Religion, Post Secularism and Social Integration

Religion is a fertile context of meaning, regardless of whether it is monotheistic or non-monotheistic, it is one of the most fruitful, meaningful and influential systems that human beings have been experiencing and have never been able to ignore it completely. The present article seeks to theoretically examine the impact of religion (as a collective meaning system) on social integration and socio-political practices in the classic theories of sociology of religion (especially that of Weber, Durkheim and Simmel) and new readings of it. According to modern sociologists of religion such as Turner, Berger, and Lukman, the present epoch, is more a period of experiencing post-secular approaches or a return of the sacred to individual and social life than of secular ones. The main claim of these new theories (neo-Durkheimian approaches) is to consider religion as a key element of social integration and to emphasis on the immortality of religious meaning in the modern and postmodern world. What has now emerged as practical theology is a kind of practice-based religiosity and social and political activism that connects the individual as a citizen to a collective and sanctified meaning system.