Abstract
The topic of the regulation by religion of the nature and the body is an opportunity to propose a new paradigm different from the web of questions framing secularization theory. So the work of Michel Maffesoli, opening up new directions, sometimes disrupts our professional routines. Within secularization theory, a rational process is underway, marginalizing the positive meaning of biopsychic requisites. In this perspective, new religious movements and religious expressions often appear as irrational, related to a regressive process. The alternative perspective proposes to look at new religious phenomena as an explosive process reacting against an excess of rationality. The emerging dynamism cannot be understood as springing from the functionality of the social system, but rather as resulting from a tension between social system and personality system. The connection between the two implies a dialectic process between complementary, but opposite requirements. Georg Simmel may therefore be an important reference.