Church and Religion in Contemporary Europe

Results from Empirical and Comparative Research
2009
ISBN: 978-3-531-16748-0
Verlag: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften

Buch, Deutsch, 204 Seiten, Format (B × H): 170 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 398 g

Reihe: Veröffentlichungen der Sektion Religionssoziologie der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie

The third position of interest is the market approach. One issue that needs to be examined here is whether the degree of separation of church and state and religious pluralism affect the vitality of the religious field or not. Proponents of the market approach claim that the modern age is not necessarily diminishing religion but can even foster it, namely because it always falls short of its own (Finke/Stark 1988, 2006; Iannaccone 1991; Stark/Iannaccone 1994; Iannacone/Finke/Stark 1997; Warner 1993). According to them, it mainly stimulates religious productivity due to the economic principle of competition. The more pluralistic the religious field and the more market-oriented its organizational forms (and exactly this is assumed to happen in modern times), the more religious vitality is encouraged: under competitive conditions, the providers of religious services are forced to face the particular challenge of retaining their members and of attracting new members, responding to the needs of their clientele and offering efficient services. However, if one particular church holds a religious monopoly, its officials become indifferent and “lazy”; they lose their ability to be socially responsive. Much like in business, competition is good for religion, too. Besides, customers who are dissatisfied with a religious product in a pluralistic religious market can look for another religious product to better suit their needs, while their only alternative in a monopolistic religious structure is to turn away from religion altogether.

Zielgruppe

Professional/practitioner

Autoren/Hrsg.

Müller, Olaf

Pickel, Gert

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Empirische Sozialforschung, Statistik
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionssoziologie und -psychologie, Spiritualität, Mystik
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Religionssoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

– The Comparative View on Religion and Religiosity.- Why, at all, do we need Religion? Religion and Morality in Post-Communist Europe.- Religious Pluralism and Dimensions of Religiosity: Evidence from the Project Religious and Moral Pluralism (RAMP).- Religiosity in Europe and in the Two Germanies: The Persistence of a Special Case – as revealed by the European Social Survey.- Religion in Finland and Russia in a Comparative Perspective.- Religiosity in Central and Eastern Europe: Results from the PCE 2000 Survey in Comparison.- Secularization as a European Fate? – Results from the Church and Religion in an Enlarged Europe Project 2006.- Religious Oddities: Explaining the Divergent Religious Markets of Poland and East Germany.- Church-State Relations and the Vitality of Religion in European Comparison.- European Exceptionalism: Lazy Churches, Pluralism, Adherence and the Case of the Dutch Religious Cartel.- Religion, Popular Piety, Patchwork Religion.

Über Autor(innen)

Gert Pickel, Prof. Dr., Professor of Sociology of Religion at the Institute for Practical Theology, University of Leipzig.
Olaf Müller, research associate at the Cluster of Excellence „Religion and Politics in Pre-modern and Modern Cultures“ and at the Institute of Sociology at University of Münster.