LFU:online

Curr. § 5 Para 2 No 1:

Students have advanced knowledge in selected theoretical society models. They understand to apply these models in analysing selected social issues. They are able to determine the pos-sibilities of recognition in the context of social-theoretical models and conditional recogni-tion limits within appropriate theoretical, methodical and empirical arguments and to critical-ly evaluate relevant current socio-theoretical discussions.

This lecture deals with sociology of religion. The lecture will convey to the students the basic principles of religious sociology in the context of theoretical debates on modernization, secularization and religion. In the first part, we will discuss how the secularization thesis was first presented as a paradigm of modernization, and then rejected by scholars since the late 1970s (David Martin, Peter Berger). The question that guides the argument is: if secularization is NOT an indispensable consequence of modernization, in which situation are present-day modern societies? Various models are introduced and presented: The Religious Market (Ingelhardt), Believing Without belonging + Vicarious Religion (Grace Davie), Western Europe as a special case (Eder, Casanova), Multipe Secularisms / Multiple Secularizations (Wohlrab-Sahr), Privatization and Public Religion (Casanova), the postsaccular society (Habermas), Desecularization (Berger, Karpov).
The curriculum is devoted to the study of Western Europe / USA and Eastern Europe / Russia, and the students are encouraged to think about how social theory has been shaped since the middle of the 20th century by the experience of the Cold War the convergence of Europe after the fall of Communism. The return of religion, for example, is an empirical phenomenon in former communist countries, but at the same time these countries are, with few exceptions, more secularized than many West European countries. In Western Europe, on the other hand, we are less concerned with a return than with a pluralization of religion, which in turn encounters resistance in many countries of Eastern Europe.

Preparatory readings - presentations by the lecturer - plenary discussions

Written exam (multiple choice test)

Course-reading:

Pickel, Gert. Religionssoziologie. Eine Einführung in zentrale Themenbereiche. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2011. Dieses Buch ist im Online Bestand der ULB und kann im Uni-System kostenlos heruntergeladen werden!

Additional literature for each session will be provided via OLAT. Additional literature will be in English.

positive completion of the compulsory module according to Curr. § 5 Para 1 No 7.