We propose a theory of religious mobilization that accounts for variations in religious participation on the basis of variations in the degree of regulation of religious economies and consequent variations in their levels of religious competition. To account for the apparent 'secularization" of many European nations, we stress supply-side weaknesses - inefficient religious organizations within highly regulated religious economies - rather than a lack of individual religious demand. We test the theory with both quantitative and historical data and, based on the results, suggest that the concept of secularization be dropped for lack of cases to which it could apply.

A supply-side reinterpretation of the secularization' of Europe

This article argues that the European Marriage Pattern (EMP) has played a fundamental role in western Europe’s economic development. The EMP emerged in north-western Europe in the late medieval period as a result of the preaching of the Catholic Church promoting marriage based on consensus, the rise of labour markets, and specific institutions concerning property transfers between generations that encouraged wage labour by women. It resulted in a demographic regime embedded in a highly commercial environment, in which households interacted frequently with labour, capital, and commodity markets.We also discuss possible long-term consequences for human capital formation and institution building.

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Girl power: the European marriage pattern and labour markets in the North Sea region in the late medieval and early modern period1

In recent years, the sociology of religion has been consumed by a debate over secularization that pits advocates of a new, rational-choice paradigm (the so-called religious economies model) against defenders of classical secularization theory. According to the old paradigm, the Western world has become increasingly secular since the Middle Ages; according to the new paradigm, it has become increasingly religious. I put these two images of religious development to the test through a detailed examination of religious life in Western Europe before and after the Reformation. I conclude that the changes in social structure and religious experience that occurred during this period were considerably more complex than either the old or new paradigms suggest and, indeed, that the two paradigms are neither so opposed nor so irreconcilable as many of their defenders contend. It is possible, indeed probable, that Western society has become more secular without becoming less religious. I discuss the limitations of the two competing paradigms and sketch the outlines of a more adequate theory of religious change

Historicizing the secularization debate : Church, state, and society in late medieval and early modern Europe, ca. 1300 to 1700

The developmental paradigm, reading history sideways, and cross-cultural data have converged to exert a profound influence on social scientists and ordinary people. Through the use of these tools, social scientists of the 1700s and 1800s concluded that family patterns in northwest Europe had undergone many substantial changes before the early 1800s. These conclusions were accepted until the last several decades of the 1900s, when almost all were seriously challenged; many were declared to be myths. Further, the developmental paradigm, reading history sideways, and the conclusions of generations of social scientists created a package of ideas—developmental idealism—that subsequently became a powerful influence for family change in many parts of the world during the past two centuries. This developmental idealism has been a substantial force for changing living arrangements, marriage, divorce, gender relations, intergenerational relationships, and fertility.

https://www.courses.psu.edu/hdfs/hdfs525_rxj9/thornton.pdf

The developmental paradigm, reading history sideways, and family change.

Acknowledgements 1. Legal regimes and colonial cultures 2. Law in diaspora: the legal regime of the Atlantic world 3. Order out of trouble: jurisdictional tensions in Catholic and Islamic empires 4. A place for the state: legal pluralism as a colonial project in Bengal and West Africa 5. Subjects and witnesses: cultural and legal hierarchies in the Cape Colony and New South Wales 6. Constructing sovereignty: extra-territoriality in the Oriental Republic of Uruguay 7. Culture and the rule(s) of law Bibliography Index.

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Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400-1900

This monumental study of medieval law and sexual conduct explores the origin and develpment of the Christian church's sex law and the systems of belief upon which that law rested. Focusing on the Church's own legal system of canon law, James A. Brundage offers a comprehensive history of legal doctrines-covering the millennium from A.D. 500 to 1500-concerning a wide variety of sexual behavior, including marital sex, adultery, homosexuality, concubinage, prostitution, masturbation, and incest. His survey makes strikingly clear how the system of sexual control in a world we have half-forgotten has shaped the world in which we live today. The regulation of marriage and divorce as we know it today, together with the outlawing of bigamy and polygamy and the imposition of criminal sanctions on such activities as sodomy, fellatio, cunnilingus, and bestiality, are all based in large measure upon ideas and beliefs about sexual morality that became law in Christian Europe in the Middle Ages. "Brundage's book is consistently learned, enormously useful, and frequently entertaining. It is the best we have on the relationships between theological norms, legal principles, and sexual practice."-Peter Iver Kaufman, "Church History"

Law, sex, and Christian society in medieval Europe

It is impossible to understand how the medieval church functioned -- and in turn influenced and controlled the lay world within its care -- without understanding the development, character and impact of `canon law', its own distinctive law code. However important, this can seem a daunting subject to non-specialists. They have long needed an attractive but authoritative introduction, avoiding arid technicalities and setting the subject in its widest context. James Brundage's marvellously fluent and accessible book is the perfect answer: it will be warmly welcomed by medievalists and students of ecclesiastical and legal history.

Medieval Canon Law

Medieval canon law and the crusader

Sexual Norms Confession and the Study of Sex in the Middle Ages Pierre J. Payer Sex and Canon Law James A. Brundage Western Medicine and Natural Philosophy Joan Cadden Gendered Sexuality Joyce E. Salisbury Chaste Marriage in the Middle Ages Margaret McGlyn and Richard J. Mol Hiding Behind the Universal Man Male Sexuality in the Middle Ages Jacqueline Murray Variance from Norms Homosexuality Warren Johansson and William A. Percy Twice Marginal and Twice Invisible: Lesbians in the Middle Ages Jacqueline Murray Cross Dressing and Gender Role Change in the Middle Ages Vern L. Bullough Prostitution in Medieval Europe Ruth Mazo Karras Contraception and Early Abortion in the Middle Ages John M. Riddle Castration and Eunuchism in the Middle Ages Matthew S. Kuefler Cultural Issues A Note on Research into Jewish Sexuality in the Medieval Period Norman Roth A Research Note on Sexuality and Muslim Civilization Norman Roth Eastern Orthodox Christianity Eve Levin Sexuality in Medieval French Literature Laurie A. Finke Old Norse Sexuality: Men, Women and Beasts Jenny Jochens Sex Roles and the Role of Sex in Medieval English Literature David Lam

Handbook of Medieval Sexuality

Few societies exist without imposing limits on the sexual activity of their members, and medieval Europe was no exception. These studies examine the legal norms that were set with regard to sexual conduct for the laity and the clergy at that time and the legal sources relating to them.

James A. Brundage

Papers

Law, sex, and Christian society in medieval Europe

Medieval Canon Law

Medieval canon law and the crusader

Handbook of Medieval Sexuality

Sex, law, and marriage in the Middle Ages