TY - JOUR N2 - The presented paper describes the phenomenon of secularisation and secularism in the culture of Western Europe, and attempts to identify its sources. The first point of the paper, The meaning of secularization and secularism, explains secularisation as a social process in which religion or, more strictly, religious institutes, religious behaviour, and religiously inspired conscience, are gradually losing their control over many fields of social activity such like education, arts or politics. Secularisation can be labelled as a philosophy of life “as if there were no God”, or a kind of ideology that tries to justify not only the very fact of secularisation but declares it a source and norm for human progress and demands the proclamation of man’s absolute autonomy in shaping his own destination. Among many philosophers who have influenced development of secularisation and secularism two stand out: R. Descartes (second point) and F. Nietzsche (third point). In the philosophy of Descartes one can identify at least four sources of modern secularism. These are: his concept of philosophy, theory of cognition with the resulting departure from classical concepts of truth and rationality and development of alternative ones, Cartesian metaphysics and the arguments for the existence of God and his concept of the nature of God evolving from those arguments. The last part of the article presents Nietzsche’s move away from the faith in Christian God and his turn to atheism. At least three fundamental causes for Nietzsche’s radical autosecularisation can be discerned: the emotional religion of his home, his disbelief in the authenticity of the Bible and his growing familiarity with the philosophy of Schopenhauer. L1 - http://journals.pan.pl/Content/98038/PDF/Mazanka.pdf L2 - http://journals.pan.pl/Content/98038 PY - 2014 IS - Tom 9 EP - 82 DO - 10.24425/snt.2014.112773 KW - secularisation KW - secularism KW - sacrum KW - faith KW - autonomy KW - pietism KW - metaphysics KW - R. Descartes KW - F. Nietzsche KW - L. Feuerbach KW - D. Strauss KW - A. Schopenhauer A1 - Mazanka, Ks. Paweł PB - Polskia Akademia Nauk - Komitet Nauk Teologicznych DA - 2014 T1 - Reflection on Philosophical Sources of Secularization and Secularism SP - 55 UR - http://journals.pan.pl/dlibra/publication/edition/98038 T2 - Studia Nauk Teologicznych PAN ER -