Journal ArticleDOI
The secularisation thesis: talking at cross purposes
TLDR
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.read more
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Dissertation
Religion, values, and secularization in Europe: a multilevel. cross-national, comparative analysis of the European Values Study Data
TL;DR: In this article, the author's declaration, acknowledgements, and a table of figures are given, along with a list of tables and appendices. But they do not specify the authorship of these tables.
Book ChapterDOI
In Rhetoric and Practice: Defining the “Good Family” in Local Congregations
Penny Edgell,Michele Dillon +1 more
Book ChapterDOI
Handbook of the Sociology of Religion: The Evolution of the Sociology of Religion
Abstract: The beginnings of the sociology of religion are barely distinguishable from the beginnings of sociology per se. This is hardly surprising, given that its earliest practitioners were the founding fathers of sociology itself, all of whom were committed to the serious study of religion as a crucial variable in the understanding of human societies. Of course, they did this from different perspectives – the outlining of which will form an important part of the paragraphs that follow – but in the early days of the discipline, the paramount significance of religion for human living was taken for granted, if not universally approved. In later decades this significance was seriously questioned, not least by sociologists of religion themselves – a fact exemplified in their prolonged preoccupation with the secularization thesis. In the last two decades, however, the tide of opinion has begun to turn in a different direction, driven – very largely – by the overwhelming (and at times somewhat frightening) presence of religion in the modern world. Given the undeniable relevance of the religious factor to the geopolitical configurations of the new century, the sociological study of religion has gained a new urgency. New tools of analysis and new conceptual understandings are becoming increasingly necessary if sociologists are to understand (a) what is going on and (b) how they might contribute to an evidently important debate. This trajectory – from taken-for-granted significance, through assumed decline, to a reestablished place in the canon – forms the theme of this chapter.
References
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Book
Religion and the Decline of Magic
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.
Journal ArticleDOI
A supply-side reinterpretation of the secularization' of Europe
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.
Book
A Theory of Religion
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.
Book
The World We Have Lost
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.