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Journal ArticleDOI

The secularisation thesis: talking at cross purposes

01 May 1997-Journal of Contemporary Religion (Taylor & Francis Group)-Vol. 12, Iss: 2, pp 159-179
TL;DR: This paper argued that careful attention to the definition of terms, together with a division of existing arguments relating to the thesis into a broad approach and a narrow approach, would greatly assist in the clarification and evaluation of arguments concerning the secularisation thesis.
Abstract: This article does not seek to argue for or against any aspect of the secularisation thesis. It argues that careful attention to the definition of terms, together with a division of existing arguments relating to the thesis into a “Broad Approach”; and a “Narrow Approach”; would greatly assist in the clarification and evaluation of arguments concerning the secularisation thesis. It argues further that it is vital for historical data to be correctly researched, handled and applied. The article concludes that there is a significant amount of confusion caused by the failure to define terms and apply historical data with care. This makes it difficult to make headway with the secularisation debate or to evaluate properly the alternative model of “Desacralisation”; (Stark & Iannaccone, 1994), so that theorists are often talking at cross purposes.
Citations
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MonographDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a case study of Islam and politics in post-communist Europe and the United States is presented, focusing on the theory of existential security and the consequences of Secularization.
Abstract: 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.

2,608 citations

Book Chapter
01 Jan 2004
TL;DR: The Sacred and Secular is essential reading for anyone interested in comparative religion, sociology, public opinion, political behavior, political development, social psychology, international relations, and cultural change as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Sacred and Secular is essential reading for anyone interested in comparative religion, sociology, public opinion, political behavior, political development, social psychology, international relations, and cultural change.

267 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Aug 2003
Abstract: For modern social theory, as well as for many ordinary people, religious identities have been a problem. Just what does it really mean to claim a Jewish or Christian identity? To think of oneself as Presbyterian or Baptist? What do we know of that new church down the road that simply calls itself “Fellowship Church”? And do any of those things have anything to do with how we might expect someone to perform their duties as a citizen or a worker? As modern people have loosened their ties to the families and places that (perhaps) formerly enveloped them in a cocoon of faith (or at least surrounded them with a predictable round of religious activity), they can choose how and whether to be religious, including choosing how central religion will be in their lives. Religious practices and affiliations change over a complicated lifetime, and the array of religious groups in a voluntary society shifts in equally complex ways. If religious identity ever was a given, it certainly is no longer. In his influential work on religion and personal autonomy, Philip Hammond posits that, given the mobility and complexity of the modern situation, individual religious identities are of various sorts – either ascribed (collectivity-based) or achieved (individual) and either primary (a core or “master” role) or secondary (Hammond 1988). In the premodern situation, religion was presumably collective and core. In the modern situation, taking up a collective, core religious identity is a matter of (exceptional) choice, not determinism.

190 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Aug 2003
TL;DR: The Hart-Cellar Immigration Act of 1965 as discussed by the authors was one of the first immigration laws that allowed immigrants from Asia and Latin America to become a majority of the population of the United States.
Abstract: Changes in U.S. immigration laws in the past four decades have had far-reaching consequences for American religion. Even though the majority of the new immigrants are Christian (Warner and Wittner 1998; Ebaugh and Chafetz 2000b), the practices, symbols, languages, sounds, and smells that accompany the ethnically and racially diverse forms of practicing Christianity, brought by immigrants from Latin America, the Caribbean, the Philippines, China, Vietnam, India, Africa, and elsewhere challenge the various European practices of Christianity that have predominated in the United States since its founding. As Maffy-Kipp (1997) argues, rather than immigrants “de-Christianizing” religion in America, they have, in fact, “de-Europeanized” American Christianity. In addition, the new immigrants have brought religious traditions, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, Vodou, and Rastafarianism, that were unfamiliar to Americans prior to the mid-1960s. Today many American neighborhoods are dotted with temples, mosques, shrines, storefront churches, Christian churches with foreign names, guadwaras, and botannicas. THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT The “new immigrants” refer to those who entered the United States after the passage of the Hart-Cellar Immigration Act of 1965. The abolition of the country-of-origin quotas established in 1924, and the dramatic increase in immigration visas provided to people from Asia and Latin America, in particular, significantly altered the racial and ethnic backgrounds of immigrants. For example, the number of Asian immigrants living in the United States rose from about 150,000 in the 1950s to more than 2.7 million in the 1980s, while the number of European immigrants fell by more than one-third.

