The Future of Christianity: Reflections on Violence and Democracy, Religion and Secularization

David Martin

Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2011 - Social Science - 230 pages

This text offers a mature assessment of themes preoccupying David Martin over some 50 years, complementing his book 'On secularization'. Martin deploys secularization as an omnibus world bringing many dimensions into play.

Contents

• Secularization and the Future of Christianity: 1
• Christianity and the World the Religious and the Secular: 3
• Secularization and the Future of Catholicism and Protestantism: 25
• Master Narratives and the Future of Christianity: 45
• Pentecostalism Transnational Voluntarism in the Global Religious Economy: 63
• Has Secularization gone into Reverse?: 85
• Religious Responses to Modes of Secularism: 105
• Science and Secularization: 119
• Case Studies of Secularization: 133
• An Eastern European Pattern of Secularization?: 135
• East Germany The Worlds Most Secular Society: 149
• Religion and Politics Democracy and Violence: 165
• The Religious and the Political: 167
• Christianity Violence and Democracy: 179
• Protestantism and Democracy: 195
• Multiple Ironies and Necessary Paradoxes A Review of Religion Fanaticism and Violence: 207

About the author

Professor David Martin is Honorary Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, Lancaster University ; Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics; and a prolific contributor to public as well as sociological debate about religion. The author of more than 20 books, he has established creative lines of thinking both within the sociology of religion and at the interface between sociology and theology. Early books include Pacifism (Routledge 1965), The Sociology of English Religion (SCM 1967), and The Religious and the Secular (Routledge 1969), but Martin became best known for his magisterial A General Theory of Secularization (Blackwell 1978), which questioned the inevitability of secularization in modern societies. The secularization issue is complex, contingent, and infinitely variable, requiring detailed comparative analysis. Later work, notably Tongues of Fire (Blackwell 1990), elaborates the Latin American case within the "secularization" framework. Forbidden Revolutions (SPCK 1996) continues the commitment to comparative sociology, and Reflections on Sociology and Theology (Oxford University Press 1996) collects a series of essays on the title theme. Most recently (July 2005) Martin has up-dated the secularisation debate in his book On Secularization - towards a revised general theory (Ashgate), and published Christian Language and its Mutations (Ashgate 2002) and As a teacher, David Martin has initiated at least two generations of scholars into the discipline; organizationally he has promoted the sociology of religion both in Britain, through the British Sociological Association's Sociology of Religion Study Group, and internationally as President of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion. His distinction can be quantified in numerous invitations to give the most prestigious public lectures in the field and in a variety of academic appointments in both Europe and the United States.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Future of Christianity: Reflections on Violence and Democracy, Religion and Secularization
• Author: David Martin
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2011
• ISBN: 140940658X, 9781409406587
• Length: 230 pages
• Subjects: Religion / Christian Life / Social Issues; Religion / Christianity / General; Religion / Christianity / History; Religion / Theology; Social Science / Sociology of Religion