Religious Attitudes and Values

Abstract

Given the limitations of sample size, the material which follows focuses necessarily on Christianity and its contemporary relevance to the neglect of other religious traditions. The impact of the Christian message and the historical processes of conversion, differentiation, secularisation and rejection vary in different cultural and political settings. They involve different degrees of accommodation between Church and State, from persecution and suppression to collusion, establishment and secularised forms of ‘civic religion’ (Bellah, 1964, 1967; Martin, 1978; Gilbert, 1980; Dobbelaere, 1981; Wilson, 1982).