The thesis that religion has become public is a frequently discussed issue in the social sciences. Even how the return of religion and religious institutions from the private sphere reserved for them to the public sphere opens up new areas of discussion. José Casanova discusses the relationship between modernity and religion and the possible roles that religions can play in the public sphere of modern societies, both theoretically and empirically, in his work “Public Religions in the Modern World”. In this study, Casanova put forward the thesis privatization of religion in the modern world, and based his thesis on four developments and similar symbolic movements in the 1980s. He argued that, contrary to the secularization theories, which argued that there was an absolute opposition and conflict between religious and secular views, legitimate forms of religion could emerge that could assume political roles in the public sphere. In his study, Casanova stated that religions that resisted modernity for a long time gradually became political rivals of modernity and entered the public sphere with religious-based movements. As a result, he pointed to the question of what would be the limits of the transition from private to public sphere without posing a threat to the modern, democratic and libertarian sides of religion. In this study, Casanova’s analyzes on secularization, private and public religions are examined. It was discussed whether Casanova’s thesis of public religion is valid or not today, and the processes of similar symbolic movements and four developments that took place in the 1980s on which he based his thesis. This study aimed to contribute to the debate on religion in the public sphere based on Casanova’s views.

José Casanova, Secularization, Modernization, Public Sphere, Private and Public Religions.