Democratizing Secularization : Religion and Power in the Contemporary Public Space

Advancing a democratization of secularization theory from a distinctly Latin American standpoint, this book challenges the theory’s modern-centric and colonial underpinnings.

Contemporary socio-political debates increasingly revisit the concept of secularization, yet not uniformly across disciplines or public arenas. The shifting visibility and agency of religion in modern contexts challenge the classical secularization thesis, whose early-twentieth-century formulations predicted a steady decline or confinement of religion within modernity. Contrary to these expectations, religious expressions have not only persisted but diversified, expanding their modes of influence within public and political spaces.

The theory of the encryption of power offers a critical framework for interpreting these dynamics by complicating traditional definitions of both power and the religious. Religion functions not merely as a legitimizing resource for dominant political narratives but also as a generator of differentiation, tension, and counter-hegemonic practices. It can simultaneously uphold, contest, and reconfigure colonial and decolonial projects, aligning this approach with post- and de-colonial critiques that view secularization itself as entangled with the coloniality of power, knowledge, and being.

This book brings together theoretical essays and case studies centered on Latin America, offering diverse contributions to the understanding of these contemporary dynamics. Edited by Nicolás Panotto, the collection interrogates the ways in which secularization has historically operated as a mechanism of colonial othering, shaping and marginalizing religious, racial, political, and cultural minorities.