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Document Details :

Title: The Post-Secular Society
Subtitle: Desert or Oasis for Social Entrepreneurship in Religious Communities and Organizations?
Author(s): VANDEWIELE, Wim
Journal: Louvain Studies
Volume: 44    Issue: 2   Date: 2021   
Pages: 131-151
DOI: 10.2143/LS.44.2.3289493

Abstract :
Is post-secular society a desert or an oasis for social entrepreneurship in religious communities and organizations in their current ‘standby state’? This article answers this question by first exploring the nature of semi-autonomous fields. It then turns to an analysis of the worldview transition that has occurred in Belgian society, the worldview landscape that has resulted, and its implications for social entrepreneurship by religious communities. In a next step the article delves into the nature of the post-secular society, looking to both Habermas and a social geographical approach in order to better understand the possibilities for religious communities and organizations. Finally, the article applies the notion of social entrepreneurship directly to the Church. Social entrepreneurship is defined as the capacity to deal skillfully with uncertainties, to experiment on a small scale, to collaborate in a co-creative way, to gather scarce resources, to permit failure, and to dare to draw critical lessons from what one undertakes. In the case of the church this becomes ecclesiopreneurship.

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