ABSTRACT
The issue of the future of religion in the modern world is at the center of sociological debates. Although there is a widespread belief that religion is faced with important changes in terms of its institutional structure, scope of activity and its practical counterpart in social life in modern times, there are different perspectives on the nature of this change and its future direction. French sociologist Daniéle Hervieu-Léger is a researcher who made important contributions to this intellectual ground, which has become widespread as “secularization debates” in the literature and mostly developed within the framework of the discipline of sociology of religion. Hervieu-Léger, who is frequently cited in the international literature for bringing new definitions to religion and religiosity in the triangle of tradition, generation and memory, and for bringing a different horizon to the secularization discussions through these analyses, has not been made the focus of extensive research in the Turkish sociological literature. Focusing on the research question on which foundations Hervieu-Léger’s sociology is built and what position she takes in secularization debates, this article aims to draw an intellectual portrait of Hervieu-Léger as a sociologist of religion. In this article, in which Hervieu-Léger was made the subject of a study for the first time in the Turkish sociological literature, besides her own studies, the works evaluating her thoughts from positive and negative aspects were also examined by the literature review method. It was concluded that Hervieu-Léger sociology could offer a new perspective to the secularization debates in Turkey in the context of both the concepts she focused on and the analyses she made.