Meanwhile, the authors' antidote to the American sicknessa quest for democratic community that draws on our diverse civic and religious traditionshas contributed to a vigorous scholarly and popular debate. Attention has been focused on forms of social organization, be it civil society, democratic communitarianism, or associative democracy, that can humanize the market and the administrative state. In their new Introduction the authors relate the argument of their book both to the current realities of American society and to the growing debate about the country's future. With this new edition one of the most influential books of recent times takes on a new immediacy.\

Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life

Part I. Understanding Secularization: 1. The secularization debate 2. Measuring secularization 3. Comparing secularization worldwide Part II. Case Studies of Religion and Politics: 4. The puzzle of secularization in the United States and Western Europe 5. A religious revival in post-communist Europe? 6. Religion and politics in the Muslim world Part III. The Consequences of Secularization: 7. Religion, the Protestant ethic, and moral values 8. Religious organizations and social capital 9. Religious parties and electoral behavior Part IV. Conclusions: 10. Secularization and its consequences 11. Re-examining the theory of existential security 12. Re-examining evidence for the security thesis.

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Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide

This chapter discusses progress in the psychology of religion by highlighting its rapid growth during the past 25 years. Recent conceptual and empirical developments are described, with an emphasis on the cognitive and affective basis of religious experience within personality and social psychology. Religion and spirituality as domains of study, as well as being common and important process variables that touch a large portion of human experience, are highlighted. Movement away from the previously dominant measurement paradigm is noted, and particularly promising directions suggestive of an emerging interdisciplinary paradigm are described.

/pdf/the-psychology-of-religion-3vy0c5tow0.pdf

The psychology of religion.

An increased interest in the effects of religion and spirituality on health is apparent in the psychological and medical literature. Although religion in particular was thought, in the past, to have a predominantly negative influence on health, recent research suggests this relationship is more complex. This article reviews the literature on the impact of religion and spirituality on physical and mental health, concluding that the influence is largely beneficial. Mechanisms for the positive effect of religion and spirituality are proposed.

The Role of Religion and Spirituality in Mental and Physical Health

Social scientists tend to ignore religion in the processes of post-Enlightenment modernization. In individual cases and events, the role of religious actors is clear—especially in the primary documents. Yet in broad histories and comparative analyses, religious groups are pushed to the periphery, only to pop out like a jack-in-the-box from time to time to surprise and scare people and then shrink back into their box to lettheimportanthistoricalchangesbedirectedby“secular” actors and forces (Butler 2004). Yet integrating religious actors and motivations into narratives about the rise and spread of both Western modernity and democracy helps solve perennial problems that plague current research.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0003055412000093

The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy

The “economic miracle” of South Korea has been well documented by many scholars, but most studies have focused on the cooperative relations between the state and entrepreneurial elites, with little attention being given to the accomplishments and contribution of Korean labor to industrial development. To date there has been no comprehensive sociological study as to how workers in South Korea were “ideologically” mobilized and motivated to commit their labor power to the process of industrialization. In an attempt to redress this imbalance, this article offers an analysis of the role of Confucianism and nationalism in the state-sponsored ideology of work in South Korea during its economic boom of the 1960s and 1970s. It is argued here that both the workers' voluntary participation in industrial work and the harmony in the workplace, which were two of the most essential factors in the nation's remarkable economic success during the 1960s and 1970s, were intimately linked to a new ideology of work a...

Nationalism, Confucianism, work ethic and industrialization in South Korea

More than half a million foreigners reportedly resided in South Korea in 2006, with international migrant workers accounting for a majority. Although the country's reliance on imported foreign labour is likely to continue unabated, the country prides itself as being an ethnically homogenous society and insists on an almost zero-immigration policy. However, this paper argues that Korean society is rapidly becoming a multicultural society and that this process is inevitable and irreversible. In support of this argument, the paper examines various social factors that are contributing to the making of a multi-ethnic Korea, including the continuing influx of foreign workers, rapid ageing of the population, low fertility rate and shortage of brides. The paper also assesses the applicability of various theories and trends of migration to the Korean context. The Korean case affirms the globalization and acceleration of international migration, as practically every society is affected by it and as the num...

Global migration and South Korea: foreign workers, foreign brides and the making of a multicultural society

This study offers an analysis of the affinity between Korean traditional religious culture and Protestant Christianity in order to bring into sharper relief several important points of contact that strengthened the appeal of the imported faith in South Korea. In particular, Korean Shamanism, the enduring core of Korean religious and cultural thought, is given special attention in order to explain the prominence of its worldview and practices in the uniquely Korean form of Protestantism. The paper also examines the way in which specific Protestant doctrines and practices were modified or accentuated to suit the disposition of the Korean people. What this study reveals is that Christian conversion in South Korea did not involve an exclusivistic change of religious affiliation, meaning that it did not require the repudiation of traditionally held beliefs, Instead, millions of South Koreans eagerly embraced Christianity precisely because the new faith was advanced as an extension or continuation of Korean religious tradition

Korean Religious Culture and its Affinity to Christianity: The Rise of Protestant Christianity in South Korea

This paper examines the nature and social impact of religion in contemporary South Korea in order to bring into relief the main characteristics of the country's religious culture. The paper shows that South Korea is religiously diverse, with traditional religions such as Shamanism and Buddhism coexisting peacefully with Christianity. The paper also shows that the county has experienced a rapid growth of religions, especially Christianity, since the early 1960s and that the Christian success story is largely due to the religion's incorporation of beliefs and practices that promise the fulfillment of such material wishes as wealth and health. It is also shown that the influence of religion is actually expanding in South Korea today, as religious organizations continue to not only expand their involvement in social and welfare services but also extend their ownership and operation of commercial enterprises in such fields as the mass media, education, health care and publication. As regards the impact of religion on social class, politics, and attitudes toward social values, the paper shows that Buddhists have generally lower level of educational attainment, occupy lower economic class and hold more conservative political views and social values than Christians.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3512000.pdf

Characteristics of religious life in South Korea: A sociological survey

This article examines how the nature of work has changed since the 1997 financial crisis in South Korea. We demonstrate that a majority of workers now have become irregular workers, how peoples9 perception of work has changed, and how the changing trends of work have impacted the quality of life.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/as.2006.46.3.437

Andrew Eungi Kim

Papers

Nationalism, Confucianism, work ethic and industrialization in South Korea

Global migration and South Korea: foreign workers, foreign brides and the making of a multicultural society

Korean Religious Culture and its Affinity to Christianity: The Rise of Protestant Christianity in South Korea

Characteristics of religious life in South Korea: A sociological survey

Changing Trends of Work in South Korea: The Rapid Growth of Underemployment and Job Insecurity