The eminent British sociologist of religion, Grace Davie, Professor Emerita at the University of Exeter, delivered a lecture titled ”Religion in Modern Europe: A Continually Changing Context” at the University of Montenegro on 16th September.

In her presentation, Davie provided an overview of secularisation trends in Western European countries, with a particular emphasis on the phenomenon of individualisation of religious life and the weakening of affiliation with religious communities (“believing without belonging”). She also addressed the shift in the social and customary (“vicarious”) function that religious institutions perform in increasingly secular societies.

Reflecting on the methodological challenges faced by the sociology of religion as an academic discipline, Davie highlighted that all theoretical frameworks for understanding the concepts of secularism, secularity, and secularisation are necessarily anchored in specific cultural-historical contexts, which limits their applicability beyond those contexts. In her view, it is therefore crucial for the Montenegrin academic community to develop its own theoretical models of secularism, ones that are appropriate to Montenegro’s unique historical experience.

Grace Davie’s lecture was open to the public and was organised as part of the research project ”Beyond the Anticlerical Paradigm: Rethinking Secularism in Contemporary Montenegro”, conducted by the Institute for Advanced Studies and supported by a grant from the University of Oxford.