Valeurs, sens, spiritualités : Quelques balises pour penser la transmission en Belgique francophone

Résumé 0

This article analyses the results of a series of recent ‘religious barometer’ surveys conducted in Belgium. Today we are witnessing a rise in individualism at several levels: political (crisis of democracies), socio-economic (producer and consumer society, advanced capitalism), belief (personalisation of beliefs). In this pluralist world, which reinforces individualism, the difficulty individuals face appears to be choosing and finding their identity. Relationships to family and loved ones seem to be of mounting importance. Conversely, people are growing disaffected by institutions, particularly political ones, which are incapable of offering projects that can mobilise people. In today’s world, three factors seem to favour transmission of faith: experimentation, the encounter with ‘intellectual guides’, and intellectual plausibility. This analysis also points to significant differentiation among individual trajectories, depending on one’s level of education. The higher the level, the more religious convictions are subject to doubt or questioning. Conversely, the segment of the population with the lowest level of education clings to certainties and the values of tradition. Families appear to be preoccupied by transmitting their values and religious convictions to new generation. Grandparents, who tend to live longer, are playing an increasing role in this transmission. This is not a one-way process, however, but an intergenerational one.