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The article focuses on the sociology of religion. In particular, the author discusses the study of this field of research in universities and institutions in the United States. The author cites two special issues by the journals "Sociology of Religion" and the "Journal of Scientific Studies of Religion" that recount the history of the sociology of religion from the 1980s to 2009. According to the article, the sociology of religion is integrated into sociological research in universities in the United States in contrast to other countries.

In the line of Foucault, L. Segato analyses contemporary religious activity as a form of body politics in which religions and states compete within the context of globalization. M. Koenig underlines the juridical legitimation of religion by the European parliament which guarantees religious institutions a new place in the public sphere. In his critique of these two approaches, the author considers that the contemporary religious vitality is rather related to the capacity of religion to create new subjects, in other words new members who are joining religious movements without regard or respect for national political and religious regulations, both in Europe and in the rest of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of compromise refers to a symbolic exchange organizing the mutual relationships of parties while recognizing their otherness. It facilitates bringing individual perspectives together, without fusing viewpoints. Thus compromise permits the emergence of an intersubjective organization of the real, while defining the context of that emergence. In this sense, it is at once the creator and the regulator of social reality. The example of a Catholic chaplaincy illustrates the common good that can emerge from a situation of pluralism regulated by compromise. Reflection on the process of the Lebanese civil war shows us that a weak founding compromise leads to a transformation of the common good, headed towards social deconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the beginning of the 1990s, unforeseen actors emerged from the periods of political crisis that took place in Africa. Among those actors was the Catholic Church. Approaching the mobilization for democratization from the angle of the resources activated by the various actors, this article analyses "compromise" as a resource which made it possible for the national catholic authorities to play a role in these sociopolitical transformations. If, to this day, the theoretical range of "compromise" has been adequately brought to light, the empirical value of the concept is not well known. This is why this contribution mainly aims at exposing the conceptual operationalization of "compromise" obtained from an analysis of contents. As a conclusion, we propose a three-point discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is an investigation of the generation effect in Christian-Muslim relations. Inter-faith activities have been developing rapidly for the past 15 years in France. They raise questions related to religious identities, recognition of minorities and geopolitical effects. Christian participants are often pensioners, whereas Muslims are much younger. The issue of religious identity arises both among young Muslims and young Christians, but often has opposite effects. Muslims find a place for diversity and recognition in inter-faith, whereas the Christians find it difficult to affirm themselves as believers in a secular society and are less attracted to dialogue. The generation gap between younger and older Muslims, in addition to the effect on religiosity, influences relations with non-Muslims. Activities aimed at getting along together, rather than holding discussions, are generally more attractive to younger participants. Moreover, these inter-faith relations are strongly characterized by a failure to appreciate the other, which can turn into a kind of paternalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, the author discusses the need to view rationality and mysticism in terms of their fundamental elective affinities. He then analyses this type of configuration from a theoretical point of view through one of the key episodes in the history of western thought, highlighting the affinities of design and structure between mysticism and illuminism. This is followed, in conclusion, by some considerations on their intrinsic dialectic within the postmodern sphere. After a conception that tended to freeze the infinite variety of life and its forms of expression into the abstract uniqueness of a universal grammar, this critical-mystical reasoning opens the way for new and different languages that can aid us in rethinking the destiny of humans and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Basque cooperatives, as examples of utopian voluntary groups, are at the crossroads between three normative systems: social economy, territorial identity and Christian belonging. Since the 1970s, the founding experience of Mondragón (Guipuzcoa) has spread and developed in the French Basque country in a way that reveals the power of the convergence between a religious reference (first as institutional support, later as a source of values, beliefs and capacities) and an identity-based motivation (helping to cement a nationalist political view and a selective re-reading of customs). More widely, the case of these cooperatives helps to criticize the extreme postulate that Western contemporary societies have undergone an overwhelming process of secularization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

