Olson Daniel V. A. - The role of religion in modern societies

The Role of Religion
in Modern Societies

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31. The Role of Religion in Modern Societies

Edited by Detlef Pollack and Daniel V. A. Olson

The Role of Religion
in Modern Societies

Edited by
Detlef Pollack and
Daniel V. A. Olson

Routledge

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ISBN13: 978-0-415-39704-9 (hbk)

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Contents

DETLEF POLLACK

SECTION 1
Secularization Theory: Classical Assumptions and Ramifications

DAVID VOAS

STEVE BRUCE

OLAF MLLER

SECTION 2
The Market Model: Classical Assumptions and Ramifications

DANIEL V.A. OLSON

ANTHONY GILL

ANDREW GREELEY

SECTION 3
The Individualization Thesis: Classical Assumptions and Ramifications

GRACE DAVIE

ROBIN GILL

DETLEF POLLACK AND GERT PICKEL

SECTION 4
New Theories on Religion and Modernity Exemplified at the European Case

MONIKA WOHLRAB-SAHR

JRG STOLZ

Tables

Figures

Preface

Religion is back on the political agenda of western societies that, for the most part, have come to regard themselves as secularized. Today, the mass media closely follow religious events and developments as never before during recent decades. Politicians are concerned about the political consequences of religious conflicts. Historians, sociologists, and political scientists attempt to explain why religion still influences the thinking and behavior of many people to such a high degree. It was not only the events of September 11, 2001, that sharpened our sensitivity towards the social and political relevance of religious orientations and affiliations. It was also the religious charging of ethnic and national conflicts all over the world, as well as the social and political problems in many western countries that arose from the tendency towards increasing religious heterogeneity in these societies that have long been important points of concern. Due to the unprecedented degree of public visibility and political relevance of religion, the number of social scientists who criticize the secularization thesis and question the generally assumed correlation between modernization and secularization is growing. Religion, they claim, does not decline under the conditions of modernity, but rather gains in strength. Religion and modernity are furthermore not marked by a tense relationship, as the proponents of the secularization theory assume, but rather compatible with one another. In their view, religion can even function as a source of modernization.

Postulations like these challenge many basic assumptions within the social sciences, which from their very beginnings have treated religion and modernity as contradictory. As supported by the sociological classics such as Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Georg Simmel, Ferdinand Tnnies, and others, many social scientists today still propose to interpret the relationship between religion and modernity as one riddled with tension. It is therefore not surprising that fierce dispute has erupted between the proponents of the secularization theory and its challengers over how to adequately interpret the processes of religious change in modern societies. Critics of the secularization theory have mostly rallied around the economic market model, which evolved within the North American sociology of religion. Thus, the argument over the social position of religion under conditions of modernity, and explanations of change therein, is to a large extent an argument between European and American sociologists of religion. This discrepancy in assessment is partly due to differing degrees in the social relevance of religion in the United States and in most European countries. While the social significance of religion and church in many European countries is declining, in the United States religion is publicly visible, fulfills a wide spectrum of social and political functions, and is accepted by many individuals as a guideline for their thoughts and behaviors. It would, however, neither be appropriate to attribute the cognitive differences between European and American sociologists of religion merely to differences in their religious environments, nor would it be convincing to deduce their differing views from their personal religious convictions. Behind their disagreements concerning the role of religion in modern societies lie decisive conceptual differences. Secularization theorists regard religion mostly as a set of traditions, which is increasingly forfeiting its social binding capacity due to rapid societal change. The economic market model regards religion more as a flexible and prolific element of social life that enables self-organization as well as social and political mobilization. In the first model, modern principles such as functional differentiation, the separation between church and state, industrialization, urbanization, higher living standards, pluralism, and individualism have a negative effect on the level of religiosity. In the second, the effects of these principles are in contrast positive. In the first model, emphasis is placed on demands for religion, which are seen to be on the decline, while the second model stresses religious offersassociations, organizations, and institutions that provide religious services. The latter does not include individual religious demands in its analysis, as this factor is regarded as stable and more or less unchanging. The dispute between these two positions is quite entrenched and seems to have deepened rather than relaxed in recent times due to the polemical nature of argumentation between the proponents of both sides (such as Steve Bruce and Rodney Stark, to name only two of the most prominent opponents).