The Relationship between Religion and Modernity: Fundamental Indicators and Civilizational Orientation

Document Type : The Quarterly Jornal

Authors

1 PhD Student, Department of Islamic Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran(Corresponding Author).

2 Associate Professor, Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

The question of the relationship between religion and modernity has existed as long as the history of modernity itself. Thinkers have so far provided various answers to this question. This study claims that distinguishing between two perspectives—the fundamental indicators and the civilizational orientation—leads to different answers. Using a descriptive-analytical method, this article examines these two perspectives through relevant sources. Many early modern thinkers believed in the elimination of religion in the course of modernity and the future of human societies. From a descriptive perspective, they predicted that the civilizational orientation of modern humanity would involve a continuous distancing from religion until its eventual disappearance from human life. From a normative perspective, they emphasized the necessity of replacing the authority of religion with autonomous reason and empirical knowledge.
With the advent of the postmodern or late-modern era, although rationalism and scientism of the previous period were criticized, the authority of human desires and the liberation of man from all perceived constraints were prescribed as suitable and necessary alternatives to all previous authorities. Thus, from the perspective of fundamental indicators, modernity has always stood in clear opposition to religion and has led to the strengthening of secularism. However, from the perspective of civilizational orientation, developments have not proceeded as the early predictions suggested. The secularization expected as a result of modernity was supposed to encompass all dimensions of human life—including institutional structures, individual life, and even consciousness. Nevertheless, since the mid-twentieth century, we have witnessed the rise of religious movements that, depending on their scope, have influenced human life at various levels—from consciousness to institutional and sociopolitical domains. The emergence of anti-secular movements and, most prominently, the religious uprising of the Iranian people that led to the Islamic Revolution, are clear examples of the divergence between the actual civilizational trajectory of modernity and the predictions of influential modern thinkers. Examining the factors contributing to this shift necessitates the development of new theories capable of providing anthropological and sociological explanations of religion’s place in human life.

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References

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Islam and Social Studies
Volume 13, Issue 50 - Serial Number 50
ExecutiveExpert
October 2025
Pages 7-32

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History

  • Receive Date: 09 December 2024
  • Revise Date: 18 May 2025
  • Accept Date: 20 October 2025

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