French. La réflexion en philosophie des religions a connu dans le dernier quart de siècle un tournant radical: le paradigme rationaliste classique hérité de la 'théologie naturelle' a été sévèrement critiqué dans sa prétention universaliste et d'autres paradigmes ont été proposés pour rendre compte du phénomène religieux, en particulier ceux de l'empirisme philosophique, du fidéisme post-moderne et de l'épistémologie réformée. L'enjeu central dans ce conflit de paradigmes porte, postulons-nous, sur le statut rationnel du phénomène. Nous examinons dans ce texte les conséquences qu'entraîne, en sociologie des religions, l'adoption des présupposés paradigmatiques sur le statut rationnel des croyances religieuses. Cet examen aboutit à une évaluation de l'apport des critiques du paradigme rationaliste classique à la lumière de la question de la rationalité. English. The philosophy of religions has experienced a radical turn in the last 25 years: the universalist rationalist claim of the classical rationalist paradigm inherited from 'natural theology' was strongly criticized and new paradigms were proposed to account for the religious phenomenon, particularly the following: the 'philosophical empiricist', the 'post-modern fideist' and the 'reformed epistemology'. We postulate that the rational status of religious phenomenon is the central issue of the paradigmatic conflict. We examine the consequences of paradigmatic presuppositions concerning the rational status of religious beliefs on the sociology of religions. We also examine the contributions of these new paradigms to the problematic of rationality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author of this article seeks to examine the definition of religion as a social fact, that is, a reality which stands outside individual consciousness, which is collective, and obligatory. The author notes that religion, as a body of practices and representations which refers back to something transcendent and sacred, continues to exercise many functions, and still appears irreplaceable as a means of conferring meaning on individual existence. Religion, then, is a "fragmented" social fact, in the sense that it is a personal option, and does not become an external, collective and obligatory fact except within a limited group.

Introduces the theme of the articles featured in volume 46, 1999 issue of the journal "Social Compass."

M. Weber and E. Troeltsch have already given a rough plan of a sociology of christian dogmas. This is the perspective taken by the author and in the light of the historical data available today, he takes up again the problem of a sociological approach of dogma relating to the unity of the Church (Nicea, 325). Through the study of the functions of the eucharistic cult, of the notions of alliance, of Church and of Episcopacy, one can see the regulatory processes of the unity of the faithful develop in an historical context in evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author notes that despite the work of Troeltsch and Weber, later sociology did not provide substantial treatment of the organizational aspects of religious phenomena. This shortcoming both on the theoretical and empirical level can perhaps be explained by the fact that churches have a tendency to conceal the problems of their organization behind a quasi-theology, and sociologists do not always avoid the images and interpretations that the churches provide of themselves. The author then cites three reasons which seem to militate in favor of a more thorough analysis of the organizational and bureaucratic aspects of the churches' activity. He also proposes several ways of reflecting on the faithful's changing perception of the Catholic Church as well as its democratization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of Durkheim's writings shows clearly how he was profoundly committed to religious or quasi-religious convictions. This paper puts to one side the legacy of his Jewish origins to concentrate upon the kind of faith he himself called "humankind's religion" ("la religion de l'humanité"). The paper starts with a discussion of the literature on "civil religion" (Bellah, Wallace, Schoffeleers) in order to argue that this form of religion constitutes a minimal element of Durkheimian beliefs. The textual analysis proves consistently that neither patriotism nor any kind of internationalism is the object of Durkheimian faith. Durkheim has sometimes professed a faith in science, but in an analogical sense, as we can easily understand. In the last analysis, the real object of the Durkheimian cult is the human condition, "a fully religious ideal". In opposition to those forms of theocentrism or cosmocentrism which occur in other religions, Durkheim maintains an anthropocentric concern. For him the human being is to the highest degree, a very sacred thing, a being who "possesses this transcendent majesty which the churches of all times attribute to their gods". To him, this human is never an isolated individual; far from it. Through the individual, one recognizes "humankind which is truly respectable and sacred". The paper stresses the importance of this insight in order to elucidate Durkheimian sociology and, more generally, the Durkheimian commitment to "the science of human beings". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We can profit from the disagreement between Mauss and Durkheim over two questions concerning Durkheim's theory of religion. (a) Durkheim's reflections on religion arrive at an ontology of the sacred ("virage essentialiste"). Mauss, on the contrary, believes that the mana is a more comprehensive category than the sacred, and more useful for the study of non-semitic religions (such as the Chinese). (b) Does a religious feeling exist? Durkheim, who follows William James's psychological theory, thinks so. Mauss, however, believes that religious feeling does not exist as such, but comprises collective and immanent feelings only. The consequence of this is to displace Durkheim's theory of the sacred. Mauss's disagreement with Durkheim about those two central points was not open, so the theory of the sacred became the "normal paradigm" (in Thomas Kuhn's sense) of the sociology of religion. This "normal paradigm" (socio-religion, in José A. Prades's term) is more suited to an explanation of the religious phenomena of traditional society than it is able to define the specific concerns of postmodern society. Between Mauss and Durkhem, who is right? Georg Simmel proposes a relational Sociology--not a relativistic one--which offers new and interesting insights concerning many phenomena of the modern and postmodern society: from money to fashion; from the urban