social
compass
co
50(3), 2003, 311ą320
Roberto CIPRIANI
Invisible Religion or Di�used Religion
in Italy?
The publication of The Invisible Religion by Thomas Luckmann inspired con-
Żicting judgements. It was hard to accept the idea of religion in terms of modern
approaches, thus overturning a series of de�ning schemas of religion. It has
really not been subjected to a screening by speci�c �eld research. When this
has occurred in a partial sense, there has been evidence of a certain gap between
the abstractness of the theory and the concreteness of empirical data. Actually
historically organized and consolidated religions are still active and dominant.
Luckmann's thesis is very useful at the methodological level provided we do
not force the terms of his concluding argument so as to make it universally
and aprioristically valid. Probably at the root of the resistance of visible, or
more exactly, di�used, religion is the fact that in Italy there is a situation
di�erent from that where religion is not generally and successfully transmitted
through the basic socialization procedures.
La publication du livre The Invisible Religion, de Thomas Luckmann, a donne�
lieu a� des appre�ciations contradictoires. Il e�tait di�cile d'accepter que la reli-
gion soit ramene�e a� une se�rie d'approches modernes, remettant ainsi en cause
les sche�mas traditionnels caracte�risant la religion. Au de�part, cette the�se n'e�tait
pas soutenue par des e�tudes concre�tes sur le terrain. Lorsque ce lien avec la
re�alite� a e�te� partiellement e�tabli, il s'est ave�re� qu'il subsistait un fosse� entre le
co�te� abstrait de la the�orie et le caracte�re concret des donne�es empiriques. En
fait, on s'apercoit que les religions organise�es qui se sont consolide�es au cours
�
de l'histoire sont toujours actives et pre�dominantes. La the�se de Luckmann
est tre�s utile du point de vue me�thodologique, a� condition que l'on ne force pas
les termes de son argumentation au point de la rendre a priori et universellement
applicable. En Italie, la re�sistance de la religion ``visible'', ou, plus justement,
``di�use'', s'explique sans doute du fait que la situation y est di�e�rente par
rapport a� des pays ou� la religion n'est pas transmise aussi ge�ne�ralement et
avec autant de succe�s au travers des processus de socialisation de base.
Usually an author is regarded as a classic only after his scienti�c activity
is concluded. Thomas Luckmann became a classic at once. His book on
invisible religion was immediately numbered among the classic texts of the
sociology of religion. In short, The Invisible Religion was from the start on
the list of masterworks of sociological thought which includes Weber's
essay on the Protestant ethic and Durkheim's on the elementary forms of
0037ą7686[200309]50:3;311ą320;035154
www.sagepublications.com & 2003 Social Compass
312 Social Compass 50(3)
religion. It was not bychance that Luckmann, in the initial pages of his book,
paid homage to his illustrious predecessors: ``Di�erent as their theories are, it
is remarkable that both Weber and Durkheim sought the key to an under-
standing of the social location of the individual in the study of religion''
(Luckmann, 1967: 12).
But there is more. Aside from this tribute, the connection between Durk-
heim and Luckmann is much clearer. There is a passage in the Elementary
Forms of Religious Life (Durkheim, 1995: 43) which seems to anticipate
Luckmann's thesis of invisible religion:
. . . but if one includes the notion of church in the de�nition of religion, does one not by
the same stroke exclude the individual religions that the individual institutes for himself
and celebrates for himself alone? There is scarcely any society in which this is not to be
found . . . And not only are these individual religions very common throughout history,
but some people today pose the question whether such religions are not destined to
become the dominant form of religious life ą whether a day will not come when the
only cult will be the one that each person freely practises in his innermost self.
The Fortunes of the Concept of Invisible Religion
The publication of Das Problem der Religion in der modernen Gesellschaft
in 1963, and of The Invisible Religion in 1967 inspired conŻicting judgements.
