Religiousness of students youth – meanings assigned to religion in everyday life (two decades of change)

Abstract

The article presents some fairly representative trends of changes in the perception of the role and function of religion in everyday life of the young generation (students). A comparison was also made of the level and typological diversity of student religiousness more than two decades apart. The thesis about changing forms of religiousness and ways of expressing it was confirmed (selectivity, syncretization, privatization, decrease in the authority of the Church as a formal institution). A fairly consistent increase in the declared significance of religion in everyday life of the surveyed students and a clear polarization of the meanings attributed to religion were revealed. A proposal was made to gradually instrumentalize the religious sphere and limit its autotelic significance in the everyday life of a young person. The results indicate that religion and individual religiousness do not lose their meaning, but the quality of the meanings assigned to it changes.