Vol. 23 No. 2 (2023): The non-religious

Following the development of religious studies, particularly on the complex theory of secularization advocated by the classics of Sociology, it has become possible to bring to light new research topics on the religious phenomenon. Beginning in the 1970s, in addition to the privatization of religious practice, studies on non-religious experiences, such as ‘atheism’ and even on the category of ‘nones’, have emerged. This particular approach is probably one of the major challenges for social scientists today in their constant quest to explain the role of (non-)religion in modern societies. This special issue seeks to bring together papers resulting from theoretical and empirical research that attempt to understand the historical, sociological, anthropological, or political evolution of ‘nones’, focusing on Brazil and Portugal. It aims to discuss the cultural contingency of the very concept of non-religion, to observe how different socio-cultural and religious vicissitudes affect the representation of non-religion, and to identify the places where ‘nones’ fit into, institutionally or non-institutionally.