Above all, it was hard to accept the idea of religion in terms of modern
approaches, thus overturning a series of de�ning schemas of religion that
were almost always linked to the idea of a supernatural dimension of
reference and to an organized group practising the cult. Catholic-inspired
sociology in particular saw in Luckmann's interpretation a de�nitive contri-
bution to the thesis of secularization. Notwithstanding its age (almost 40
years have passed), the idea of an invisible religion still keeps on reappearing
in scienti�c discussion (Besecke, 2001). However, it has really not been sub-
jected to a screening by speci�c �eld research. When this has occurred in a
partial sense, there has been evidence of a certain gap between the abstract-
ness of the theoryand the concreteness of empirical data (Cipriani, 1978). Its
value remains linked to the original design of sociologyof knowledge applied
to the religious phenomenon, according to the magisterial perspective of The
Social Construction of Reality by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann
(1966). Indeed, religion appears as a product of a construct of meaning
activated at the personal level to traverse the collective level. However, we
must object that Luckmann's idea of religion can at least in part correspond
to what is common opinion regarding religion, or remain a merely abstract
construction without empirical bases.
According to what is evident to all, historicallyorganized and consolidated
religions are still active and dominant, with all the weight of their doctrinal,
symbolic and behavioural inŻuence. Luckmann says that religion cannot be
restricted to the singular church, but is something that involves the new
dominant values of contemporary society. It is above all the private sphere
that takes on the character of the new social form of religion.
Cipriani: Invisible or Di�used Religion in Italy? 313
In fact, there is no shortage of quite substantial signs of ``modern religious
themes'' within the old confessional, ideological contexts. How can we other-
wise explain the post-communist e�ects in Poland, the post-Tito ones in the
former Yugoslavia, and more recentlythe post-Taliban ones in Afghanistan?
In short, from the wreckage of the old states and old religious forms, new
longings seem to Żower, showing themselves through choices and social
actions marked by models of individualism, familism, autonomy and self-
expression and self-realization (especially via sexuality and mobility). The
sphere of the private manages to express itself in quite independent forms.
However, we must also ask if we are faced with an absolute novelty or
whether the modern religious themes are nothing more than the sedi-
mentation of pre-existing channels, long incorporated in traditional religious
modes.
Luckmann believes that the modern sacred cosmos has a relative instabil-
ity depending on the various social strata in which it is active. In fact, tradi-
tional, customary religious themes are re-ordered in the orbit of the secular
and the private. Thus Durkheim's prediction of a wholly individual religion
would seem to be coming true.
Invisible Religion in Italy
An initial response to Luckmann came in 1970 from the sociologist Silvano
Burgalassi, who was led to entitle his book Hidden Christianities, surely
inspired by The Invisible Religion. But aside from the reminder in the title,
Burgalassi's research did not adopt invisible religion as a matrix.
This occurred instead in a study assisted by Luckmann himself. It was a
survey of two Italian regions, Veneto and AbruzzoąMolise. The idea was
to follow the development of the phenomenon of secularization along the
continuum antiquityąmodernity. The categories of analysis used were
those of rationalization, urbanization and pluralism, privatization and the
separation of religion and society, with subsequent dislocation of the
church as structure, changes in the world of symbols, and lack of meaning
for one's existence (Cipriani, 1978: 12).
The data used here for comparison are those relating to the area of
AbruzzoąMolise. The observation made in the early 1970s did not con�rm
Luckmann's perspective. Territorial mobility was slight, socio-economic
mobility rather greater but with no remarkable peaks. Free-time activities
did not seem numerous. Familism, on the other hand, was deep and di�use.
Indeed, in this regard there is an extreme individualism expressed in the inter-
est for the family microcosm, with an almost total rejection of the social
macrocosm. The desire to contribute to the welfare of the community
remained a vain aspiration.
On the other hand, we should add that familism reappears in the qualities
of the ideal woman, who must above all be a ``good'' mother, a ``good'' wife,
a ``good'' housewife. Thus 60 percent of the sample stated that women should
not have important jobs and should assist the husband's career.
314 Social Compass 50(3)
Finally, the subjects almost exclusively referred to their own conscience.
But the sexual component was undoubtedly the most important in all
areas surveyed (Cipriani, 1978: 47). It therefore seems as if sex and family
are really the outstanding themes in the modern sacred cosmos Luckmann
speaks of.
