facts and the processes that led to them. Which are the motive forces of secularization? Does religiousness in a society weaken or strengthen? Does religion have an impact on the political life of a given society or not? How should we Christians respond to these developments? Such questions represent a challenge for us. We constantly have to seek answers, to discuss, to engage in dialogue, even if our opinions may differ. While contemplating the changes and ambiguities of contemporary religion, a comparison with money can come to our mind. As money has changed its form from coins to the “invisible” money behind credit cards, likewise religion changes to the more “invisible” form of private religion, as described by sociologists. And just like the value of money continuously provokes abuse (counterfeit banknotes, false cheques, laundering of dirty money), the value of religion also tends to be abused (indignity and instigation to hatred in the name of religion, religious wars). Money and religion endure, although they undergo transformations. What is behind all these changes? 2 Institutionalization of faith Religion has a social dimension as well. It is not only the private affair of an individual. Religious people have always formed communities, worshipped together, established various social structures with different roles within them. In religious communions similar sociological regularities recur as in other human groupings. One of them is the process of institutionalization. Ideas, works or movements, which are not institutionalized fade away and vanish with their bearers. But when they survive, they give rise to institutions; and the field of religion is not an exception to the rule. An interesting interpretation of institutionalization is described by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann in their book Social Construction of Reality (Berger and Luckmann 1966, 52−54): “Social order is not part of the ‘nature of things’, and it cannot be derived from the ‘laws of nature’. Social order exists only as a product of human activity. All human activity is subject to habitualization. Institutionalization occurs whenever there is a reciprocal typification of habitualized actions by types of actors. Put differently, any such typification is an institution. Institutions always have a history, of which they are the products.” Religions have their roots in the deep experiences of the Holy – mysterium tremendum et fascinans (Otto 1950) – which have visited some individuals: experiences of something noble that transcended them. 3 Consequences of social control “Institutions, by the very fact of their existence, control human conduct by setting up patterns of conduct, which channel it in one direction as against the many other directions that would theoretically be possible.” (Berger and Luckmann 1966, 55) 114 (2) Adrián Slavkovský
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzgxMzI=