Explaining religious vitality: Theoretical considerations and empirical findings in Western and Eastern Europe

Abstract

If, thirty or forty years ago, a social scientist had tried to determine the social position and development prospects of religion and the churches in modern societies, he would probably have relied on the secularization theory. This theory assumes that the modern age and religion are in a strained relationship, and that the more modern a society is, the less socially relevant religion and the churches become. Industrialization, tertiarization — the growth of the service industry — urbanization, increasing prosperity, higher education levels, greater mobility, rationalization, cultural pluralism, individualization — all these factors and whatever other processes are normally viewed as being typical of modernity have, so say the secularists, a negative effect on the continued existence of religion.