Grace Davie | |
---|---|
Born | 2 September 1946 |
Nationality | British |
Other names | Grace Riestra Claire Davie |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | |
Thesis | Right Wing Politics Among French Protestants, 1900–1944 (1975) |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Sociology |
Sub-discipline | Sociology of religion |
Institutions | University of Exeter |
Notable works | Religion in Britain Since 1945 (1994) |
Grace Riestra Claire Davie (born 1946) is a British sociologist who serves as professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Exeter. [1] She is the author of the book Religion in Britain Since 1945:Believing Without Belonging. [2]
Born on 2 September 1946, [3] Davie has an undergraduate degree in Sociology from the University of Exeter,and a PhD from the London School of Economics. [4] From 2000 to 2001 she was the Kerstin-Hesselgren Professor at the University of Uppsala in Sweden. [5] She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Theology from the University of Uppsala in 2008. [6]
Davie is Past-President of the Association for the Sociology of Religion (2003) [7] and the International Sociological Association RC22 Sociology of Religion Board (2002-2006). [8]
Davie is a participating researcher in The Impact of Religion:Challenges for Society,Law and Democracy (IMPACT),a multidisciplinary research programme at Uppsala University,in the research area Religious and Social Change. [1]
Davie is a lay canon of the Church of England Diocese in Europe. [9]
Davie has written several works during her career,including Religion in Britain since 1945 (1994),Religion in Modern Europe (2000),Europe:the Exceptional Case (2002),The Sociology of Religion (2013) and Religion in Britain:A Persistent Paradox (2015). [10]
Davie's research interests lie in the sociology of religion. [4] In her book Religion in Britain Since 1945, she coined the phrase "believing without belonging" [11] to describe religiosity and secularization in Britain. [12] This is the argument that although church attendance has decreased, [13] people may still think of themselves as religious on an individual level. [14]
With this and other works,Davie entered the international ongoing debate on secularization,after Rodney Stark and other American scholars had observed that quantitative data about the United States did not confirm the theory defended in Europe by Karel Dobbelaere and Steve Bruce,implying that modernization necessarily causes a decline of religion. European defenders of secularization theories suggested that an "American exceptionalism" explained why a generally valid hypothesis did not apply to the United States,due to some unique circumstances prevailing there. Davie reversed this theory,and suggested the existence of a "European exceptionalism",explaining why classic secularization theories are valid in Europe but cannot be verified in the rest of the world. [15]
To explain European exceptionalism,Davie introduced yet another new concept,"vicarious religion",meaning that modern Europeans are happy to "delegate" to a minority of active believers participation in regular church activities,something they approve of but are no longer ready to engage in. This theory was also criticized by those who adhere to classic theories of secularization,who claimed that a generalized sympathy for the religious minority among the non-religious majority cannot be unequivocally demonstrated. [16]
Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on secular, naturalistic considerations.
Sociology of religion is the study of the beliefs, practices and organizational forms of religion using the tools and methods of the discipline of sociology. This objective investigation may include the use both of quantitative methods and of qualitative approaches.
In sociology, secularization is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The secularization thesis expresses the idea that as societies progress, particularly through modernization, rationalization, and advances in science and technology, religious authority diminishes in all aspects of social life and governance. In recent years, the secularization thesis has been challenged due to some global studies indicating that the irreligious population of the world may be in decline as a percentage of the world population due to irreligious countries having subreplacement fertility rates and religious countries having higher birth rates in general. Christian sociologist Peter L. Berger coined the term desecularization to describe this phenomenon. In addition, secularization rates are stalling or reversing in some countries/regions such as the countries in the former Soviet Union or large cities in the Western World with significant amounts of religious immigrants.
Peter Ludwig Berger was an Austrian-born American sociologist and Protestant theologian. Berger became known for his work in the sociology of knowledge, the sociology of religion, study of modernization, and theoretical contributions to sociological theory.
Thomas Luckmann was an American-Austrian sociologist of German and Slovene origin who taught mainly in Germany. Born in Jesenice, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Luckmann studied philosophy and linguistics at the University of Vienna and the University of Innsbruck. He married Benita Petkevic in 1950. His contributions were central to studies in sociology of communication, sociology of knowledge, sociology of religion, and the philosophy of science. His best-known titles are the 1966 book, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, The Invisible Religion (1967), and The Structures of the Life-World (1973).
