Sociology of religion
Sociology of religion studies how religious beliefs, practices, organizations, and communities interact with social structures and institutions.
Émile Durkheim: French sociologist whose work established foundational theories of social cohesion, ritual, and religion. His account of religion as a source of collective solidarity shaped the field’s core questions.
Religion: A broad family of beliefs, practices, and institutions concerned with sacred realities and ultimate concerns. The field studies social dimensions of this broad and contested category.
Civil religion: A society’s shared sacred symbols and rituals that express collective identity beyond formal religious institutions. It reveals how national belonging can take on religious forms.
Secularization theory: A family of theories predicting declining religious authority or practice as societies modernize. It offers a prominent explanation of religion’s changing place in modern institutions.
Max Weber: German sociologist who analyzed how religious ideas relate to authority, economic conduct, and social change. His comparative studies connect religious ethics and institutions to wider social transformations.
Ritual: A patterned symbolic action performed according to shared conventions, often marking collective meanings or transitions. Rituals make religious belonging visible and coordinate shared experience.
Religion and politics: The study of interactions between religious beliefs, organizations, political institutions, and political behavior. Religious institutions can shape political participation, authority, and public debate.
Desecularization: The renewed or continuing public influence of religion in societies expected to become more secular. It challenges accounts that treat religious decline as an inevitable result of modernization.
Peter L. Berger: A sociologist known for analyzing religion as a socially constructed reality and for studying secularization. His work shows how communities sustain religious worlds through shared meaning and institutions.
Religious organization: A structured group that coordinates religious leadership, membership, resources, and activities. Organizational forms shape authority, participation, and relations with surrounding society.