The secular and religious spheres in Portuguese society

Abstract

This article seeks to redesign the borders and the overlaps between the secular and religious spheres of Portuguese society. In methodological terms, I propose an historical-sociological approach, comparing especially the reconfigurations of Portuguese Catholicism under different socio-cultural conditions during the 19th and 20th centuries. On the basis of this analysis, I revisit the dual perspective of being either religious or secular, and try to recognize the simultaneous existence and the link between the religious and secular spheres in a modern European society.