1st Edition

The Role of Religion in Modern Societies

Edited By Detlef Pollack, Daniel V.A. Olson Copyright 2008
    296 Pages
    by Routledge

    296 Pages
    by Routledge

    Does modernization lead to the decline of religion? This question lies at the centre of a key debate in the sociology of religion. During the past decade American scholars, using primarily American data, have dominated this debate and have made a strong case that the answer to this question is no. Recently, however, a new crop of European scholars, working with new sources of European data, have uncovered evidence that points toward an affirmative answer.

    This volume pays special attention to these trends and developments to provide the reader with a more well-rounded understanding of the many ways in which religion interacts with modernization. Respected scholars such as David Voas, Steve Bruce and Anthony Gill examine modern societies across the world in this splendid book which will interest sociologists, political scientists, historians, and theologians in equal measure.

    List of Tables

    List of Graphs

    Preface

    Detlef Pollack and Daniel Olson

    Chapter 1: Introduction: Religious Change in Modern Societies- Perspectives Offered By the Sociology of Religion

    Detlef Pollack

    Section One: The secularization theory: Classical assumptions and ramifications

    Chapter 2: The Continuing Secular Transition

    David Voas

    Chapter 3: God, Gaelic and Needlepoint: Religion as a Social Accomplishment

    Steve Bruce

    Chapter 4: Religion in Central and Eastern Europe: Was There a Re-awakening After the Breakdown of Communism?

    Olaf Müller

    Section Two: The market model: Classical assumptions and ramifications

    Chapter 5: Quantitative Evidence Favoring and Opposing the Religious Market Model

    Daniel Olson

    Chapter 6: Secularization and the State:

    The Role Government Policy Plays in Determining Social Religiosity

    Anthony Gill

    Chapter 7: Unsecular Europe: The Persistence of Religion

    Andrew Greeley

    Section 3: The individualization thesis: Classical assumptions and ramifications

    Chapter 8: From ‘Believing without belonging’ to ‘Vicarious Religion’:  Understanding the Patterns of Religion in Modern Europe

    Grace Davie

    Chapter 9: The Cultural Paradigm: Declines in Belonging and Then Believing

    Robin Gill

    Chapter 10: Religious individualization or secularization: An attempt to evaluate the thesis of religious individualization in Eastern and Western Germany

    Gert Pickel and Detlef Pollack

    Section Four: New theories on religion and modernity exemplified at the European case

    Chapter 11: Religion and Science or Religion versus Science? About the Social Construction of the Science-Religion-Antagonism in the German Democratic Republic and its Lasting Consequences

    Monika Wohlrab-Sahr

    Chapter 12: Secularization Theory and Rational Choice:

    An integration of macro- and micro-theories of secularization using the example of Switzerland

    Jörg Stolz

    Contributors

    Index

    Biography

    Detlef Pollack is Professor of Comparative Sociology of Culture at Europa-Universitat Viadrina, Germany.

    Daniel V. A. Olson is Associate Professor of Sociology at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.