P Beyer
Biographic Data
| ID | 4184 |
|---|---|
| NAME | P Beyer |
| GIVEN NAMES | P |
| FAMILY NAME | Beyer |
| SIGNATURE | BEYER P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Ottawa |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4168-8668 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 77 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 135 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 77 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1983 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Measuring Nonreligion as Absence: Testing Various Approaches
We examine the strengths and weaknesses of different "absence measures" scholars use to classify individuals as religious or nonreligious. Drawing on a novel dataset with data from eight countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Norway, the UK, and the USA), we analyze how many people would be considered nonreligious based on four common measures: religious affiliation, religious service attendance, belief in a monotheistic god, a…
Religion in the 21st Century: Disciplinary Critique, Global Restructuring, Categorical Diversity
Religion as a category and object of study in (Western) academia has undergone a sequence of upheavals over the last several decades, responding to significant transformations in global society and as a reflection of internal disciplinary developments. This paper focuses on such transformations and developments principally within the disciplines the sociology of religion and religious studies. After summarizing these transformations, it presents …
Reimbursement models to tackle market failures for antimicrobials: Approaches taken in France, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States
INTRODUCTION: The pipeline of new antibacterials remains limited. Reasons include low research investments, limited commercial prospects, and scientific challenges. To complement existing initiatives such as research grants, governments are exploring policy options for providing new market incentives to drug developers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Reimbursement interventions for antibacterials in France, Germany, Sweden, US, and UK were reviewed and a…
The Liquidation of the Church, written by Kees de Groot
Religion in Interesting Times: Contesting Form, Function, and Future
Religion in our world is not just a contested category, it is also one which does political work, having implications for the distribution of power in society. Classifying social action and symbols as religion or as something else, above all culture or spirituality, has political implications and is used to carry out political struggles. Starting from two concrete contemporary examples drawn from the Canadian context having to do with smudging an…
The I-zation of Society: Religion, and Neoliberal Post-Secularism
The I-zation of Society: Religion, and Neoliberal Post-Secularism." Journal of Contemporary Religion, 34(2), pp. 375–376
Infidels and the Damned Churches: Irreligion and Religion in Settler British Columbia
Dimensions of Diversity: Toward a More Complex Conceptualization
The article assesses the complexity of religious diversity through a presentation of results from the Religion and Diversity Project, a seven-year project conducted between 2010 and 2017 and centred at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Analyzing five dimensions of diversity-the religions, lived, strength, institutional and forms dimensions-it demonstrates how results from the project support the thesis that religious diversity itself is changing …
Religion and Modernity: An International Comparison
Religion and Modernity: An International Comparison." Journal of Contemporary Religion, 33(1), pp. 135–136
Globalization, Religion and
Globalization describes the historical process by which all the world's people come to live in a single social unit. Religion constitutes an important dimension of globalization through its worldwide institutional presence, through its importance in structuring individual and collective cultural difference, and as an effective resource for local and global social mobilization for various goals. Religion is a highly contested, occasionally powerfu…
Sensing religion, observing religion, reconstructing religion: Contingency and pluralization in post-Westphalian context
The article argues that what is performed and understood as religion in global society has in the course of the modern centuries come to be increasingly dominated by the idea that religion is something distinct and differentiated, something distinct from what is not religion, namely the secular. It manifests itself principally as a plurality of identified and performed religions. Towards the latter half of the 20th century, however, that dominant…
Globalization and Religion
Flowers on the Rock: Global and Local Buddhisms in Canada
The religions of Canadians
Spirit and Power: The Growth and Global Impact of Pentecostalism
The literature on Pentecostalism, including that which focuses on its global and growing character, is by now more than substantial. Therefore, the first question that one will ask of this book is what it contributes to our understanding of the phenomenon. This is not the first collection to document, not just the global, but the highly diverse nature of the phenomenon in question. In most every aspect, Pentecostalism varies significantly accordi…
