"Non-religion" and "liminal religiosity": Research Proposals for the Study of Institutional Religious Disaffection in Latin America

Abstract

The following article aims to present two analytical tools for understanding the process of disaffection from religious institutions in the context of Latin American modernity: the concept of "non-religion" and a strategy focused on the liminality of the religious (‘liminal religiosity’). The main argument holds that religious disaffection, understood through the growth of the unaffiliated population and other associated phenomena, implies the existence of a heterogeneous space rather than a residual and negative category. To achieve this, and through a methodology of literature review, a critical examination is made of the main theoretical nuclei of the social sciences regarding the religious phenomenon, identifying some underlying patterns such as a normative conception of secularization and the predominance of a Western modern narrative that would hinder problematizing new trends in regional religious change. It is concluded that these proposals can be valuable tools to the extent that they are complemented by less restrictive models based on more versatile theoretical-methodological devices and an understanding of religious minimalism situated within the singularity of Latin American modernity.