Religious change and modernity in the major religions, particularly in Christianity

Staf Hellemans

Chapter 3 in Understanding the Sociology of Religion, 2026, pp 53-87 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Our view of the relationship between religion and modernity has fundamentally changed. From the Enlightenment onwards, religion was often regarded as a largely unchanging, premodern residue bound to decline as modernization proceeded. The surprising tenacity of, and the deep transformations within, the major religious traditions have demonstrated the error of this view. The entanglements of religion and modernity now stand at the forefront of research. The chapter starts with Weber's thesis of ascetic Protestantism as one of the forces driving the rise of capitalism and modernity. It then shows how the embeddedness of Christianity in modernity was reconstructed by sociologists in the USA and in Europe, and how the sociology of Eastern religions in the West and of Islam has proceeded along the same lines. Finally, it presents analyses of the evolution of religion in human history and of its place in modernity (Bellah, axial age).

Keywords: Religion And Modernity; Weber; Denominations In The Usa; Christianity And Modernity In Europe; Sociology Of Islam; Axial Age Debate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035312009
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