The Origins of secularization

The sociologist Max Weber saw the origins of secularization, that is, the loss of religious beliefs underpinning certain values and human activity, in the increasing rational organization of human labor and industrial bureaucratization of society. The sociologist Emile Durkheim claimed that the mechanism introducing secularization was the breakdown of local institutions that provide collective meaning and solidarity. Furthermore, when a church begins to offer an array of services—it evolves into a social welfare agency.