Religious Radicalization and Securitization in Canada and Beyond
Religious Radicalization and Securitization in Canada and Beyond is an ideal guide to the ongoing debates on how best to respond to radicalization without sacrificing the commitments to multiculturalism and social justice that many Canadians hold dear."--pub. desc
Religion in the Context of Globalization: Essays on Concept, Form, and Political Implication
Peter Beyer has been a central figure in the debate about religion and globalization for many years, this volume is a collection of essays on the relation between religion and globalization with special emphasis on the concept of religion, its modern forms and on the relation of religion to the state. Featuring a newly written introduction and conclusion which frame the volume and offer the reader guidance on how the arguments fit together, this …
Religions in Global Society
Peter Beyer, a distinguished sociologist of religion, presents a way of understanding religion in a contemporary global society - by analyzing it as a dimension of the historical process of globalization. Introducing theories of globalization and showing how they can be applied to world religions, Beyer reveals the nature of the contested category of ‘religion’: what it means, what it includes and what it implies in the world today. Written with …
European Multiculturalisms: Cultural, Religious and Ethnic Challenges
Questioning the secular/religious divide in a post-Westphalian world
Current debates in sociology are questioning not only the secularization thesis, that religion is inevitably declining under conditions of modernity, but also the notion of the secular and its relation to religion. Beginning with a brief look at six representative scholars who have been prominent in this debate, this interpretative essay seeks to contribute to it on the basis of a distinction between a 'Westphalian' and a 'post-Westphalian' way o…
Observing Religion in a Globalized World: Late Twentieth-Century Transformations
The basic hypothesis informing the author's presentation is that there exists a consonance between two strictly related historical developments: that of globalization and that of religion formation. The late 20th century has seen a significant change in these respects, both in the institutional realities of religion and religions around the world, but even more so in terms of the scientific, official, and popular observation of religion. This cha…
Max Weber, Capitalism and the Religion of India
Peter B. Clarke: Tributes
Association for the Sociology of Religion Presidential Address * Socially Engaged Religion in a Post-Westphalian Global Context: Remodeling the Secular/Religious Distinction
Contemporary transformations in the dominant forms of religion in global context are analyzed in terms of a change from a dominance of a “Westphalian ” modeling of religious and political systems to a “post-Westphalian ” condition in which Westphalian modeling loses its self-evidence and gives way to a greater modeling of religion on other societal systems, especially the systems for mass information media and economy. Recent changes in sociologi…
Religious Conversion and Disaffiliation: Tracing Patterns of Change in Faith Practices by Henri Gooren
Religious Vitality in Canada: The Complementarity of Religious Market and Secularization Perspectives
Peter Beyer, Religious Vitality in Canada: The Complementarity of Religious Market and Secularization Perspectives, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Jun., 1997), pp. 272-288
Privatization and the Public Influence of Religion in Global Society
Questioning the secular/religious divide in a post-Westphalian world
Current debates in sociology are questioning not only the secularization thesis, that religion is inevitably declining under conditions of modernity, but also the notion of the secular and its relation to religion. Beginning with a brief look at six representative scholars who have been prominent in this debate, this interpretative essay seeks to contribute to it on the basis of a distinction between a 'Westphalian' and a 'post-Westphalian' way o…
Association for the Sociology of Religion Presidential Address * Socially Engaged Religion in a Post-Westphalian Global Context: Remodeling the Secular/Religious Distinction
Contemporary transformations in the dominant forms of religion in global context are analyzed in terms of a change from a dominance of a “Westphalian ” modeling of religious and political systems to a “post-Westphalian ” condition in which Westphalian modeling loses its self-evidence and gives way to a greater modeling of religion on other societal systems, especially the systems for mass information media and economy. Recent changes in sociologi…
The future of non-Christian religions in Canada: Patterns of religious identification among recent immigrants and their second generation, 1981-2001
This paper addresses the question whether recent immigration to Canada from non-European and mostly non-Christian parts of the world is leading to increasing religious pluralism in Canada, rather than only enhanced ethno-cultural pluralism. Testing Reginald Bibby's hypothesis that, in spite of this immigration, Christianity will continue as the overwhelmingly dominant religious identification in Canada, this article analyzes data from the 1971-20…
