The theme of the secularization of contemporary societies profoundly marked the birth of the sociology of religions. The authors presented here (E. Troeltsch, K. Mannheim, E. Bloch, A. Gramsci, M. Mauss, Z. Neale Hurston, R. Bastide, L. Goldmann and P. Bourdieu), without ceasing to be tributaries of the problems defined by the "founding fathers", however, are significantly removed from them.
In their great diversity, these analyzes are less focused on the undermining of religion than on the ability of religious actors to create social, even modern, forms. Drawing inspiration from Marx, Durkheim or Weber, they thus distance themselves considerably from them when it comes to accounting for the relations between religion and society: they are heterodox and unfaithful disciples, and their approaches have, in relation to the first great classics, a dissident character. It is, on the other hand, what makes the interest of his works, which do not come from any school orthodoxy and escape the traps of epigonism.
Each one in his own way opened shortcuts, unexpected paths, interesting deviations.