Systems theory and religion

Abstract

The article deals with the systems theory to religion, in particular the
Luhmann’s approach. This point of view enables to evade at least two dilemmas.
The first concerns the topic of secularization, or the decline versus the revival of the sacred. The second one concerns the question of whether religion is a finite province of meanings or a superstructure that depends on something else — be it the economy or the genetic code, the neurological structure of our minds, or disorders of our psyche. Considering a religion as a system in relationships with various, multiple and changing social environments, religion suffers a relative loss of social weight, or a declining consent, during certain evolutionary periods of its relationships with the environment, while at other times it revives. Decline and revival actually mean the recurrent cycles of socio-religious inflation and deflation. It describes the belief system’s capacity to distinguish itself in order to stand the test of a changing environment, persisting and maintaining its internal coherence (self-reflexivity).