Conditions of religious experience in modernity - Publicising a private life

What special status does religious experience have within our so-called mod ern spheres of reference in the West? To stop to reflect on the conditions of religious experience is no longer a luxury reserved to theologians. Soci ologists and philosophers are reconsidering this dimension today and are of fering analysis in dialogue with Durkheim, Freud and Weber. Marcel Gauchet' s perspective on religion in his book La Religion dans la democracies will be used here as a frame of reference to reflect upon the challenge of Giann i Vattimo's position on religious experience in his book Esperer croire.