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

The Political Consciousness of Post-Industrialism@@@The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Styles among Western Publics.

After a very long hiatus, economists have begun again to study the relationship between economics and religion. This article seeks to summarize and evaluate the principal themes and empirical findings that have appeared in some 200 recent papers on the economics of religion. Although some of the research concerns the economic consequences of religiosity, most applies standard economic theory to the study of individual religious activity, the characteristics of religious groups, and the impact of regulation and competition on religious markets.

Introduction to the Economics of Religion

Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion. By Rodney Stark and Roger Finke. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. 343 pp. $48.00 (cloth); $18.95 (paper). At a recent American Academy of Religion meeting, after a brilliant paper was presented on God and religious experience, the speaker was asked this question by an academic: "But how can you say these things in our postmodem, anti-enlightenment, pluralistic age?" Acts of Faith secures the thesis that not just talk about, but devout belief in, God is rational, widespread, and shows no sign of abating. For a vast number of well-educated, articulate human beings talk of God is not very difficult at all. Acts of Faith is an important treatment of the sociology of religious belief and should be considered required reading by anyone interested in the social standing and assessment of religion. It overturns the conventions of a great deal of earlier sociological inquiry into religion and stands as a model of clarity and rigor. Rodney Stark and Roger Finke begin by documenting the social and intellectual history of atheism, noting how history, sociology, and psychoanalysis have been employed to exhibit the irrationality of religious belief. They underscore how many of these projects have done little more than presup- pose the credulous nature of religion. There is something darkly humorous about the many techniques employed by "intellectuals" and social scientists to explain why religion persists and even grows amidst "modernity." Stark and Finke's analysis is devastating. From the outset through to the last chapter the writing is crisp and at times quite amusing. Here is a passage from the introduction, lamenting the fact that many sociologists focus their work on fringe religious groups: A coven of nine witches in Lund, Sweden, is far more apt to be the object of a case study than is, say, the Episcopal Church, with more than two million members. Some of this merely reflects that it is rather easier to get one's work published if the details are sufficiently lurid or if the group is previously undocumented. A recitation of Episcopalian theology and excerpts from the Book of Common Prayer will not arouse nearly the interest (prurient or otherwise) than can be generated by tales of blondes upon the altar and sexual contacts with animals (p. 19). Stark and Finke have written a text that abounds in technical case studies, while at the same time giving us a book that is a pleasure to read. The introduction and first three chapters alone are a tour de force. They expose the blatant inadequacy of sociological work that reads religious belief as pathology or flagrant irrationality. They challenge the thesis of impending, virtually inevitable secularization, for instance, in part by refuting the claim that in the distant past almost everyone was religious. …

Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion

In recent years, companies have increased their use of internal and external sources in pursuit of a competitive advantage through the effective and timely commercialization of new technology. Grounded in the resource-based view of the firm, this study examines the effect of a company's use of internal and external sources on multiple dimensions of successful technology commercialization (TC). The study also explores the moderating role of formal vs. informal integration mechanisms on these relationships. Applying a longitudinal design and data from 119 companies, the results show that internal human and technology-based manufacturing sources are positively associated with successful TC. Formal and informal integration mechanisms also significantly moderate the relationships observed between capability sources and TC. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

http://frontiers.sauder.ubc.ca/Zahra_Nielsen_SMJ_2002.pdf

Sources of capabilities, integration and technology commercialization

La sociologie religieuse maintient que la competition qui a lieu sur le marche religieux conduit a la production de biens religieux ou de services du type de la demande du consommateur. En consequence, la consommation religieuse tend a etre plus importante dans un marche libre que dans une situation religieuse monopole ou oligopole. Les AA. testent des hypotheses dans le cadre de la Suede contemporaine dont les caracteristiques sont differentes de celles des Etats-Unis. La competition oblige les Eglises a s'adapter aux demandes des consommateurs; cette adaptation augmente le niveau de la consommation religieuse

The religious market : Denominational competition and religious participation in contemporary Sweden

A typology of churched and unchurched religions is developed and then used to analyse the status of unchurched spirituality in the United States, Sweden, and Japan. In the United States, churched religions remain strong, while most of those who say they have no religious preference are quite religious, merely unchurched. In Sweden, the lack of participation in the state church seems to be more than offset by a rapid rise in unchurched religion, especially among the young. Japan's celebrated lack of religion is found to be merely a lack of churched religions, as the Japanese are devoted followers of unchurched faiths. In conclusion, the relative lack of authority of unchurched religions is examined.

Exploring Spirituality and Unchurched Religions in America, Sweden, and Japan

Recent theoretical developments within the sociology of religion assume a positive relationship between religious pluralism and religious participation. The relationship is explained by rational choice theory, which suggests that the more competition churches face, the more likely they are to adapt their services to the demands of their potential members and participants. Such market adaptation is expected to result in a diversified supply of religious services and hence to increase the likelihood that consumers can find a religious suply well adapted to their individual tastes. In order to overcome the weaknesses of previous cross-sectional analyses, this study investigates whether increases in denominational pluralism are followed by the theoretically expected increases in denominational membership. The results for the free church sector of 269 Swedish municipalitites show that, other things equal, increases in free church pluralism led to a comparatively better development of free church membership. The effect of the increases in religous pluralism was particularily evident where the level of free church pluralism was relatively low at the beginning of the period under study.

Denominational Pluralism and Chur Ch Membership in Contemporary Sweden

The question of individual stability versus change in values, attitudes, and beliefs has been much debated, as has the question of the relative importance of cohort effects, age effects, and period effects in the processes of such change. Thus, the issue of individual stability or change in religious beliefs, practice, and attitudes, dealt with in this article, is part of a more general problem. The present study builds on hitherto unpublished Swedish panel data from nationwide surveys undertaken in 1955 and 1970. The results indicate that the decline in adherence to traditional religious beliefs that took place in Sweden during the period studied was due both to a successive decline in religious beliefs from older birth cohorts to younger, probably connected with differences in religious socialization, and to a decline in religious beliefs within given birth cohorts, a decline most pronounced in the younger age strata.

Eva Hamberg

Papers

The religious market : Denominational competition and religious participation in contemporary Sweden

Exploring Spirituality and Unchurched Religions in America, Sweden, and Japan

Denominational Pluralism and Chur Ch Membership in Contemporary Sweden

Stability and Change in Religious Beliefs, Practice, and Attitudes: A Swedish Panel Study

Christendom in Decline: The Swedish Case