Conceptualizing religion on the macro, meso and micro levels

Staf Hellemans

Chapter 4 in Understanding the Sociology of Religion, 2026, pp 88-112 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: In the wake of the profound changes affecting religion after 1960, sociologists’ previous concentration on Christian institutions gave way to greater attention to the diversity of religious phenomena, to a broader and less institutionalized view of religion and more agentic approaches. As a result, the whole conceptual apparatus of the subdiscipline has been reviewed and expanded. At the macro level, ‘religious field’ has become the most frequently used concept and many process terms (for example, ‘pluralization’ and ‘marketization’) have been introduced. At the meso level, older general concepts, such as ‘church’, have been discarded and replaced by new ones. On the micro level, researchers have been at pains to demonstrate that people do not merely follow prescripts from religious elites but make up their own mind. ‘Lived religion’ and ‘hybrid religion’ have dynamics of their own.

Keywords: Religious Field; Pluralism; Commodification; Church; Sect; Denomination; Cult; Lived Religion; Seekers; Hybridity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035312009
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