way of life to the arts; from group dynamics to social conflicts. A relational sociology of religion may be the starting-point for a profitable analysis of religious phenomena in postmodern society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Author presents the thought of three German theoreticians J. Habermas, R. Döbert et G. Dux of critical sociology (Frankfort School) who all envisage the rapport society--religion in a diachronic manner by basing themselves on the same key concept of Weltbild: the image an assemblage of individuals or societies form of the world during a period varying in amplitude. After having attempted to delimit this concept and the reality from which it stems, the Author surveys the diverse models of Weltbilder proposed by each of the theoreticians. At the same time he shows that there is a paradox in wishing to stress diachrony and evolution by means of a concept referring essentially to the synchronic. Through this analysis of Weltbilder there emerges a critique of religion as institution as well as as conception of world. This critique is not always negative, but it becomes radically so when it predicts a more and more marked placing between parentheses of religion and its increasing marginalization. Distancing himself with regard to these theoreticians, the Author undertakes finally a critique of critical sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this introduction, A. Nesti lays out the principle characteristics of the nature and dialectic of contemporary Spanish Catholicism: the dependence of Spain on foreign investments, the role of the monarchy at the time of the change in regime, the formation of a political class for whom the anti-Franco struggle was unknown, the impulse in favour of change within the boundaries of civil society and the Church, and the europeanization of the Iberian peninsula. The study of contemporary Catholicism in Spain permits, as do few other cases, the exploration of a society in all its specificity during a period within which it restructured itself according to a process of capitalist modernization. With the aid of numerous contributions to this edition of Social Compass, it is not only a knowledge of the Spanish phenomenon which is made possible but, due to its emblematic character, a deapening of the sense and of the destiny of contemporary Catholicism well beyond the horizons of the Mediterranean basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrism as a phenomenon is difficult to circumscribe in reality. Moreover, it has been the subject of much fantasizing, indeed of many conflicting interpretations. Yet, these complex and sometimes different realities have been subsumed under one word: integrism. On the basis of a semantic and a genetic approach and of a survey of the current situation, the Author endeavours to clarify what, in France, were and often still are today the quarrels between integral catholics, social catholics and Christian democrats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can modern man escape the paralizing effects born of the relativity attached to the historical and sociological approach of religious and ethical phenomena? This question lies at the centre of Troeltsch's intellectual enterprise as it appears from the Soziallehren and other earlier or later works by the same author. The present contribution shows how Troeltsch posed the problem and solved it at different moments in his carreer. It stresses the importance that Troeltsch constantly attributed to responsibility and compromise in individual as well as in collective choices. For him, history and sociology can give us access to only relative forms of transcendence; yet these are enough tho choose and act freely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In what way does the sociology of everyday life constitute a specific approach which is particularly suitable for the analysis of religion? The analysis of everyday life presupposes that we take as our point of departure the individual, reactivy to events against the background of the spaces-times which are familiar to him. The various individual reactions help to modify the socio-emotional situations from which values become stabilized and are generated. Thus while on the descriptive plane, the analysis of everyday life presupposes micro-observation it nevertheless leads on the interpretative plane to the bringing out of an overall social determinant. This determinant is relatively important for understanding religious phenomena... In this text, the term religion is understood as an everyday life term, which makes it possible to characterize a response to a permanent social problem: the dialectic of sense and nonsense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following article presents a study carried out by the Centre Régional d'Etudes Socio-Religieuses de Lille (France). (Regional Center for Social-Religious Studies of Lille ∼France), The aim is to find out the part that preaching plays in society. From a sample of 27 speeches gathered in that area, it would appear that it is the moral aspect of questions brought up by preachers, rather than the doctrinal or ritual ones, which must be regarded as the most striking when considering this type of discourse. As for the present shift in ecclesiastic vocabulary which uses "Homily" rather than "Sermon," this would indicate a preference among preachers for an inductive approach rather than a deductive one. This study was carried out by a research center serving pastoral action, with a strictly scientific outlook. And the authors are well aware of the questions that are bound to arise concerning such a study?, and more basically, what is the role of sociology? