Old and New Gods in the Modern World

Toward a Theory of Religious Transformation

Bibliographic Data

ID2555980
AuthorsTimothy Crippen (University of Mary Washington, corresponding author)
Year1988
Volume67
Issue2
Pages316
Publication date1988-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Forces (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0037-7732 • E-ISSN: 1534-7605
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2579184
OpenAlexW4242036787
LanguageEN
Citations received13

Both in the popular mind and in the social sciences, images of the modern world and the forces that brought it into existence frequently incorporate some notion of secularization as an essential process. Challenging the secularization thesis is the focal concern of this essay; claims of diminishing religious significance are reinterpreted as evidence of religious transformation. The argument unfolds initially by outlining the secularization thesis and identifying its principal weaknesses. Next, the contributions of key sociological theorists (Durkheim and Marx, in particular) serve as a basis for extracting some useful elements of the transformation thesis. Finally, the hypothesis of religious transformation is presented with special reference to the relation between the evolution of sacred symbols and the market and polity dimensions of sovereign organization in the modern world

Argument (complex analysis) · Economics · Epistemology · Political science · Politics · Polity · Positive economics · Relation (database) · Secularization · Social science · Sociology · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Society, and Development · Religious Tourism and Spaces

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