Religious exclusiveness of Italy: sociological perspective

The focus of this article is the problem of religious exclusiveness, being discussed for long enough in the west sociology of religion. Is Europe or USA exceptional cases in the religious situation? Well-known British sociologist G. Davie rejects a taken for granted thesis of Europe’s secularization and proposes to consider Europe rather in the context of its specific religiousness, as an “exceptional case". In the context of European religiousness the article discusses Italian religiousness as an exceptional case, which on the first view fits neither theory of secularization, nor the “new paradigm", being an exception from the European trend. But this phenomenon is interpreted very differently by the academic schools representatives depending on the determinative factors.