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the seventies a lot of studies dealt with religious phenomena. They were initiated by remarkable changes of the relations people had to churches and to religion in general. In many cases the churches themselves searched for empirical data to recognize these processes more precisely. This is why most of these studies are not primarily oriented on progress of theoretical knowledge in the field of sociology of religion but on facts "relevant for practitioners' work." Although they start with theoretical reflections in one or another way they often do this with the help of other social science disciplines. Most of them borrow their theoretical bases from general sociology or social psychology. Nevertheless these studies show a great deal of very interesting results, recognition and further interpretation of which may be relevant under aspects of sociology of religion as well. These results may be divided into two categories. One part contains topics of primarily church-oriented religion, for example church-membership, participation in church life, and professional roles within the church, mainly the role of the parish priest. Research work focussed on questions of religion in general includes studies on religious beliefs held by persons or groups, on the process of religious socialization and on the relevance of religious thoughts and convictions for everyday life and action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The critical social theory and philosophy of the "Frankfurt School" and its followers within German Sociology analyses religion within dialectic framework of religion as ideology, as utopical thinking and as part of social change. Theodor W. Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, two of the founding lathers of the Frankfurt School and up to now of great influence not only within German sociology, in their essays dealing with religion, too--religion never was the main topic of any of their writings--tried to show that religion especially in its present "neutralized" (Adorno) form is part of the ideological glue that keeps our one-dimensional, totalitarian society together and going. Max Horkheimer, besides Adorno the second founding lather the restablished the Frankfurt School in Germany after World War II, unlike Adorno and Marcuse discussed religion explicitly in his writings several times and always concentrated on the positive aspects of religion. Religion for him is a possible dimension of autonomy against the the overwhelming forces of social control. For Horkheimer religion and Critical Theory itself converge in the desire for a totally different future. This emphasis on the positive-utopical aspects of religion is combined with a critical theory of evolution by Jürgen Habermas and Rainer Döbert. These recent representatives of the old critical tradition try to include Webers point of view, too, who, in short, had tried to show how religion is a way of developing human rationality. Habermas and Döbert view religion as a cognitive potential" in society, that--in terms of its ethics and view of life--has developed fundamental norms of an universalistic ethic and thus is a prerequisite of human progress and emancipation. Finally it has to be stated that the theoretical, speculative-philosophical "leg" of the Critical Theory of religion is as oversized as the empirical leg is underdeveloped. Only recently a generation of critical theologians, inspired by... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, product of a reflection on the contribution of Marxism to Latin-American sociology of religion, analyzes the tasks, conditions, limits and scope of sociology of religion in the socio-political circumstances of today's Latin-America. Beginning with an axiomatic definition of every form of knowledge as partial, partisan, presumptive and provisional, the author tries to disclose the advantages and consequences of that definition for Latin-American sociologists of religion engaged in the struggle against oppression. In this sense, the author concentrates on issues such as those of totality, objectivity, values, human interests, usefulness, politics and language, in their relationship to the sociology of religion in today's Latin-Amerca. The author closes his reflections with a call for a sounder epistemological watchfulness, underlining the cognitive and political relevance of constantly posing oneself such questions as what for, for whom and with whom does one do sociology of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By reviewing and examining all those texts where Max Weber deals with the concept of "charisma," the author attempts to restore as faithfully as possible the great German sociologist's thought on this subject from the viewpoint of his comprehensive method in political sociology. Thus we learn that Weber used the notion of charisma in an attempt to account for those explosive elements which, from time to time, disturb politics or life in general, but which, in the long run, cannot last or maintain their exceptional strength. Political lucidity nevertheless consists in recognizing that any society or any system can be challenged by a charismatic force, even if the only way this force can be perpetuated is by itself becoming a system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article begins with a survey and comparison of Marx's critique of religion and Weber's sociology of religion. Marx prefers to analyze religion as an ideology, i.e., he sees above all the negative function of religion which is to legitimize social relations of domination, and interprets it 1) as a necessary but inverted reflection of a social reality in which men do not control nature; 2) as a mechanism of projection in which man projects his genuine being into a world beyond, a projection destined to fade away when man in society is capable of rationally controlling his collective existence. In his analysis Weber prefers the meaning-producing function that religion performs in different ways during different periods of historical development. Nevertheless he does not neglect the legitimizing function of religion which he analyzes minutely. Both Marx and Weber herald the coming of a religionless society, but a closer look at the articulation of meaning that inspires the intellectual praxis of the two authors reveals that 1) Weber falls back into the irrational polytheism of contradictory values and does not avoid having ultimate recourse to the miracle solution of charisma which frees him from the formalism (meaninglessness) of instrumental reason (reification of bourgeois consciousness), whereas 2) Marx in his utopia of communism articulates an objective, global meaning that responds to a social rationality and reverts to the universalizing, demythifying and anthropocentric inspiration of the gospel message. