Karel Dobbelaere (born 16 September 1933) is a Belgian educator and noted sociologist of religion. Dobbelaere is an Emeritus Professor of both the University of Antwerp and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Louvain) in Belgium. He is past-President and General Secretary of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion. Academic career Karel Dobbelaere was born in Nieuwpoort in Belgium on 16 September 1933. He studied at the Katholieke Universiteit (Catholic University) in Leuven, where he received his doctorate in Social Sciences in 1966. He was appointed a professor at Katholieke Universiteit in 1968. He has done important work in the area of the place of religion in the social fabric, and how secularization of religious roles in public institutions affects both society and religion. He has done fieldwork with Bryan R. Wilson in researching new religious movements and sects. He also contributed for many years on the Social Sciences committee in Belgium's National Fund for Scientific Research. His teaching focus was sociology and the sociology of religion. His research fields have been in the effects of religious participation and in new religious movements and sects. He is a member of both the Academia Europaea and the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts. He also has held visiting professorships at various institutions and universities worldwide. He has authored, coauthored and edited over 200 books, articles and studies. Among his published works are the books Secularization: An Analysis at Three Levels (P.I.E.—Peter Lang, 2002), A Time to Chant (Clarendon, 1994) and Secularization: A Multidimensional Concept (Sage, 1982). Theory of secularization Dobbelaere is known for his defense of the classic theory of secularization and has been criticized as such. In fact, however, Dobbelaere’s theory of secularization argues that the phenomenon should be studied at three different levels. He calls them “macro-secularization,” “meso-secularization,” and “micro-secularization.” The “macro-secularization” refers to the decreasing influence of religion on society. Dobbelaere believes there is little doubt that social and political choices are less and less influenced by religion, at least in Western societies, and notes that most sociologists argue with him on this point. The “micro-secularization” refers to the sphere of private beliefs. Contrary to other theorists of secularization, Dobbelaere observes that religion does indeed survive at the “de-institutionalized” level of private beliefs and practices. Here, again, he believes that most sociologists of religion would agree with him. Dobbelaere is conscious that the most