189 citations

BookDOI
01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlight current research and thinking in the sociology of religion and provide a resource for sociologists in general by integrating broader questions of sociology (e.g., demography, ethnicity, life course, inequality, political sociology) into the analysis of religion.
Abstract: Religion is a critical construct for understanding contemporary social life. It illuminates the everyday experiences and practices of many individuals; is a significant component of diverse institutional processes including politics, gender relations, and socioeconomic inequality; and plays a vital role in public culture and social change. This handbook showcases current research and thinking in the sociology of religion. The contributors, all active writers and researchers in the area, provide original chapters focusing on select aspects of their own engagement with the field. Aimed at students and scholars who want to know more about the sociology of religion, this handbook also provides a resource for sociologists in general by integrating broader questions of sociology (e.g., demography, ethnicity, life course, inequality, political sociology) into the analysis of religion. Broadly inclusive of traditional research topics (modernity, secularization, politics) as well as newer interests (feminism, spirituality, faith-based community action), this handbook illustrates the validity of diverse theoretical perspectives and research designs to understanding the multilayered nature of religion as a sociological phenomenon.

160 citations

References
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Book
01 Jan 1971
TL;DR: The best book is the best book for each of us as mentioned in this paper, and we offer the best here to read, after deciding how your feeling will be, you can enjoy to visit the link and get the book.
Abstract: We present here because it will be so easy for you to access the internet service. As in this new era, much technology is sophistically offered by connecting to the internet. No any problems to face, just for this day, you can really keep in mind that the book is the best book for you. We offer the best here to read. After deciding how your feeling will be, you can enjoy to visit the link and get the book.

1,757 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article proposed 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.
Abstract: 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.

703 citations

Book
01 Jan 1987
TL;DR: Stark and Bainbridge as mentioned in this paper have made pioneering and enduring efforts in writing this book, and to a large extent they have been successful in their attempt to explain deductively why and how the phenomena of religion occur.
Abstract: Winner of the 1993 Distinguished Book Award, Pacific Sociological Association "A major work in three different areas of sociology, [A Theory of Religion] is a model of how to build a systematic theory, a leading accomplishment of the rational choice school, and a comprehensive theory of religion...It is a sobering as well as penetrating vision. [This] book deserves a great deal of attention, both in the sociology of religion and in wider realms of social theory."--Randall Collins, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion "The value of [this book] lies in the distance it carries sociology toward a scientific theory of religion and in the sustained rigor of its deductive application. It is a 'must read' for anyone interested in the scientific study of religion or the formal axiomatization of sociology."--Thomas Ryba, Zygon "Stark and Bainbridge have made pioneering and enduring efforts in writing this book, and to a large extent they have been successful in their attempt to explain deductively why and how the phenomena of religion occur."--K. Peter Takayama, Journal of Church and State In this unique text, Stark and Bainbridge begin with basic statements about human nature and, employing the principles of logic and philosophy, build toward increasingly complex propositions about societies and their religious institutions. They provide a rigorous yet flexible sociological theory or religion as well as a general sociological model for deriving macrolevel theory from microlevel evidence. Rodney Stark is a professor of sociology and of comparative religion at the University of Washington and co-author of The Churching of America, 1776-2005: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy (Rutgers University Press). William Sims Bainbridge is director of the sociology program at the National Science Foundation and author of Goals in Space: American Values and the Future of Technology.

689 citations

Book
01 Jan 1965
TL;DR: The World We Have Lost is widely regarded as a classic of historical writing and a vital book in reshaping our understanding of the past and the structure of family life in England as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: What was life like in England before the Industrial Revolution? The World We Have Lost is widely regarded as a classic of historical writing and a vital book in reshaping our understanding of the past and the structure of family life in England. Turning away from the prevailing fixation of history on a grand scale, Laslett instead asks some simple yet fundamental questions about England before the Industrial Revolution: How long did people live? How did they treat their children? Did they get enough to eat? What were the levels of literacy? His findings overturned much received wisdom: girls did not generally marry in their early teens, but often worked before marrying at much the same ages that young people marry today. Most people did not live in extended families, or even live their whole lives in the same villages. Going beyond the immediate structure of the family, he also explores the position of servants, the gentry, rates of migration, work and social mobility. Laslett’s classic work was crucial in causing an important sociological turn in early modern English history and remains as fresh and exhilarating today as upon its first publication. This Routledge Classics edition includes a new Foreword by Kevin Schurer.

634 citations