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article summarizes a study presented by the author as a doctoral thesis at the Catholic University of Louvain. The approach adopted consists in establishing a theoretical and conceptual framework which would take into account corresponding relationships among the different systems of the society, at the origin of which is the mode of economic production. The origin of changes and tensions among systems in their fundamental aspects is to be found in changes in the mode of production. It is this which leads us to establish three models of society: agrarian, transitional, industrial. The heuristic framework established serves as a hypothesis of work for approaching the empirical reality. Key periods in Sinhalese society were studied and chosen in terms of significant changes such as the adoption of Buddhism, the two colonisations (Portuguese and English) and independence. The main conclusions of the study of these different periods is given in the article. The introduction of Buddhism a little after the establishment of the first Kingdom would correspond to the dysfunctional character of Brahminism in the new type or society demanded by the new organization of production. The study of Kandyan feudality in the XVIIIth century provides a parameter for the analysis of the effects of two types of colonisation Kandyan feudality further offers a typical case of a unique structure with almost completely corresponding expressions in the mode of production, the social system, the political organization and the religious system. The difference between the two colonisations consists in the fact that the Portuguese expressed their ideology in religious terms and justified their conquest on religious grounds whereas the English established a non-religious ideological system, using Christian institutions as an instrument of politics and not as a system of explanation. Hence the effect on Sinhalese society was different in the two cases: religious exclusivity in one and ... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author begins by delineating the approach to religiosity that is peculiar to anthropology, as distinguished from that of sociology which, in the main, investigates religion's political and ideological role. The phenomenon he studies is popular religiosity, seen against the background of Brazilian culture --one that is derived, and alive with change. Setting off from Weberian theory and Bourdieu's epistemological framework, he proposes a new model, as more dynamic and founded on apter concepts. Side by side with the 'legitimate' religious structures, such as the world religions, present-day Brazilian society exhibits numerous elements of popular religion. Some come from African or Indian religions, having survived the encroachments of western culture, while others are the remnants of primitive or pagan cults, that were imported with medieval Catholicism. The article analyzes several such phenomena, as well as studies made recently about them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, a by-product of a research project, starts off with a critique of available typolooies of Latin American Catholicism. Pin, Buntig, Camargo, Azevedo, Comblin, Rolin and others have made indisputable contributions to the sociology of Catholicism, but their typologies are still deficient. In emphasizing the multiplicity of forms that Catholicism takes, they play down its unity. It is not the writer's intention to produce a new typology. Any typology is finally tied down to the observer's frame of reference: while it can describe phenomena, it gets us no nearer to their explanation. A different approach to the study is here proposed, one which takes into account both the unity and the polymorphism of Catholic religiosity. The author achieves this by putting forward the notion of constellation of acts, i.e. that set of acts which establish the same type of relationships between man and the sacred. He analyzes direct and mediated relationships, as well as their effects on the pattern of Catholic practice. This leads to a definition of popular Catholicism that is cast in terms of the individual's relationship with the sacred, thus bypassing the Church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking into account the fact that all points of view, including the sociological, are inevitably partial, a sociology of religious phenomena may be said to be capable only of studying that which corresponds to a social reality. The proliferation of sociographic studies on the relationship between religion and society has its roots in a form of sociological theory of religion so impoverished as to place it on the margins of the discipline in relationship to sociological theory in general. This means that it is now necessary to start to re-develop theory relating to the sociology of religion. This article is an attempt to do this in relation to the analysis of the phenomena of religious innovation. As a result, the article moves in three successive stages from sociological theory to the sociology of religion and from there to the application of a theoretical model to certain aspects of the Church as an institution. It appears that the religious institution legitimates some values but has been deprived in contemporary western society of its previous monopoly of the definition of what is legitimate. This is the reason why, after an analysis of the sociological literature, the process of « secularization » and « pluralism » appear as the factors which are defining the actual situation and are chosen as key variables in determining the extent to which one could today regard religious innovation as creative or merely adaptive. The evidence of this attempt to analyse the situation of religious institutions starting from their situation in society and following a particular theoretical approach, indicates that religious innovation is clearly