TEACHSOC: Re: Religion, Pluralism, and Modernity

Michael Johnston Wed, 23 Nov 2005 08:40:10 -0800

Hi, Khaldoun,

Last year in my methods class, I used articles from ASR which engaged secularization (citations following).

The articles are very empirical. In my opinion, the secularization folks win the very narrow point that they make, which is that church attendance in the US is vastly over-reported.

This ASR debate engendered some very good discussions about the limits of survey research evidence and the operationalization of the secularization concept.

By the way, I really liked your description of the course.

Best wishes,

Michael

Hadaway, Kirk C., Penny Long Marler, and Mark Chaves. 1993. "What the Polls Don't Show: A

Closer Look at Church Attendance." American Sociological Review 58:741-752.

Caplow, T. 1998. "The Case of the Phantom Episcopalians." American Sociological Review

63:112-113.

Hout, Michael and Andrew Greeley. 1998. "What Church Officials' Reports Don't Show: Another

Look at Church Attendance Data." American Sociological Review 63:113-119.

Presser, Stanley and Linda Stinson. 1998. "Data Collection Mode and Social Desirability Bias in

Self-Reported Religious Attendance." American Sociological Review 63:137-145.

Woodberry, Robert D. 1998. "When Surveys Lie and People Tell the Truth: How Surveys Oversample Church

Attenders." American Sociological Review 63:119-122.

There are a few more articles/notes on this topic in this same ASR issue.

-----Original Message-----
From: teachsoc@googlegroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Roberts, Keith
Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2005 8:05 AM
To: Khaldoun Samman; teachsoc@googlegroups.com
Subject: TEACHSOC: Re: Religion, Pluralism, and Modernity

* * * * * * * *

Keith A. Roberts, Ph.D.

Dept of Sociology & Anthropology

Hanover College

Hanover, IN 47243

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Office: 812/ 866-7353

Hi all,

I'll be teaching an upper level course on the topic of

RELIGION AND MODERNITY in Fall 2006 and I wanted to

see if any of you may have suggestions on topics,

readings, out-of-class exercises... It's quite

abstract, but Macalester students handle these type of

courses well. Plus, the fact that most of my students

are secular and anti-religion makes me think that a

critical reading of secularism will be good for them

:-)

Khaldoun:

These are some of the key pieces if you want students to get into the neo-secularization debate. Rodney Stark is among a rather large number of sociologists in the U.S. who have been de-bunking the notion that secularization has been occurring. Some of the sociology of religion texts would also have summaries of these debates. I can send you a summary from my own book if you are interested.

Secularism theory is dead:

Stark, Rodney

2000 "Secularization, R.P.I." Pp. 41-66 in The Secularization Debate. Edited by William H. Swatos, Jr. and Daniel V. A. Olson. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

Stark, Rodney and Laurence R. Iannaccone

1994 "A Supply–Side Reinterpretation of the 'Secularization' of Europe." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (September): 230-252.

Secularism must be reinterpreted:

Dobbelaere, Karel

1981 Secularization: A Multidimensional Concept. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.

2000 "Toward an Integrated Perspective of the Processes Related to the Descriptive Concept of Secularization." Pp. 21-39 in The Secularization Debate. Edited by William H. Swatos, Jr. and Daniel V. A. Olson. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

Making sense of the neo-secularism debate

Chaves, Mark

1993 “Denominations as Dual Structures: An Organizational Analysis.” Sociology of Religion (Summer): 147-169.

1994 “Secularization as Declining Religious Authority.” Social Forces (March): 749-774.

Chaves, Mark and Phillip S. Gorski

2001 "Religious Pluralism and Religious Participation." Annual Review of Sociology (27): 261-281.

Yamane, David

1997 “Secularization on Trial: In Defense of a Neosecularization Paradigm.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (March): 109-122.

Keith