Unbelieving in Modern Society ─ Religion, Spirituality, and Religious-Secular Competition

This landmark study in the sociology of religion sheds new light on the question of what has happened to religion and spirituality since the 1960s in modern societies. Exposing several analytical weaknesses of todaya€?s sociology of religion, (Un)Believing in Modern Society presents a new theory of religious-secular competition and a new typology of ways of being religious/secular. The authors draw on a specific European society (Switzerland) as their test case, using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to show how the theory can be applied. Identifying four ways of being religious/secular in a modern society: 'institutional', 'alternative', 'distanced' and 'secular' they show how and why these forms have emerged as a result of religious-secular competition and describe in what ways all four forms are adapted to the current, individualized society.

JA?rg Stolz is professor of Sociology of Religion at the University of Lausanne. Substantively, he works on the description and explanation of different forms of religiosity, evangelicalism, secularization, and comparison of religious groups across religious traditions. He is the author of many articles in leading sociology journals, among which 'Explaining religiosity: towards a unified theoretical framework' in the British Journal of Sociology. He is the president of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion. Judith KA?nemann is Professor of Practical Theology in the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the University of MA?nster, Germany. She works on the description and explanation of various forms of individual religiosity, and religion in the public sphere. She has written: 'Ich wA?nschte, ich wA?re glA?ubig, glaub ich': ZugA?nge zu Religion und ReligiositA?t in der LebensfA?hrung der spA?ten Moderne, has edited several books, such as Bildung und Gerechtigkeit: Warum religiA?se Bildung politisch sein muss (co-authored with Norbert Mette) and is the author of many articles in leading peer-reviewed (theological) journals, including 'Religion and All-Day Schools', in Journal of Empirical Theology, and 'Religious reasons in the public sphere: an empirical study of religious actorsa€? argumentative patterns in Swiss direct democratic campaigns', in European Political Science Review (co-authored with A. BA?chtiger and A. JA?dicke). Mallory Schneuwly Purdie holds a PhD in Sociology of Religion and Applied Study of Religion. She is a researcher at the Institute for the Social Sciences of Religions at the University of Lausanne. Among her recent publications: with co-author Andrea Rota (2014) 'Religion, education and the State: Rescaling confessional boundaries in Switzerland' in Stan Brunn (ed.) The Changing World Religion Map, (New York, 2013); and 'Formatting Islam versus mobilizing Islam in prison: Evidence from the Swiss case'. Thomas Englberger, MA, has worked on the description of religiosity in Switzerland, especially on Roman Catholicism, and on the pluralisation of values and religiosity. Following a qualitative approach, he has written (together with M. Krueggeler et al.) SolidaritA?t und Religion: Was bewegt Menschen in SolidaritA?tsgruppen? Analyzing and comparing different quantitative surveys about religiosity, he has written (together with A. Dubach et al.) Lebenswerte: Religion und LebensfA?hrung in der Schweiz. He is author (together with M. Jakobs et al.) of Konfessioneller Religionsunterricht in multireligiA?ser Gesellschaft focusing on attitudes of religious education teachers in Switzerland. Michael KrA?ggeler, PhD, is a sociologist of religion who has worked both quantitatively and qualitatively on the secularization and individualization of religion. He is a co-author of the books Jede/r ein Sonderfall? Religion in der Schweiz - Ergebnisse einer ReprA?sentativbefragung and SolidaritA?t und Religion: Was bewegt Menschen in SolidaritA?tsgruppen?. Currently, he works as a scientific collaborator at the chair of Sociology of Religion and the Centre for Religion and Modernity at the University of MA?nster, Westphalia