The Religious System of Global Society: A Sociological Look at Contemporary Religion and Religions
Controversies within religious studies over the categories of religion and religions are reflective of changes in religion that correspond to the historical development of global society in recent centuries. The globalization of society has created social conditions that encourage the differentiation of religion as a distinct modality of social communication based on binary codes and centred on institutionalized programmes that flow from these. T…
The Modern Emergence of Religions and a Global Social System for Religion
The article posits that central to contemporary notions of religion and religions has been the gradual development of a differentiated global social system for religion that manifests itself in a plurality of mutually distinguished religions. What counts as religion within this globalizing system and the globalized cultural model for what constitutes a religion are both the product of a highly selective historical process. The presentation of the…
Handbook of the Sociology of Religion
This Handbook showcases research and thinking in the sociology of religion. The contributors, all active writers and researchers in the area, provide original chapters focusing on select aspects of their own engagement with the field. Aimed at students and scholars who want to know more about the sociology of religion, this handbook also provides a resource for sociologists in general by integrating broader questions of sociology (e.g. demography…
Dimensions of Diversity: Toward a More Complex Conceptualization
The article assesses the complexity of religious diversity through a presentation of results from the Religion and Diversity Project, a seven-year project conducted between 2010 and 2017 and centred at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Analyzing five dimensions of diversity-the religions, lived, strength, institutional and forms dimensions-it demonstrates how results from the project support the thesis that religious diversity itself is changing …
De-Centring Religious Singularity: The Globalization of Christianity as a Case in Point
Recent scholarship in religious studies has again questioned the validity of the idea of religions and of certain religions in particular, such as Hinduism. The debate raises the question of how any religion, including Christianity, can be thought of or lived as a singular identity in today's world. While this is a very broad question with a very long history, this presentation translates the matter into one of the relation between globalization,…
Religion in Interesting Times: Contesting Form, Function, and Future
Religion in our world is not just a contested category, it is also one which does political work, having implications for the distribution of power in society. Classifying social action and symbols as religion or as something else, above all culture or spirituality, has political implications and is used to carry out political struggles. Starting from two concrete contemporary examples drawn from the Canadian context having to do with smudging an…
Global migration and the selective reimagining of religions
It is a commonplace in discussions of immigrant religion to speak of how religion aids in the adjustment of migrants to a new culture and society; how it serves as a dimension of continuity in the process of integration. This article examines theoretical foundations for reconsidering this perspective in the context of globalization in general and global migration in particular. In a global society, it is far less useful to think of migrants as le…
Globalizing Systems, Global Cultural Models and Religion(s)
The social-scientific discussion on globalization has produced several versions that reflect tension and ambiguity in the object itself: global society. A number of polarities operate within the literature to express this tension, among them the distinction between global and local, modern and traditional, postmodern and modern, system and life-world, West and non-West, and so forth. The article uses the difference between instrumental system and…
Public Religions in the Modern World
Constitutional Privilege and Constituting Pluralism: Religious Freedom in National, Global, and Legal Context
Lori Beaman argues that religious freedom in Canada and the United States is well established in theory (or myth) but limited in practice, privileging Protestantism in particular and varieties of Christianity in general. Focusing on the treatment of other religions in the courts of the two countries, she defends the hypothesis that these legal systems tend to reinforce the hegemony of Christianity, using this as an implicit model of what constitu…
Sensing religion, observing religion, reconstructing religion: Contingency and pluralization in post-Westphalian context