Almost 80 percent of the respondents said theybelieved in God. Moreover,
a possible rejection of institutional religion found no alternative, solid and
satisfying outlets. In addition, a certain aversion to the Catholic Church as
an organization concerned only speci�c aspects and rarely involved the
founding elements of belief. In short, there was a constant in the process
of secularization: great support for base values and minimal consensus for
the bureaucratic-organizational ordering of the church (Cipriani, 1978: 59).
About 50 percent followed o�cial doctrine but 41 percent made a personal
choice in terms of a rationalization for action. However, overall con�dence
in the role of the church showed no signi�cant drop. Obviously in the less
urbanized areas of Abruzzo and Molise the data seemed rather more in
line with o�cial religion.
Results of the Research
Here are the results from the AbruzzoąMolise study:
1. The Church is important because it manages to unite individuals: 57 per-
cent.
2. In order to feel united, believers do not need an organized church: 5 per-
cent.
3. Religion is a private matter, the individual has no need to live it with
others, it is enough to respect certain principles: 15 percent.
4. Religion is such an intimate experience that each individual lives it in his
own way as if he were his own church: 22 percent.
We see here a clear distinction between two di�erent universes�57 percent
more tied to church religion and the 42 percent who maintain their belief
but do not entrust themselves to the church and live it in their private
sphere. But in fact the privatization of religion is certainly not (or not yet)
Luckmann's invisible religion. Once again we could applyhere the de�nition
of a di�used religion conceived of as a link with a particular form of religious
belief and thus of church religion. This circumstance gives rise to the
channelled Żux which, in varying forms of intensity, pervades the social
action of those who on one or several occasions demonstrate concretely
the existence of predisposed inputs (Cipriani, 1988: 15ą16).
This di�used religion is �rst of all a global phenomenon closely linked to
the broader set of values and models of behaviour. In fact,
. . . the variables in ``di�used religion'' are . . . more changeable according to the syntheses
which it produced from time to time. The ``new'' value is internalized but almost never
Cipriani: Invisible or Di�used Religion in Italy? 315
taken up in a wholly pure form or according to a formula that could totally replace the
previous perspective. The new way of seeing reality, the di�erent Weltanschauung, is,
however, the result of the collision-encounter between what already exists and what is
still in the process of becoming. ``Di�used religion'' therefore becomes dominant precisely
where there is a dominant form of religion. (Cipriani, 1989: 29)
What is meant by di�used religion is to be understood in at least a double
sense. First of all, it is di�used in that it comprises a vast section of the Italian
population and goes beyond the simple limits of church religion, sometimes
it is in open contrast to church religion. Besides, it has been shown to be a
historical and cultural result of the almost bi-millennial presence of the
Catholic institution in Italy and of its socializing and legitimizing action.
In e�ect,
Thomas Luckmann's theorization regarding the ``invisible religion'' has attracted much
attention on the part of the Italian sociologists, even though it has not always brought
scienti�c consensus. The idea of a functional substitution of church religion by series
of topics such as ``individual autonomy, auto-expression, auto-ful�lment, mobility
ethos, sex and familism'' has developed parallel to the theory of secularisation. Thus
the ``invisible religion'' perceived by Thomas Luckmann, which is based on the assump-
tion of a crisis of the institutional apparatus, seems to be applicable only in relation to
certain aspects of modern Italian society, and does not completely destroy so-called
church religion. (Cipriani, 1984: 30)
A form of invisible religion within both church religion and di�used religion
may be represented by prayer. Italians who pray are much more numerous
than those who attend mass. And their behaviour often takes a non-visible
form. The study in Abruzzo and Molise had already pointed to this fact
(in provincial capitals):
1. never pray: 5 percent;
2. pray sometimes or at certain religious ceremonies or only in di�cult
moments: 49 percent;
3. pray sometimes: 16 percent;
4. pray daily or almost: 29 percent.
In practice, a third of the population is accustomed to dailyprayer, but onlya
minority refrains totally from this mode of religious expression. A similar
``silent'' and/or ``invisible'' majority is the central core of so-called di�used
religion, maintaining its continuum with church religion but without wholly
diverging from it, though incorporating also a good part of the modern
themes of invisible religion.
