RELIGIOUS PROCESSES IN WESTERN EUROPE AT THE END OF THE XXth – THE BEGINNING OF THE XXIst CENTURIES

Abstract

The purpose of the article is a conceptual identification of religiosity tendencies in Western Europe at the end of the XXth – the beginning of the XXIst centuries. The methodological bases of the study were socio-philosophical analysis of the religiosity phenomenon, as well as historical systemic and analytical synthetic methods. The Scientific Novelty. In Western Europe new religious processes go beyond the classical contours of modernity. The dynamics of change in the field of religion takes place under conditions of uncertainty, nonlinearity, ephemerality of social processes, as well as the continuing aggravation of relations between secular culture and religion. It is necessary to be critically aware of the fact that the institutional and socio-cultural return of religion (post-secularity) causes vulgarization, the creation of various distorted forms of religiosity. Our point of view is that the decline of a traditional religiosity continues in Western Europe, which is not a localized tendency and a civilizational integration project, a transnational paradigm are being actively promoted. The Conclusions. Western societies remain a relatively secular part of the global world and differ in the level of a religious diversity and the dynamics of a religious change among their population. From the point of view of the confessional identification, Western European countries can be attributed to one Christian culture (unfortunately, practically lost). According to the criterion of religiosity level, “high religion” is characteristic of countries with the maximum number of Orthodox and Catholics. In Western Europe, there is a situation where religion is often engaged with “vicariously”. In Western Europe, an important tendency in religiosity is the subjectivation of faith and practice, which complicates the preservation and transmission of religious traditions. As a result, religiosity is of a situational character.

Key words: faith, Western Europe, post-secularity, religion, religiosity, religious tradition, secularization.