The article argues that what is performed and understood as religion in global society has in the course of the modern centuries come to be increasingly dominated by the idea that religion is something distinct and differentiated, something distinct from what is not religion, namely the secular. It manifests itself principally as a plurality of identified and performed religions. Towards the latter half of the 20th century, however, that dominant…
Not in My Backyard: Studies of Other Religions in the Context of SSSR—RRA Annual Meetings
In the early years of the two associations, relatively few papers or sessions focused on religions other than Christianity or on religion outside North America, with the partial exception of Judaism. The combined effects of organizational growth and events in the surrounding world, however, led to progressively more treatment of “other” religions and the religions of “others.” Beginning in the mid‐1960s, specific themes of “otherness” established…
European Multiculturalisms: Cultural, Religious and Ethnic Challenges
Measuring Nonreligion as Absence: Testing Various Approaches
We examine the strengths and weaknesses of different "absence measures" scholars use to classify individuals as religious or nonreligious. Drawing on a novel dataset with data from eight countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Norway, the UK, and the USA), we analyze how many people would be considered nonreligious based on four common measures: religious affiliation, religious service attendance, belief in a monotheistic god, a…
The I-zation of Society: Religion, and Neoliberal Post-Secularism
The I-zation of Society: Religion, and Neoliberal Post-Secularism." Journal of Contemporary Religion, 34(2), pp. 375–376
The global environment as a religious issue: A sociological analysis
The article examines the possible sociological import of recent environmental concern by various religious actors and organizations. It argues that the rise to dominance of instrumental systems such as the world economy and global system of states has brought about globalization and the global spread of values like equality and progress. The holistic style of religion prevents it from developing as a parallel instrumental system but also suits it…
The United Church in crisis: A sociological perspective on the dilemmas of a mainstream denomination
The Mission of Quebec Ultramontanism: A Luhmannian Perspective
This article applies aspects of Niklas Luhmann's theory of society to 19th century Quebec ultramontanism. Luhmann analyzes the difference between pre-modern and modern societies in terms of a shift from a dominance of stratified differentiation to a dominance of functional differentiation. It is shown that the Quebec ultramontane view of society is consistent with the former but not the latter. Accordingly, the ultramontane idea that French Canad…
La vision religieuse de Louis Riel: L'ultramontanisme Canadien-français au service de la nation métisse
Danseurs dans le désert: Une Etude de dynamique sociale. Jan van Kessel
Technische Denkmale in Großstädten (9. bis 10. Juni 1983 in Leipzig)
Article Technische Denkmale in Großstädten (9. bis 10. Juni 1983 in Leipzig) was published on April 1, 1984 in the journal Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook (volume 25, issue 4)
La vision religieuse de Louis Riel: L'ultramontanisme Canadien-français au service de la nation métisse
The Mission of Quebec Ultramontanism: A Luhmannian Perspective
This article applies aspects of Niklas Luhmann's theory of society to 19th century Quebec ultramontanism. Luhmann analyzes the difference between pre-modern and modern societies in terms of a shift from a dominance of stratified differentiation to a dominance of functional differentiation. It is shown that the Quebec ultramontane view of society is consistent with the former but not the latter. Accordingly, the ultramontane idea that French Canad…
Religious Dogmatics and the Evolution of Societies
Journal Article Religious Dogmatics and the Evolution of Societies by Niklas Luhmann, translated with an introduction by Peter Beyer. New York: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1984, liii + 357 pp. $49.95 Get access JoAnn Chirico JoAnn Chirico Washington and Jefferson College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 47, Issue 3, Fall 1986, Pages 279–281, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711386 Publishe…
La Scientologie: Une Nouvelle Religion De La Puissance
Journal Article La Scientologie: une nouvelle religion de la puissance, by Roland Chagnon. Montreal: Hurtubise HM, 1985, x + 264 pp. Get access Peter Beyer Peter Beyer University of Toronto Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 47, Issue 4, Winter 1987, Pages 360–361, https://doi.org/10.2307/3710948 Published: 01 December 1987
Privatization and the Public Influence of Religion in Global Society
Christianity and Chinese Religions
The United Church in crisis: A sociological perspective on the dilemmas of a mainstream denomination
The global environment as a religious issue: A sociological analysis
The article examines the possible sociological import of recent environmental concern by various religious actors and organizations. It argues that the rise to dominance of instrumental systems such as the world economy and global system of states has brought about globalization and the global spread of values like equality and progress. The holistic style of religion prevents it from developing as a parallel instrumental system but also suits it…
