept that connects certain behaviour, knowledge, and sensibilities in modern life.4

To his way of thinking, it is of the utmost importance to differentiate between the ideology of secularism and the process of secularization, in other words between the secular as an epistemological category and secularization as a political doctrine.5 For this reason I place emphasis on the following point. As a sociologist of religion, I wish
... to underline the centrality of institutional differentiation at the societal level. Data on religion, practice, and the dedication of individuals does not [necessarily] diminish the differentiation of religion from other institutions, such as economy, State, education, family.6

The most rewarding method of approaching the issue of secularization from a sociological point of view is through a multidimensional analysis; initially on the level of society, and the level of religious organizations and institutions, and then on the level of the individual. Ultimately we can then arrive at a hypothesis which is descriptive, yet in no way normative or prescriptive, nor attempting to foresee future patterns. Secularization, on the other hand, may and should be understood as representing a socio-political consequence of the specific religious history7of
ASAD, 2003, p. 25. ASAD, 2003, p. 1. 6 YAMANE, 1997, p. 117. 7 I would like to use this occasion to note, once again, that the very term was in fact coined within the religion to which it owes its origin. Namely, the Latin word
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the area in question, in particular here looking at the case of the postreformation history of the Christian West. Furthermore, we can observe that an increasing number of authors use the term pluralizing theory in their work, thereby attempting to explain in greater detail the status of religion in the modern world, and trying to avoid any confusion as regards the relationship between the modernization process and a decline in religious intensity or religious devotion. As Gianni Vattimo suggests, secularization not only protects the inalienable rights of individual awareness, it is also a way of life, incorporating the postmodern return of religion in a most democratic fashion. This is not, therefore, a question of secularization as a form of opposition to religion or anti-religiousness, but indeed secularization as a form of political dedication, which then develops into an aspect of real life in a multi-religious world. The same ideas are put forward by Chris Taylor, who claims that where there is insistence on citizenship as the basic principle of identity, this then means that conflicting perspectives are replaced by a unifying experience; that is, the differences between various identities based on class, sex, religion, etc. are transcended by this common citizenship. Secularization8 emerges, in this case, as being the mediator for such a process of transcendence. At this point I would like to make clear and emphasize the difference between the term lact and secularization.9 Lact is to be understood as the republican principle of imposing an obligation on individuals who come forward in a public arena to leave aside religious and other social issues. It, thus, involves the separation of religion from State, according to the principle of the separation of the public and the private, together with the protective separation of the public sector (in particular education, justice, security forces, health service). Secularization, on the other hand, is a democratic principle which, to a large extent, attempts to allow for freedom of action. The religious domain differs from other domains, but it is also permeated by them and, as a result of this, it becomes a private and subjective issue and may be expanded. The mutual imbuing of the various spheres of life is accepted by secularization. Jrgen Habermas warns us, however, that although the secular nature of the State is an important precondition, which seeks to guarantee equal religious freedom for all, it does not always work in a satisfactory way. Thus, we cannot rely entirely on the mere benevolence of the authorities, who have been known both to tolerate minorities and to discriminate against them.
saecularizatio existed in the church legal code Codex Juris Canonici and signified ones return to the world outside of the monastery community. In a canonic sense, the word saecularizatio indicated the difference between the religious clergy (who withdrew from society) and the secular clergy (who remained in society) (JAKELI, 2003, p. 62). 8 See more in ASAD, 2003. 9 When making a distinction between the two terms, I have referred mostly to Olivier Abel.

A comprehensive view of State neutrality that, at the same time, is understood to guarantee similar freedoms for every citizen, is irreconcilable with the reductive generalizing of a secularist viewpoint. Secularized citizens, insofar as they act in their role as such, should neither deny to religious standpoints the possibility of truth, nor contest the right of their believing fellow citizens to make contributions to public discourse in religious language. A liberal political culture can even expect from its secularized citizens that they will participate in efforts to translate relevant contributions from religious language into publicly accessible language.10

The examples of some Western European states bear vivid witness to the difference between a non-Church and a secular population (Grace Davie); we certainly could not place the sign equals between these two terms. And what is the situation in the case of those societies engaged in conflict, or in a post-conflict situation, in particular those of a multi-confessional character, ergo Bosnia and Herzegovina? It has been illustrated that the society and the situation that we are living in here are, in many ways, highly favorable towards the process of intensification of religiousness. In this respect, the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina provides us with a more than fitting example for the verification of such claims. During the past two decades it is evident that there has been a return to religion in Bosnia and Herzegovina, or at least the return of religion into public life; that is, its transfer from the invisible (private) sphere into the observable/public sphere. Religious renewal and the revitalization of religion can be seen here, above all, as the desecularization of public space and life, and all relevant indicators point towards the significant revitalization of the position and role of religion in Bosnian and Herzegovinian society (e.g. increased participation in religious activities, the increased emphasis on religious affiliation, the presence of religious communities in political and public life, as well as in the media, the role of religious communities in the legal system, in the education system, and so on).11 The relationship between religious communities and politics represents a special aspect, and this is also, to a large extent, the case in this region. Some authors from the region, such as Sran Vrcan, emphasize precisely this nexus as being the key social transition process. According to Vrcan (2001), here, in contrast to other Eastern and Central European countries, religion and the religious bear the hallmarks of a pronounced political fact in a highly expressive

