Exploring the Non-Religious
There are good reasons for the German sociology of religion to deal with the non-religious, both from a theoretical and an empirical point of view. Important theoretical points of departure are Weber’s analysis of competing spheres of value as well as his sociology of religion that has become the ba...
| Published in: | Archives de sciences sociales des religions |
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| Authors: | ; |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Ed. de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
2014
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| In: |
Archives de sciences sociales des religions
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| Further subjects: | B
Atheism
B United-States B Science B Germany B Non-religion |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | There are good reasons for the German sociology of religion to deal with the non-religious, both from a theoretical and an empirical point of view. Important theoretical points of departure are Weber’s analysis of competing spheres of value as well as his sociology of religion that has become the basis for Pierre Bourdieu’s work on the religious field. One pressing motivation in empirical terms is the large proportion of non-religious population especially in the eastern part of Germany. It is in this context that this essay sets forth the markers of a sociological study of the non-religious. The authors propose to analytically define the non-religious through its relation to the religious while empirically studying arenas of conflict where relations are established between both of them. Two contrary constellations, i.e. the normative framing of scientific atheism in the GDR* and the enduring societal norm to be religious in the United States, are used to demonstrate how an arena of conflict takes shape in the debate on religion where various religious and non-religious positions compete for interpretive supremacy. In both of these cases, the non-religious position assigns itself a positive identity through its relation to science, partially in an attempt to maintain the borders of the scientific domain, and partially by asserting a basic hierarchy that denies the religious all legitimacy.*GDR = "German Democratic Republic". This was the official title for East Germany under the Communist Regime. |
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| ISSN: | 1777-5825 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Archives de sciences sociales des religions
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.4000/assr.26145 |