David G. Bromley is a professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, specialized in sociology of religion and the academic study of new religious movements. He has written extensively about cults, new religious movements, apostasy, and the anti-cult movement.
Paul Lauchlan Faux Heelas is a British sociologist and anthropologist. He is noted for work in the field of spirituality, religion and modernity, with special reference to 'New Age' spiritualities of life. Recent publications and current research explore 'the sacred' and 'the secular'; transgressions of the secular ; 'life force', CAM, and 'spiritual humanism'.
Rodney William Stark is an American sociologist of religion who was a longtime professor of sociology and of comparative religion at the University of Washington. He is presently the Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University, co-director of the university's Institute for Studies of Religion, and founding editor of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion.
Postsecularism refers to a range of theories regarding the persistence or resurgence of religious beliefs or practices in the present. The "post-" may refer to after the end of secularism or after the beginning of secularism.
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social order and social change. While some sociologists conduct research that may be applied directly to social policy and welfare, others focus primarily on refining the theoretical understanding of social processes and phenomenological method. Subject matter can range from micro-level analyses of society to macro-level analyses.
Linda Jane Pauline Woodhead is a British academic specialising in the religious studies and sociology of religion. She is best known for her work on religious change since the 1980s, and for initiating public debates about faith. She has been described by Matthew Taylor, head of the Royal Society of Arts, as "one of the world's leading experts on religion".
Lorne L. Dawson is a Canadian scholar of the sociology of religion who has written about new religious movements, the brainwashing controversy, and religion and the Internet. His work is now focused on religious terrorism and the process of radicalization, especially with regard to domestic terrorists.
James Arthur Beckford was a British sociologist of religion. He was Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Warwick and a Fellow of the British Academy. In 1988/1989, he served as President of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, and from 1999 to 2003, as the President of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion.
Karel Dobbelaere is a Belgian educator and noted sociologist of religion. Dobbelaere is an Emeritus Professor of both the University of Antwerp and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Louvain) in Belgium. He is past-President and General Secretary of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion.
Bryan Stanley Turner is a British and Australian sociologist. He was born in January 1945 in Birmingham, England. Turner has held university appointments in England, Scotland, Australia, Germany, Holland, Singapore and the United States. He was a Professor of Sociology at the University of Cambridge (1998–2005) and Research Team Leader for the Religion Cluster at the Asian Research Institute, National University of Singapore (2005–2008).
David Alfred Martin, FBA was a British sociologist and Anglican priest who studied and wrote extensively about the sociology of religion.
The historiography of religion is how historians have studied religion in terms of themes, sources and conflicting ideas. Historians typically focus on one particular topic in the overall history of religions in terms of geographical area or of theological tradition.
A Rumor of Angels: Modern Society and the Rediscovery of the Supernatural is a 1969 book about sociology by the sociologist Peter L. Berger. The book is one of Berger's most important works on the topic of the sociology of religion. A Rumor of Angels had a profound influence within the American religious establishment as well; his work is frequently cited in church sources.
In sociology, desecularization is the proliferation or growth of religion, usually after a period of prior secularization. The theory of desecularization is reactionary to the older theory known as The Secularization Thesis, which posits a gradual decline of religion to a point of extinction. In the last few decades, scholars have pointed to continued church attendance in Western countries, the rise in religious fundamentalism, and the prevalence of religious conflict as evidence of the continued relevance of religion in the modern world. A former proponent of the earlier secularization thesis, Peter L. Berger, has now expressed his support for the newer theory, stating that the world today "is as furiously religious as it ever was". The skeptic Michael Shermer wrote: "At the beginning of the twentieth century social scientists predicted that belief in God would decrease by the end of the century because of the secularization of society. In fact… the opposite has occurred… Never in history have so many, and such a high percentage of the population believed in God. Not only is God not dead, as Nietzsche proclaimed, but he has never been more alive."
Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm is an American academic, philosopher, social scientist, and author. He is currently Professor and Chair in the Department of Religion and Chair in Science and Technology Studies at Williams College. He also holds affiliated positions in Asian studies and Comparative Literature at Williams College. Storm's research focuses on Japanese religions, European intellectual history from 1600 to the present, and theory in religious studies. His more recent work has discussed disenchantment and philosophy of social science.
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