Modernisation, Modernity, Liberalism and Religion

This chapter discusses liberalism, liberal modernity and modernisation theory. The chapter discusses the concepts of secularisation and modernisation. The chapter discusses Weber and his theory of Protestant ethic. The chapter also discusses Weber’s concepts of rationalisation, secularisation and growth of instrumental reason. The chapter discusses the concept of liberal modernity tracing its origins to European Enlightenment. The chapter also discusses the different aspects of Enlightenment such as emphasis on reason, developments and inventions in the natural sciences leading to material betterment of a majority of people and the development of the science of political economy owing to Scottish Enlightenment. The chapter argues that the application of these took the form of modernisation theory in the developing world. Following from that the chapter elaborates modernisation theory and its critics. The chapter elaborates on how modernisation theory hoped for the eventual disappearance of religion from public sphere and how that did not happen. The chapter also refers to some Indian debates on the same.