This class provides an introduction to the long-standing and wide-ranging debates in sociology about secularization. The central question that we will explore from a variety of perspectives is: What happens to religion under the conditions of modernity—and why and how so? What we will be trying to figure out is whether modernity (and post-modernity) secularizes religion, strengthens religion, transforms religion, or produces some other effect. Secularization was a central concern in the thinking of the founding fathers of sociology—Weber, Durkheim, Marx, and others. It has also been the core concern of the field of sociology of religion from the start.

Christian Smith
Author

University of Notre Dame
Institution

Private College or University
Institution Type

Resource Type

Undergraduate Course
Class Type

2008
Date Published

Religious Studies, Sociology
Discipline

General Comparative Traditions
Religous Tradition

Pluralism/Secularism/Culture Wars
Topics