Secularization Revisited - Teaching of Religion and the State of Denmark

Beschreibung

Since 2001, history has proven the classic and once dominant theories of secularization wrong. Instead of abandoning the subject of secularization, Secularization Revisited demonstrates how the collapse of formerly dominant secularization theories indicates fundamental conceptual challenges within sociology. This theoretical and empirical analysis argues that sociology of religion as well as sociology in general should pay more attention to the vital external and internal interests of the state, state-form and state-agency. 

In the first part of the book, Niels Reeh argues that inter-religious dynamics and state agency in particular have been neglected by the sociology of religion. Reeh then proposes a new analytical framework that can incorporate these two elements into the analysis.

In the second part of the book, Reeh applies the analytical framework and presents the first long-term historical sociological case study of the teaching of religion in a European state. His study of the political decision-making concerning the teaching of religion in Denmark from 1721 to 2006 reveals that the Danish state's interest in the religion of its inhabitants to have been dependent on the external relations of the state and the state-form. On this basis, Reeh shows that the changing state interest in the religion of its inhabitants is a crucial factor both behind the decline of the social significance of religion from 1720 to the 1990s, and behind its increase in the years following 2001. Consequently, Reeh argues that sociology should abandon unidirectional theories of secularization and instead shift to studies of historical religious change.

 The book is intended for students and scholars of religion, sociology, educational history and history in general (as well as the general public).

Since 2001, history has proven the classic and once dominant theories of secularization wrong. Instead of abandoning the subject of secularization, Niels Reeh’s Secularization Revisited demonstrates how the collapse of formerly dominant secularization theories indicates fundamental conceptual challenges within sociology. Through a historical sociological case study of the political decision-making concerning the teaching of religion in Denmark from 1721 to 2006, Reeh explains why sociology of religion and sociology more generally should pay more attention to interstate relations, state-form and state-agency. The Danish state’s interest in its inhabitants’ religion over the last three centuries responded not only to religious motives but to concerns about foreign relations and the survival of the state.

Autor*in

Niels Reeh

Themen in »Secularization Revisited - Teaching of Religion and the State of Denmark«

Historical Religious Change History of Sociology Regulation of Religion Relational Sociology Relational Theory of Religion Religious Education Secularization Denmark State and Religion Teaching of Religion Theory of Religion

Stimmen zu »Secularization Revisited - Teaching of Religion and the State of Denmark«

“This work analyzes the agency of the state in a long-term historical perspective and presents religious education being constructed in the interest of the state. … Reeh’s work is important, innovative and interesting, especially as it is done on the subject of religious education in a long-term historical perspective. … Reeh’s work is important reading for students in religious studies as well as in education, not least for students preparing to become teachers in religious education.” (Kerstin von Brömssen, Nordic Journal of Religion and Society, Vol. 30 (1), 2017)

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