Religious individualism in modern society

?Individualism? had been product of the modernity. The components of the modernity are ?abstraction?, ?futurity?, ?rationalization?, ?liberation?, ?secularization?, and ?individualization? which link each other. The modernisation which characterizes a transformation from community to society had brought about some changes also on the concept of human. A ?person? who was a member of a community is now an ?individual? standing alone in modern society. Religious individualism is a social phenomenon known with ?choosing?, ?conscious?, ?privacy?, ?equality?, ?liberty?, and ?autonomy?. This is a view that an individual?s relation with God had been designated with respect to that individual?s own, that an individual has the right to reflect on religious issues freely, that an individual may join into a religious community he/she wants, that the individual believer does not need intermediaries, that he has the right and the duty to come to his own relationship with his God in his own way and by his own effort. Religious individual ?stands alone before his/her God?. Any religious authority can not be a compelling factor in his/her religious actions. Individual gets the utterance of a religious tradition; but ?chooses? according to his/her own conscious situation. In this study, the sociological roots of ?religious individualism? have been researched, and the meanings which this concept reminds us in the literature of the contemporary sociology of religion have been scanned. This dissertation has been fulfilled at the analysis level of the sociology of religion to recognize ?religious individualism? observed in the modern societies. Key Words: 1) Individualism, 2) Religious Individualism, 3) Modernity, 4) Modern individual, 5) Modern society