Religious Experience: A Sociological Perspective

This paper draws on a wide range of researches to stress the importance of social context to the sociological understanding of religious experiences. It argues that individualistic definitions fail to take into account real group experiences such as those resulting from the reforms of Vatican II. Fo...

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Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Hornsby-Smith, Michael P. (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
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Publié: Wiley-Blackwell 1998
Dans: Heythrop journal
Année: 1998, Volume: 39, Numéro: 4, Pages: 413-433
Accès en ligne: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Édition parallèle:Non-électronique
Description
Résumé:This paper draws on a wide range of researches to stress the importance of social context to the sociological understanding of religious experiences. It argues that individualistic definitions fail to take into account real group experiences such as those resulting from the reforms of Vatican II. For the sociologist, it is important to explore general patterns of group experiences and the meanings attributed to them. The paper discusses some of the methodological and conceptual problems in this area before considering evidence for the patterning of religious experience according to differences of generation, gender, class, level of urbanization, institutional involvement, and status inconsistency. The paper concludes by locating religious experiences in the context of modernity. In contrast to related theories of secularization, it draws attention to the recent work of Hervieu-Léger which suggests that utopian future expectations create space which can only be met by new forms of religious experience.
ISSN:1468-2265
Contient:Enthalten in: Heythrop journal
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/1468-2265.00087