Abstract
This paper proposes—in a deliberately subjective way—a retrospective of the trajectory of the sociology of religions in France since the 1950s. It identifies three moments: they correspond both to typical periods of the French religious evolution since the Second World War and to intellectual problems that have marked the theoretical development of the research. Till the 1960s (the first moment), the classical vision of secularization found its confirmation with the observation of the collapse of the Catholic parochial civilization. A second moment is linked with the discovery of a proliferation of beliefs throughout the allegedly secularized society. A third moment deals with the question of the shaping and transmission of socio-religious identities in a multicultural society, where the need for redefining the very notion of laïcitéis at the centre of public debate.