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Sociology of religion is the study of the beliefs, practices and organizational forms of religion using the tools and methods of the discipline of sociology.This objective investigation may include the use both of quantitative methods (surveys, polls, demographic and census analysis) and of qualitative approaches (such as participant observation, interviewing, and analysis of archival ...
Various sociological classifications of religious movements have been proposed by scholars. In the sociology of religion , the most widely used classification is the church-sect typology . The typology is differently construed by different sociologists, and various distinctive features have been proposed to characterise churches and sects.
The sociology of religion is distinguished from the philosophy of religion in that sociologists do not set out to assess the validity of religious truth-claims, instead assuming what Peter L. Berger has described as a position of "methodological atheism". [161]
Beckford has called for sociologists of religion to end their isolation from other sociological disciplines, arguing in Religion and Advanced Industrial Society (1989) that this might return religious studies to their former position of prominence, and has explored various adjacent sociological fields himself in his writings.
The sociology of religion also deals with how religion impacts society regarding the positive and negatives of what happens when religion is mixed with society. Theorist such as Marx states that "religion is the opium of the people" - the idea that religion has become a way for people to deal with their problems.
Pacifism: A Historical and Sociological Study (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1965). A Sociology of English Religion, (SCM, 1967) "Towards a General Theory of Secularization", European Journal of Sociology, vol. 10 (December 1969). The Religious and the Secular, (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969) Tracts against the Times, (Lutterworth, 1973)
Nancy T. Ammerman is Professor Emerita of Sociology of Religion at Boston University.Her edited anthology Everyday Religion: Observing Modern Religious Lives [2] was a significant advance in the study of everyday religion—the term she tends to prefer—by bringing together work by scholars such as Courtney Bender [4] and Meredith McGuire [5] who have shaped the study of living religion ...
In sociology, secularization (British English: secularisation) is a multilayered concept that generally denotes "a transition from a religious to a more worldly level." [1] There are many types of secularization and most do not lead to atheism, irreligion, nor are they automatically antithetical to religion. [2]