On secularization

This article by Olivier Clément offers a theological and historical analysis of the phenomenon of secularization in contemporary Western culture. Belonging to the genre of cultural theology essay, it examines the origins of the secularization process — notably the paradoxical role of the Judeo-Christian tradition in the "disenchantment of the world" — as well as its ambivalent effects: cultural emancipation and growing nihilism. Clément then studies the "new religiosity" (New Age, Eastern syncretisms) as a reaction to the modern spiritual void. The central theological contribution lies in the proposal of a renewed Christianity, grounded in the theology of divine humanity and the Greek patristic tradition, capable of integrating contemporary aspirations toward transcendence while maintaining the primacy of the person, of communion, and of resurrection against the impersonal dissolutions of archaic sacredness or diffuse spiritualism.