Luckmann's suggestion is veryuseful at the methodological level provided
we do not force the terms of his concluding argument so as to make it uni-
versallyand aprioristicallyvalid. There is no noteworthyterritorial mobility,
religion has not lost its ``ultimate signi�cance''. However, we should stress
that the majority of these phenomena do not make for a novelty in the
social fabric. On the other hand, we should accept the careful, penetrating
316 Social Compass 50(3)
scrutiny of the institutional crisis of the church. Furthermore, we cannot
avoid facing two key aspects of ``invisible religion'': family and sex. Regard-
ing the former, the universe of our research provided data to con�rm
Luckmann's thesis, although only partially. As regards sex, it seems we
should not speak of a dominant theme in the fullest sense of the word. The
theme of sexuality, when revealed, appears in its true dimension as basic
reality of life. But sexuality does not seem to reach levels of ``ultimate
signi�cance''.
Individualism also should be explained in terms di�erent from Luck-
mann's. It should to be ascribed to church religion, which through the
personalism of devotional practice has prevented the development of a sen-
sitivity towards others.
Continuity and Change in Research on Religion in Italy
For a further testing of Luckmann's hypotheses, the dynamic recorded in the
various studies carried out in the context of the European Values Study,
inaugurated in 1981, is markedly revealing. The study continued in 1990
(Capraro, 1995), and 1999 (Abbruzzese, 2000; Gubert, 2000).
Some 83 percent of the Italians said they were religious in 1981 and 1999
(though in 1990 the percentage fell to 80 percent). Use of prayer and medita-
tion increased, from 72 percent in 1981 to 73 percent in 1991 and 77 percent
in 1999. Belief in God too seemed to increase, from 84 percent in 1981 (73 per-
cent in 1991) to 88 percent in 1999.
Thus both the maintenance of religious practice and the spread of subjec-
tive egoism are seen to be equally possible and compatible:
Today, while elements of secularisation and laicisation remain dominant features, but
also while there is a real crisis of the various cultural sensitivities, the interconnection
between religious membership and civil society ą and thus between religious and civil
ethics ą can onlybe resolved in a problematic way. . . This sets the measure of the di�er-
ence of the process of secularisation in Italy as regards the European trend (especially
France). (Abbruzzese, 2000: 454)
This peculiarity was not lost on Robert N. Bellah (1974) who, during a
research visit to Italy in 1972, had identi�ed a kind of ``religious ground
bass'', a real religion contraposed to o�cial religion. Italians' civil religion
was said to have a pronounced particularistic streak, alert to the ``family,
clan, the pseudo-kinship groups like the ma�a, the village, the city, the
faction and the clique'' (Bellah, 1974: 445).
In Sicily, there is a clear orientation of religious values of a universalistic
kind (Cipriani, 1992). New and old religiosity exist without particular con-
Żicts. Indeed, we can note ``a strong religiosity which preserves an equally
strong reference to the church and which constitutes a rule of conduct
capable of feeding civil sense, and on the other hand a di�use presence of
customary religiosity'' (Gucciardo, 2001: 109). This emerges from a study
of values and models of behaviour among Palermo university students
(Gucciardo, 1997).
Cipriani: Invisible or Di�used Religion in Italy? 317
Another Sicilian study (Cipriani, 1992: 347) has shown that there is
. . . a return of religious values in another guise, not ecclesial but public. These values
overleap the boundaries of mere church religion, embrace many kinds of experience
and relations, of di�erence with as well as distance from the church, and di�used religion
experienced as the prevailing condition. This is just the whole gamut of the religion of
values wherein honesty, loyalty and tolerance receive broad acceptance but can really
leave the problem of the connection between thought expressed and real conduct
unresolved.
At the level of particularistic values, the Sicilian �nding in �rst place is that
of familism with 62.6 percent, whereas individualism does not exceed 9.2 per-
cent.
In this way, di�used religion, the product of socialization, returns to the
wider context of the so-called religion of values (Cipriani, 1992), but even
before our research in Sicily, Calvaruso and Abbruzzese (1985: 79) put it
thus:
. . . di�used religion then becomes the dominant religious dimension for all those who,
immersed in the secular reality of contemporary society, though not managing to
accept these dimensions of the sacred cosmos which are more remote and provocative
compared with the rational vision of the world, do not thereby abandon their need for
meaningfulness. In the immanent dimension of individual everyday existence, di�used
religion, rather than bearing witness to the presence of a process of laicisation in a reli-
giouslyoriented society, seems to enhance the permanence of the sacred in the secularized
society.