HABERMAS, 2006, p. 32. However, in the same way as the retreat of institutional religions in some states in the so-called West is not synonymous with the retreat of religion, so the revitalization of religion in the public sphere cannot necessarily be seen as implying an increase in personal religiousness or the spiritualization of personal life. There has unfortunately been too little empirical research in Bosnia and Herzegovina to be able to contribute to a more precise presentation and understanding of the above-mentioned assertions and processes.
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way. At the same time, politics has itself been shaped as a religious fact of its own. To give you an illustration of this phenomenon, I would like to mention some of the most notable examples - Firstly, the use of traditional religious symbols in the iconography of political parties; in some cases it can even be seen on the official flags, crests, or other symbols of local political parties. Further, we can witness particular tendencies in this regard in the pre-election gatherings, promotions, and public presentations of the majority of actors in the political life of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As had been the case with all previous elections, the last pre-election race was not spared the (ab)use of religion and religious symbols. This started with the church bells ringing during television clips, and the explicit mention of the agreement with the Vatican in the presidential campaign of the Croat member, and went on to include the behavior of the main political party leaders, who acted as if each was competing to be the highest bidder in terms of the harmonization of their programs with the fundamental requirements of the Islamic community in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the pre-election gatherings of those parties which are known in everyday language as national (or nationalistic), religious symbolism is used by sympathizers and supporters almost as a rule, in order to confirm their well-foundedness (most often flags with religious symbols or signs, specific code of dress, the singing of religious songs, and the use of religious language). In addition, a quasi-religious language can be seen in the statements of party candidates, with repeated evocation of the significance and role of religious tradition, as well as the expression of religious self-identification (on the level of rhetoric, with phrases such as ...to me as a believer..., and on the level of gesticulation, such as christening, the ritual breaking of Saint Sava cake, or the praying of el-Fatiha). Indeed the same practice continues even after mandates have been won, and this practice is also present amongst public servants and members of the State civil service, a point which is particularly controversial. As far as religious institutions are concerned, it should be noted that those representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovinian religious communities who are active on the local level, that is, those in (and under) the lowest organizational units (Jamat (community), Roman Catholic parish, Serbian Orthodox parish) do not always act strictly in accordance with the (official) opinions of the highest level, and/or according to the public instructions of higher ranked religious authorities. This makes the open affiliation of the representatives of certain religious communities to specific political opinions and parties into a real phenomenon. Accordingly, this also means that religious ceremonies and buildings are sometimes used for the purpose of political agitation and the propagating of concrete political opinions (worth particular mention in this regard has been the behaviour of particular members of the Franciscan order in Herzegovina, of imams in Krajina, and of rectors in Eastern Herzegovina).

Through the examples quoted above, I have attempted to demonstrate one of the possible sociological approaches towards dealing with the problems (formally-legally) of secularly organized states. On a somewhat higher level of abstraction, and in particular considering those states which are of a transitional character and context, I maintain that Ammy Gutman was right (something I have written about more extensively in another piece of work12 in underlining the fact that, with or without respect for the principles of separation of religious communities from the State, groups founded on religious identity are indeed politically active, and that the legitimacy of their involvement remains an issue of significant controversy.13 Gutmann starts from the idea of a system of two-way protection. This means that, in a democratic environment, the protection of individual religious freedom is required, but in return for the protection of politics from the power of organized religion. Consequently, he maintains, this two-way protection implies two parts, which in fact make up a whole: goals are to ensure the enjoyment of religion for all individuals, as well as the separation of Church and State.14 Put simply, the principle here is that of renouncing the use of private truths for the purpose of political argumentation and reasoning. Bibliography:
ABAZOVI, DINO (2006): Za naciju i boga: Socioloko odreenje religijskog nacionalizma, Sarajevo: Magistrat and CIPS, 2006. ABEL, OLIVIER (2005): Vjerski konflikt utemeljiva Evrope, in: CLAMENS, GILLES (ed.): Savremena politika filozofija u evropi: francuski pogledi, Sarajevo: Forum Bosnae, 2005. ASAD, TALAL (2003): Formations of Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modenity, Stanford, California: Stanford University Press 2003. HABERMAS, JRGEN & RATZINGER, JOSEF (2006): Dijalektika sekularizacije, Beograd: Dosije Beograd, 2006. BERGER, PETER L. (1997): Epistemological modesty: An interview with Peter Berger, in: Christian Century 114: 972-75, 978. BERGER, PETER L. (ed.) (1999): The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics, Washington, D.C.: Ethics and public Policy Center, 1999. JAKELI, S. (2003): Sekularizacija: teorijski i povijesni aspekti, in: VUKOMANOVI, M. & M. VUELI (eds.) (2003): Religijski dijalog drama razumevanja, Beograd: BO, 2003. YAMANE, D. (1997): Secularization on Trial: In Defence of a Neosecularization Theory, in: Journal for Scientific Study of Religon. 36 (1) (1997). GUTMANN, AMMY (2003): Identity in Democracy, Prinveton / Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2003.
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ABAZOVI (2006). GUTMANN, 2003. 14 GUTMANN, 2003, pp. 152-3.

VRCAN, SRAN (2001): Vjera u vrtlozima tranzicije, Split: Dalmatinska akcija, 2001.