Twentieth-Century World Religious Movements in Neo-Weberian Perspective
Church and Organization: A Sociological and Theological Inquiry
Journal Article Church and Organization: A Sociological and Theological Inquiry, by Joseph F. McCann. Scranton, PA: University of Scranton Press and Associated University Presses, 1993, 258 pp. $39.50 Get access Peter Beyer Peter Beyer University of Toronto Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 55, Issue 2, Summer 1994, Pages 217–218, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711865 Published: 01 Ju…
Religion and Globalization
Faces in the Clouds: A New Theory of Religion
Religion and Globalization
Journal Article Religion and Globalization, by Peter Beyer. London: Sage Publications, 1994, 250 pp. $21.95 (paper) Get access Kenneth Westhues Kenneth Westhues University of Waterloo Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 56, Issue 3, Fall 1995, Pages 339–340, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711827 Published: 01 October 1995
The Globalization of Theological Education
Journal Article The Globalization of Theological Education, edited by Alice Frazer Evans, Robert A. Evans, and David A. Roozen. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993, xviii + 266 pp. $18.95 paper Get access Peter Beyer Peter Beyer University of Toronto Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 56, Issue 2, Summer 1995, Pages 225–226, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711772 Published: 01 July 1995
Public Religions in the Modern World
A Solitary Pillar: Montreal's Anglican Church and the Quiet Revolution
Journal Article A Solitary Pillar: Montreal's Anglican Church and the Quiet Revolution, by Joan Marshall. Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, xiv + 220 pp. CAN$ 34.95 Get access Peter Beyer Peter Beyer University of Ottawa Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 57, Issue 1, Spring 1996, Pages 106–107, https://doi.org/10.2307/3712011 Published: 01 March 1996
The Struggle over Singapore's Soul: Western Modernization and Asian Culture
Journal Article The Struggle Over Singapore's Soul: Western Modernization and Asian Culture, by Joseph B. Tamney. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1996, xii + 238 pp. $49.50 (hbk), $24.95 (pbk) Get access Peter Beyer Peter Beyer University of Ottawa Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 58, Issue 3, Fall 1997, Pages 290–292, https://doi.org/10.2307/3712219 Published: 01 October 1997
Cults in Context: Readings in the Study of New Religious Movements
Journal Article Cults in Context: Readings in the Study of New Religious Movements, by Lorne L. Dawson, (ed.). Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press, 1996, xii + 468 pp. $47.95 (pbk) Get access Peter Beyer Peter Beyer University of Ottawa Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 58, Issue 2, Summer 1997, Pages 198–199, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711880 Published: 01 July 1997
Religion and Globalization
Religious Vitality in Canada: The Complementarity of Religious Market and Secularization Perspectives
Peter Beyer, Religious Vitality in Canada: The Complementarity of Religious Market and Secularization Perspectives, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Jun., 1997), pp. 272-288
The City and Beyond as Dialogue: Negotiating Religious Authenticity in Global Society
The disjunction of time and space under conditions of globalization is bringing about an ongoing reformulation of the boundaries between seemingly clear orienting polarities, including those between core and periphery, metropolis and hinterland, home and away, global and local; and more generally, identity and difference. Using these polarities as analytic points of departure, this paper lays some theoretical foundations for raising questions abo…
The Religious System of Global Society: A Sociological Look at Contemporary Religion and Religions
Controversies within religious studies over the categories of religion and religions are reflective of changes in religion that correspond to the historical development of global society in recent centuries. The globalization of society has created social conditions that encourage the differentiation of religion as a distinct modality of social communication based on binary codes and centred on institutionalized programmes that flow from these. T…
Global migration and the selective reimagining of religions
It is a commonplace in discussions of immigrant religion to speak of how religion aids in the adjustment of migrants to a new culture and society; how it serves as a dimension of continuity in the process of integration. This article examines theoretical foundations for reconsidering this perspective in the context of globalization in general and global migration in particular. In a global society, it is far less useful to think of migrants as le…
Sociology (63 works) · Philosophy (56 works) · Religion and Society Interactions (50 works) · Political science (48 works) · Religion, Society, and Development (42 works) · Law (37 works) · Religious studies (32 works) · Epistemology (27 works) · Globalization (21 works) · History (21 works)