Young People “Without Religion”: from a Linear Relationship to an Open Trajectory in the Links Among Belief, Religion and Church

ABSTRACT

International surveys, as well as those in Chile, show a growing number of people and especially young people, who, when asked about their religion, respond by marking the box “without religion”. However, there is still little work that seeks to deepen the subject qualitatively, and even fewer that seek to understand it. This article, following Danièle Hervieu-Léger’s reflections, works with the hypothesis that, behind this phenomenon, there would be a rupture in the existing linearity, for many decades, among belief, religion and church. Through a systematic review of articles referring to young people without religion, written in Latin America and published in the last five years, we seek to validate, in an argumentative way, the hypothesis in question.

KEYWORDS
Sociology of Religion; Latin America; Chile; Youth; Without Religion