The Secularization DebateIntroduced to social scientific audiences by Max Weber, the concept of secularization has had a major influence on the way in which religion has been understood in the West. But at least since the late 1980s both the predictive and the descriptive adequacy of this concept have been seriously challenged. In the face of this challenge, The Secularization Debate offers a timely summary of the critical issues that have arisen over the past decade. With its wide range of essays by prominent international scholars, The Secularization Debate is sure to become a pivotal volume for anyone interested in the hotly contested concept of secularization and its continued relevance to the study of religion. |
Contents
Secularization Theory The Course of a Concept | 1 |
Toward an Integrated Perspective of the Processes Related to the Descriptive Concept of Secularization | 21 |
Secularization RIP | 41 |
Secularization in a Context of Advanced Modernity | 67 |
Secularization from the Perspective of Globalization | 81 |
Religion in Modernity as a New Axial Age Secularization or New Religious Forms? | 95 |
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Common terms and phrases
Age of Faith American analysis Andrew Greeley atheism autonomization axial age Bellah bricolage Bryan Wilson Catholic church Catholicism century Christian church attendance civil religion claim clergy concept consequences considered countries cultural decline Durkheim's edited effects ethical Europe European example fact Finke functional differentiation fundamentalist global society historical human Iannaccone Iceland important individual Islamic ISSP ization Jagodzinski Journal Karel Dobbelaere life-world Luckmann Luhmann macro Max Weber medieval nations NRMs Oxford University Press parallel beliefs percent perspective pluralism political popular religion postmodernity process of secularization Protestantism question of secularization refers religious authority religious change religious institutions religious organizations Rodney Stark sacred Scientific Study secularization theory Shiner societal level societal systems sociological sociologists sociology of religion specific spiritual Stark structure Study of Religion subsystem Swatos term theory of secularization thesis this-worldliness traditional trends Tschannen values Vatican II Voyé Wilson World Value Survey York Yves Lambert