Religious Sensmaking and Social Exclusion in the Western World
Religious Sensmaking and Social Exclusion in the Western World

Summary/Abstract: This paper contains an analysis of the possible forms and functions of religious sensemaking in modern society. Based on the thesis of desecularisation the author discusses the changes caused in the relationship between individual and religion by the altering system of social relationships, along with a more detailed analysis of the relationship between social exclusion and religious sensemaking. The author argues that owing to the complex nature of modernity people's uncertainty absorption mechanisms prefer distinction schemes that apply clear sensemaking distinctions which remain stable over a longer period of time. The author finds that the key role of religious communication lies in that it can more effectively shape the identities of people than other social mechanisms, in the sense that it can offer an experience of certainty. The author discusses the situation of social exclusion as a particular area of religious sensemaking when the person's fundamentally positive self-evaluation that has developed in the existing sensemaking situation reflecting on the individual himself can no longer be or can hardly be maintained any longer.

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