In contemporary democracies, the relationship between religion and society is very important. Nowadays, it has actually become of crucial importance, especially if the activities of fundamentalist groups are considered. In the center of this paper is a study of the appropriate relationship between Church and society. The paper deals with this approach based on the critical reading of the texts of the respected Croatian sociologist Željko Mardešić. Initially, different interpretations of the relationship between religion and society will be presented from the perspective of the various theories within the sociology of the religion, as well as from the theological perspective which focuses on the contributions of the Second Vatican Council. In the second part, the relevant texts of Željko Mardešić and his theses about the relationship between church and society are presented: personalistic Christianity, the conciliar image of the Church and models of the contemporary world. The third part of the paper critically analyzes Mardešić's model of personalist Christianity. The results of the research of Mardešić's perspective will be presented in the conclusion.