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- Title
Some Trends in European Sociology of Religion: The Secularization Debate.
- Authors
Dobbelaere, Karel
- Abstract
This article intends to explore the secularization debate concerning the trends in European sociology of religion. Europe has published a variety of periodicals about religion and global society, including the relationship between religion, social class, economy, politics and culture. As far as religion and stratification is concerned, typical topics were, the extent to which religion reproduces the social class structure of society, the middle classes and the aggiornamento in the Catholic church, religion and caste, and religion and the working classes. If, in European journals, one finds more articles on religion and the other societal subsystems, periodicals in the U.S., on the other hand, published relatively more on the morphology of the religious field. Indeed, nearly one out of four articles was about denominational membership and the beliefs, attitudes, morals and practices of such members. Sectarian studies were also prevalent in the U.S. In Europe, on the contrary, the Islamic presence is a particular problem and its religious, political, economic and cultural aspects were studied. Secularization thesis emerged as the most powerful theoretical explanation of the relationship between religion and society.
- Subjects
EUROPE; RELIGION &; sociology; RELIGIOUS literature; PERIODICALS; SOCIOLOGY; RELIGION &; culture; RELIGION &; politics
- Publication
SA: Sociological Analysis, 1987, Vol 48, Issue 2, p107
- ISSN
0038-0210
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/3711197