Religious Indifference

Beschreibung

This book provides a conceptually and empirically rich introduction to religious indifference on the basis of original anthropological, historical and sociological research. 

Religious indifference is a central category for understanding contemporary societies, and a controversial one. For some scholars, a growing religious indifference indicates a dramatic decline in religiosity and epitomizes the endpoint of secularization processes. Others view it as an indicator of moral apathy and philosophical nihilism, whilst yet others see it as paving the way for new forms of political tolerance and solidarity. 

This volume describes and analyses the symbolic power of religious indifference and the conceptual contestations surrounding it. Detailed case studies cover anthropological and qualitative data from the UK, Germany, Estonia, the USA, Canada, and India analyse large quantitative data sets, and provide philosophical-literary inquiries into the phenomenon. They highlight how, for different actors and agendas, religious indifference can constitute an objective or a challenge. Pursuing a relational approach to non-religion, the book conceptualizes religious indifference in its interrelatedness with religion as well as more avowed forms of non-religion.

This book provides a conceptually and empirically rich introduction to religious indifference on the basis of original anthropological, historical and sociological research.

Religious indifference is a central category for understanding contemporary societies, and a controversial one. For some scholars, a growing religious indifference indicates a dramatic decline in religiosity and epitomizes the endpoint of secularization processes. Others view it as an indicator of moral apathy and philosophical nihilism, whilst yet others see it as paving the way for new forms of political tolerance and solidarity. 

This volume describes and analyses the symbolic power of religious indifference and the conceptual contestations surrounding it. Detailed case studies cover anthropological and qualitative data from the UK, Germany, Estonia, the USA, Canada, and India analyse large quantitative data sets, and provide philosophical-literary inquiries into the phenomenon. They highlight how, for different actors and agendas, religious indifference can constitute an objective or a challenge. Pursuing a relational approach to non-religion, the book conceptualizes religious indifference in its interrelatedness with religion as well as more avowed forms of non-religion.

Autor*in

Johannes Quack

Themen in »Religious Indifference«

Atheism Irreligion Nonreligion Religion Secularization Religious indifference Secularization and nonreligion Sociology of religion

Stimmen zu »Religious Indifference«

“Examines the complex and contextualised realities of individuals who are indifferent to religion and the various approaches used to study this population. … This volume will attract a multidisciplinary academic audience. Any scholar or researcher of religion and secularity should find this book of value. Additionally, this book is essential to anyone who is engaged in the scholarly discussion of contemporary secularisation. … this volume makes an important contribution to the growing body of literature on secularity and nonreligion.” (Isabella Kasselstrand, Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 33 (1), January, 2018)

“This book provides rigorous, path-breaking analyses of secularity, non-religion, secularization, irreligion, and most importantly, social identities, positions, and postures that are neither anti-religious nor pro-religious, but hovering in a realm characterized by detachment, disengagement, irrelevance, inconsequence, unimportance, and insignificance. … Religious Indifference is a path-breaking contribution to the study of secularism and nonreligion, no doubt.” (Phil Zuckerman, Reading Religion, readingreligion.org, September, 2017)

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