Objective:

This article argues that the classical theory on the differentiation of the religious sphere and the following secularization of modernity has provoked erroneous interpretations and generalizations, since, in the complexity of the socio-historical processes, there are no clearly identifiable boundaries that would allow to analytically separate the political from the religious.

Method:

The critique presented here is based on a segmented analysis of secularization theory and on a revision of the concept of “religion” as an analytical category frequently used in the social sciences.

Results:

It is argued that, if religion is conceived as a separate sphere (differentiation) that has lost its power and tends to disappear (secularization), this is not only highly questionable from an empirical point of view, but is absolutely dependent on what is understood by the concept of “religion”, a precision that is not usually made in the social sciences.

Conclusions:

It is concluded that the spheres differ only in their institutional dimension, and that the contributions of Émile Durkheim are of great value in identifying the sacred in modern politics, thus demonstrating that the religious is present even in secular institutions. This is demonstrated through the case of the sacralization of the individual in contemporary liberal democracies.

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