adaptive in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author rejects the form of sociology which reduces the objectives of religion simply to the products of quite other factors. In the first part of his work he deals with the collective formation of ideas and with the theology of the world of the imagination ; he sees here the possibility of a dialogue between Sociology and Theology. The next stage of his argument--entitled « collective formation of ideas and the sociology of consciousness » -- demonstrates that there is such a close and constant relationship between these two concepts that they should not be separated. A sociology of collective consciousness is also a sociology of social facts. Normally « Realsoziologie » studies the forces of making for cohesion and « Bewusstseinssoziologie » those making for disintegration. Finally, in a passage entitled « collective formation of ideas and the anthropology of dreams », the author makes a strong plea for a sociological approach to Utopian dream worlds, or to the dreams which make up such a world, or for a sociology of the world of the imagination, as suggested by R. Bastide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section presents an outline of topics to be discussed at the 11th International Conference for Sociology of Religion in Yugoslavia on September 20 to 23, 1971.

In adopting a structural point of view in order to analyse institutionalized forms of religious life, we were led not only to show the totality or the system from which the different elements take their meaning, but also we had the possibility of comparing organized religious life with other forms of social organizations. Using this method, it becomes possible, on the one hand, to bring to light the latent functions of certain elements of the system; and on the other hand, to question the credibility of the meanings which are officially attributed to organized religious life. Among the elements which go to make up the meaning of religious life, this study is concerned with the model of authority. In order to describe the tensions which organized religious life is undergoing at the moment, one can separate the various institutions by treating them as systems which are evolving under the single pressure of internal forces. However, if we wish to explain such phenomena, it is indispensable to reinsert the structure which is being studied into a larger cultural setting, the dominant culture of the period. In fact, organized religious life confers a positive meaning on its institutions in taking up again in an unconscious way the cultural models which have been interiorized by the whole of society in a diffused manner, which because of this possesses a high credibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents three fundamental problems which should be included in an account of research in sociology of religion. The A. situates these problems within the framework of the French situation and seeks to present them "not under a theoretical aspect, but from an organizational approach such as they arise from a structure". The A. first analyses the lack of means by which sociological research is affected. University education allows little place for sociology of religion and even if the situation is better at the level of scientific research, the possibilities remain poor. Catholicism has given rise to many initiatives, but initiatives which provide 'on the whole a nucleus, some good elements, forming a dispersed and dissimilar whole'. The difficulty with regard to formulating an objective of research in this field in operational terms, and the division between fundamental research and applied research constitute other non negligible handicaps. The second problem raised by the A. is that of the backwardness of the theoretical approaches. Research in being chiefly orientated towards the systematic and scientific study of religious practice has met with another field of investigation: collective detachment with regard to a religion. The problem of 'dechristianisation' calls for other methods, another theoretical framework which at the moment comes up against a 'stone wall': how to link practice or the lack of practice to this faith of which it is an expression. To come across this wall would suppose, among other things, that we surmount the dichotomy artificially imposed between practice and faith. How explain that existing beliefs so long intact have ceased to constitute the basis of a political order, of a social consensus? Such a kind of research must make use of instruments other than analysis of behaviour: 'it is indispensable to go as far as (the faithful's) thoughts, beliefs and prayers'; it must lead to the double... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present age, the progress of our knowledge concerning the forms of religious membership depend less on more precise instruments for measuring behaviour and explicit beliefs than on hypotheses derived from sociology of knowledge and of culture. This implies in its turn the invention of new techniques, where the possibilities of interviewing are criticized. We were faced with the question in our work with F. Boulard: comparing the results of the census of Sunday Mass attendance in the majority of French towns. This change in scale in relation to monographic analyses has brought to light a link between religious observance and the cultural structure of the group, that is to say collective cultural patterns progressively formed in the course of history and transmitted in a quasi-hereditary fashion. This leads us to propose the following hypotheses: religious behaviour is an expression in daily life, of implicit cultural patterns, which direct the believer to diverse behaviour and beliefs. These cultural patterns operate even if they are unknown. They are transmitted independently. Thus the social efficacy of religion would be due to its insertion in latent cultural structures and to unconscious transmission. A religious crisis would be more serious if it results from an evolution of these latent cultural patterns. This affects the conception of the person who through an original work, tries to express, and even to invent in an unconscious way, these collective patterns. In order to verify these hypotheses, it seems important to detect several levels of interpersonal communication and examine the extent to which they are in continuity or not. Such was our aim in two research studies. One, entitled Analysis of the ideology of students at the University of Louvain' attemps to compare religious membership arising from criteria defined by authority, the church as a reference group, religious and ideological evaluation of oneself and ones environment, various... