The Internal Secularisation of Religion

This paper analyses the issue of the internal secularisation of religion, which can occur on many different levels (privatization of religious life, change in the universe of meaning, the adaptation of religion to contemporary culture, lacking sensitivity to the "sacrum", the primacy of politics over religion). Three currently important manifestations of the internal secularisation of religion have been analysed. The first manifestation is the secularisation of the consciousness of believers, the second is the excessive institutionalisation and bureaucratisation of religion and the third is the domination of secular (auxiliary) functions over typically religious (essential) functions.