In Italy also a crisis of institutional religion is evident.
Meanwhile, according to the national studyof religiosityin Italy(Lanzetti,
1995a: 91), 83 percent of those interviewed prayed at least once a year. The
family remains the major factor of satisfaction (73 percent of the universe).
On the other hand, ``those we could term `hedonistic-materialistic values'
(career, money, savings, entertainment) all in all have a secondary place,
given that they are at the bottom of the classi�cation'' (Rovati, 1995: 190ą
191).
Therefore, there is a principle of acceptance of the church, but with an
autonomy of personal judgement in ethical matters (Garelli, 1995: 242ą
245). Moreover there is a certain personalization of religion, especially in
family and sexual ethics. But this ``should not be confused with the process
of `privatisation' of the religious phenomenon'' (Lanzetti, 1995b: 273).
Still more explicit are the terms used by Enzo Pace (2001: 8), at the end of
the Italian study carried out most recently on religious and moral pluralism
using a questionnaire �lled out by 2149 subjects:
. . . the secularisation of customs and lifestyles, conventionally dated in Italy from the
referendum which saw the approval of the divorce law with a substantial majority
(over 60% in favour) in 1974, did not reduce the space occupied by religion. It was the
start of a process of individualisation of belief . . . people began to think di�erently,
felt a growing need for independence which combined, due to favourable circumstances
and ongoing changes, with modern ways of thinking and lifestyles, focussing on the asser-
tion of the individual and his/her prerogatives.
318 Social Compass 50(3)
Again, Pace speaks of a ``soft secularisation'' typical of Italy where ``the
widespread relativism among the population may be interpreted as an indi-
cator of the tendency among majority of Italians to `move freely' in the
construction of their own belief system; a religious mobility which appears
extremely modern'' (2001: 10) but which has connotations rather di�erent
from the ethos of mobility, one of the ``modern religious themes'' identi�ed
by Luckmann as constituting the invisible religion.
Probably at the root of the resistance of visible, or more exactly, di�used,
religion is the fact that in Italy there is a situation di�erent from that where
``religion is not generally and successfully transmitted in the basic socializa-
tion procedures'' (Luckmann, 1983: 169).
Italian religion thus has a character that makes it tendentiallydi�used and
shared. In practice, as emerged also from the national study concluded in
1995 by Cesareo et al.:
. . . religion in the broad sense (church or di�used/modal) is largely preponderant and
clearly almost all of Catholic type. Church religion is a minority percentage-wise, and
di�used religion (called modal, as statisticallyit is in practice the mode, the characteristic
with the greatest frequency) is the majority. But between minority and majority there is no
break. (Cipriani, 2001: 303)
NOTE
This is a short version of a paper presented at the Conference ``Europe and the
Invisible Religion'', University of Zurich, 18ą19 January 2001.
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Roberto CIPRIANI is full Professor of Sociology at the University of
Rome Three. He has been visiting scholar at the University of Berkeley,
and visiting professor of Qualitative Methodology at the University of
Sao Paulo, of Political Science at the Laval University, and of Method-
�
ology and Visual Sociology at the University of Buenos Aires. He has
also been President of the International Sociological Association
Research Committee for the Sociology of Religion. He is Past Editor
in Chief of International Sociology (the o�cial journal of the Inter-
national Sociological Association). He was a member of the Executive
320 Social Compass 50(3)
Committee of the AISLF (International Association of French-Speaking
Sociologists), and of the IIS (International Institute of Sociology). He is
Vice President of the Italian Sociological Association. His publications
include: Sociology of Religion: An Historical Introduction (New York:
Aldine de Gruyter, 2000), Sociology of Legitimation (London: Sage,
1987), Aux sources des sociologies de langue francaise et italienne (Paris:
�
L'Harmattan, 1997). He has undertaken research in Mexico and
Greece. ADDRESS: Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Educazione, via del
Castro Pretorio 20, I ą 00185 Roma, Italy. [email: [e-mail]]