Seeing Invisible Religion
Religion as a Societal Conversation about Transcendent Meaning
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2264795 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kelly Besecke (Kenyon College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2005 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 179-196 |
| Publication date | 2005-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociological Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0735-2751 • E-ISSN: 1467-9558 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.0735-2751.2005.00249.x |
| OpenAlex | W2110250895 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 32 |
| References cited | 59 |
Contemporary sociology conceptualizes religion along two dimensions: the institutional and the individual. Lost in this dichotomy is religion's noninstitutional, but collective and public, cultural dimension. As a result, theories of religious modernity, including both sides of the secularization debate, are unable to recognize or evaluate the social power of noninstitutionalized religious communication. This article offers a reconceptualization of religion that highlights its cultural, communicative dimension. Original research on religious talk provides an empirical ground for a theoretical discussion that highlights: (1) the 'invisible' nature of religion in modern societies, as theorized by Thomas Luckmann and (2) the social power attributed to communication by contemporary cultural sociologists and cultural theorists. I argue that conceptualizing religion as an evolving societal conversation about transcendent meaning broadens the empirical and theoretical grasp of the religion concept
Anthropology of religion · Conversation · Epistemology · Explanatory power · History of religions · Late modernity · Modernity · Secularization · Social science · Social theory · Sociology · Sociology of culture · Sociology of religion · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Religious studies · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
The post-secular position and enchanted bodies
Spiritual senses as a resource
Not Just Individualism
Artificial Intelligence as a Challenge for Spiritual-theological Reflection in the Context of the Encyclicals Laudato si' and Fratelli tutti
Pop theology
Media and the Formation of Secular/Religious Networks
Not Decline but Transformation
Religions of Modernity
Religion In Europe And The United States
Más allá de la secularización. Vigencia de Durkheim para el Estudio de las nuevas religiones y espiritualidades de la modernidad tardía
The Nonformative Elements of Religious Life
"Encontrando la religión por fuera de las "religiones
Croyances et transcendances
Advertising communication and spirituality
Por qué no podemos ver la diversidad religiosa
Being Catholic as Reflexive Spirituality
Religio-political influence on social work practice in contemporary India
Por Que Não Podemos Ver a Diversidade Religiosa
Deep down where the music plays
Practice Makes Perfect
The Infirmity Debate
Beyond the Spiritual Supermarket
Quasi-Messianism and the Disenchantment of Politics
Eclectic Religion
How religious space is constituted by means of metaphors. The Buddhist Sīmā as a semiotic case study - with special consideration of the distinction between the urban and the wilderness
Epílogo - La ¿"nueva"? Espiritualidad
The glocalizations of Eastern Orthodox Christianity
The notion of secularization
A Christian Cancellation of the Secularist Truce? Waning Christian Religiosity and Waxing Religious Deprivatization in the West
Spirituality, Gender, and Expressive Selfhood
Public/Private Religion in Context
Not a lonely crowd? Social connectedness, religious service attendance, and the spiritual but not religious
A rumor of angels
Religion in sociological perspective
Sharing the journey
The churching of America, 1776-1990
The denominational society
Religion And Modernization
Acts of Compassion
After Heaven
Talk of Love
The Interpretation of Cultures
The sacred canopy
Habermas and the public sphere
Civil Society and Political Theory
The Meanings of Social LifeA Cultural Sociology
The New American Cultural Sociology
Avoiding Politics
Public Religions in the Modern World
Secularization, R.I.P
The Search for Political Community
Secularization as Declining Religious Authority
Unsecular Man
Supply-Side Explanations for Religious Change
Articulating Religious Meaning in Conversation
Rediscovering the Sacred
Historicizing the Secularization Debate
Civil society and political theory
Spiritual Marketplace
Mobilizing Local Religious Markets
Religious Economies and Sacred Canopies
Unsecular Man
Evaluating the Evidence
A House Divided
Beyond Belief
Deep Structure in Community Cultures
The Resilience of Christianity in the Modern World
Culture Wars? Insights from Ethnographies of Two Protestant Seminaries
Secularization in a Context of Advanced Modernity
Towards an Integrated Perspective of the Processes Related to the Descriptive Concept of Secularization
I Come Away Stronger
Observations on the Corporate Culture of a Gay and Lesbian Congregation
Secularization on Trial
The Secularization Paradigm
Demographics of Religious Participation
How the Upstart Sects Won America
The Resilience of Christianity in the Modern World
Religion in Sociological Perspective
Two Traditions in the Study of Religion
Religious Culture and Political Action
Culture in Interaction
| Unique citing works | 32 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,6 |
| Citation span | 2006 - 2026 (21) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 30 |