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the events of the first session of Vatican II in mind the author examines from a sociological point of view the particular socio-cultural phenomenon which this Council itself presents, in view of its composition, structure and functions. He then surveys relations between the Council and the world on the three levels of the Catholic community, the unity of Christians, and of the totality of religions with humanity itself. From whatever angle the Council is thus analysed it is always presented as an outstanding phenomenon whose capital importance can no more escape the religious sociologist than the Christian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering side by side the points of view of the theologian and the sociologist, the authors clarify the new possibilities offered by bringing sociology to bear on the reflections of the theologian. In particular they point out that sociology is useful in constructive criticism, and in the adaptation of the Church's Institutional forms. From this point of view the re-instatement of the principle of collegiality offers the best possible framework in which the sociologist and the theologian can meet. In it the latter is particularly well-pleased to render service to the Church, and to help her to disengage from an institutional status quo which has been only too restrictive, and in the maintenance of which her main vital forces have been hitherto occupied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the analysis of growth in the number of ordinations very little attention has been paid, as a general rule, to any interpretation in sociological terms (hypotheses) of the characteristics of the growth curve. In this article an attempt is made to establish a basis for a study in greater depth, thanks to a new analysis of the data available for Holland. The need for this new analysis arose because the curve of births calculated by Dellepoort did not take suficient account of the changes which had occured in the demographic composition of the population. It is possible to demonstrate that this growth curve is of a general kind and cannot be attributed to any factors of a religious nature, such as the creation of new orders or congregations. One must see a connection with the socio-structural changes which occurred in Dutch society. The author concludes his article by putting forward some hypotheses which might account for the rise in the number of ordinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author sees three distinct periods and three different directions in religious sociology in Poland. In the first period, the sociologists were concerned with religion as an element in popular culture. In the second period, followers of the school of Znaniecki concerned themselves with the influence of socio-religious groups on the formation of social conscience. After 1957, the influence of research on Catholicism in France made itself felt and, as a result, a study was made in Poland of religious attitudes and practice. The studies enabled some features to be established in the rate of religious feeling and even created some sort of basis for the formation of general hypotheses which, however, still need verification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author brings to light the differences between the themes which dominated the authors of classic Sociology of Religion and the contemporary themes. Among these, he distinguished two courants: the first and the oldest, and which is studied in the other countries of western Europe, is essentially related to pastoral problems; and the second, which is more recent, attempts to attach itself to the theories of general Sociology and from this starting point tries to see better its' problematic. Finally he brings to our attention the multiplication of studies with this tendancy, which have been made within the past few years, studies which, despite certain profitable results, remain nevertheless insuffisant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author attempts to calm fears which arise, among ecclesiastical authorities and faithful, from explanation and analysis in the field of the sociology of religion. In so far as the Church is at the same time a temporal and spiritual society the sociology of religious groups complements the field of theology. But springing from an empirical science, the results of sociological investigation, given the complexity of religious phenomina remain relative. Such investigation however usefully underliness the fact that the Church exists « in the world ». [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A theologian is proposing a collaboration between sociology and ecclesiology of the same kind as already exists between philosophy and theology. Sociology would elaborate concepts useful in ecclesiology, to the extent that theology was in contact with the latter discipline. Sociology in this view, would pose precise questions to theology, and would draw forth data from the theologian the implications of which he could not refuse to consider. From an example taken from the sociology of G. Gurvitch, the author shows to what extent such a proceeding is capable of being realised successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the index for the volume 48, December 2001 issue of the journal "Social Compass."

Announces information on the 2003 International Society for the Sociology of Religion Conference XXVII which will be held in Turin, Italy. Theme of the conference; Duration of the conference; Speakers in the plenary sessions.