Secularization

"'Secularization' sounds simple, a decline in the power of religion. Yet, the history of the term is controversial and multi-faceted; it has been useful to both religious believers and non-believers and has been deployed by scholars to make sense of a variety of aspects of cultural and social change. This book will introduce the reader to this variety and show how secularization bears on the contemporary politics of religion. Secularization addresses the sociological classics' ambivalent accounts of the future of religion, later and more robust sociological claims about religious decline, and the most influential philosophical secularization thesis, which says that the dominant ideas of modern thought are in fact religious ones in a secularized form. The book outlines some shortcomings of these accounts in the light of historical inquiry and comparative sociology; examines claims that some religions are 'resistant to secularization'; and analyses controversies in the politics of religion, in particular over the relationship between Christianity and Islam and over the implicitly religious character of some modern political movements. By giving equal attention to both sociological and philosophical accounts of secularization, and equal weight to ideas, institutions and practices, this book introduces complicated ideas in a digestible format. It will appeal to students and scholars interested in making unusual connections within sociology, anthropology, philosophy, theology and political theory"--

Cover -- Half Title -- Series Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- List of tables -- Preface -- 1. The career of a concept -- Polemical and technical -- German words -- Secularization is for everyone -- Defining religion -- Notes -- 2. Secularization and ambivalence -- De Tocqueville, Catholicism, and Islam -- Marx on religion and human emancipation -- Max Weber's ambivalence by design -- Durkheim and moral mediocrity -- Georg Simmel's religious people -- Conclusion -- Notes -- 3. Four sociological secularization gospels -- Bryan Wilson: a sober secularization -- Alasdair MacIntrye: class fragmentation -- Peter Berger and the deep roots of secularization -- Philip Rieff and the crisis of culture -- Conclusion -- Notes -- 4. Secularization and philosophy -- Löwith: progress as secularized eschatology -- Voegelin: modern gnosticism as secularized heresy -- Carl Schmitt and modernity's legitimacy problem -- Hans Kelsen's message in a bottle -- Blumenberg, progress and the complementarity of science and myth -- Girard, secularization, and demythologization -- Conclusion -- Notes -- 5. The revenge of history and sociology -- Grand narratives -- Gender and sexuality -- Urbanization -- Pluralism and religious vitality -- Influence: is that all there is? -- Smaller narratives and secularization struggles -- War -- Instead of secularization, the creation of secular spaces: Israel -- Note -- 6. Fundamentalism, zombie religion, secular religion -- The revenge of God -- Political and religious controversy as alaboratory -- Secular religion? -- 7. An inconclusive conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.

Cover; Half Title; Series Page; Title Page; Copyright Page; Dedication; Table of Contents; List of tables; Preface; 1. The career of a concept; Polemical and technical; German words; Secularization is for everyone; Defining religion; Notes; 2. Secularization and ambivalence; De Tocqueville, Catholicism, and Islam; Marx on religion and human emancipation; Max Weber's ambivalence by design; Durkheim and moral mediocrity; Georg Simmel's religious people; Conclusion; Notes; 3. Four sociological secularization gospels; Bryan Wilson: a sober secularization; Alasdair MacIntrye: class fragmentation