What the World Believes E-Book

• Herausgeber: Bertelsmann Stiftung
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Seitenzahl: 1113

Beschreibung

In recent years, the subject of religion has undergone a dramatic renaissance and attracted considerable media attention. At the same time, however, knowledge about people's individual religiosity and the social characteristics and dynamics of religion has not grown considerably. Nonetheless, this knowledge has become especially important in a context of growing religious plurality and globalization, where interactions between societies with different cultural and religious backgrounds are increasing. To expand upon this knowledge, the Bertelsmann Stiftung-in cooperation with a team of sociologists, psychologists, theologians and religious studies experts-developed the most advanced instrument to date for examining the various dimensions of religiosity in modern society: the Religion Monitor. A quantitative and representative survey of 21,000 people around the world who represent all of the major religions constitutes the baseline of the Religion Monitor. As the scholarly complement to the popular publication, this second volume includes original analyses by renowned experts of the Religion Monitor's international survey results. Contributors include: José Casanova, Michael N. Ebertz, Karl Gabriel, Hans Joas, Volkhard Krech, Armin Nassehi, Michael von Brück and Paul M. Zulehner.

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© 2010 E-Book-Ausgabe (EPUB)

© 2009 Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung, GüterslohEditor on behalf of the Bertelsmann Stiftung: Martin Rieger, Ph.D.Managing editor: Matthias JägerCopy editor: Celia BohannonTranslation: Barbara Serfozo, Ph.D.Production editor: Sabine ReimannCover design: Bertelsmann StiftungCover illustration: Archiv Bertelsmann Stiftung/Pia Regina BrechmannTypesetting and print: Hans Kock Buch- und Offsetdruck GmbH, Bielefeld

ISBN : 978-3-86793-254-7

www.religionsmonitor.comwww.bertelsmann-stiftung.org/publications

www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/verlag

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Titel

Impressum

Preface

Secularization, Privatization or Resacralization?

Religion Monitor 2008: Structuring Principles, Operational Constructs, ...

Structuring principles

Operational constructs

Interpretive strategies

Bibliography

The Religious Field between Globalization and Regionalization: Comparative Perspectives

Methodological considerations

Findings and interpretations

Summary

Bibliography

Country Assessments

The Churches in Western Germany: An Asymmetrical Religious Pluralism

Development of the churches since 1949

Church membership

The concept of religiosity

Patterns of religiosity among western Germany’s Protestants

Patterns of religiosity among Catholics in western Germany

The churches and the central role of religiosity in western Germany

The churches and spiritual paradigms in western Germany

The Religion Monitor and the future of the churches in western Germany

Bibliography

The State of Religion and Religiosity in Eastern Germany: Social-scientific and ...

Confessional religiosity and resistance to religious influence

Intellectual openness to religious issues

Religious indifference

Consequences for church and theology

Endnotes

Bibliography

The Stable Third: Non-religiosity in Germany

In the shadow of the “return of religion”

Is non-religiosity even possible?

Non-confessionalism and non-religiosity

Who are the “non-religious”?

Is non-religiosity a renunciation of a certain habitual figuration?

Causes and effects of profound non-religiosity

Lack of confessional affiliation, privatized Christianity and public Islam?

Endnote

Bibliography

Religious Communication: The Consequences of a Qualitative Study for the ...

Religion as a communicative meaning form

Results

Consequences

Endnote

Bibliography

Tradition or Charisma? Religiosity in Poland

Research methodology

The sample population

Centrality and content of religiosity

Concept of God

The significance of religiosity’s various aspects

Religious pluralism

Aspects of religiosity in everyday life

The influence of religiosity on individual areas of life

Conclusion

Endnote

Bibliography

Spanish Religiosity: An Interpretative Reading of the Religion Monitor Results ...

Confessional and denominational affiliation or religious “belonging”

Religious Belief

Public religious practices

Private Religious Practice

Individual religious experience

Images and conceptions of God

Religious knowledge, religious reflexivity, religious quest

Religious tolerance and attitude toward religious pluralism

Relative relevance of religion

Individual self-image of religiosity and spirituality

Conclusion

Endnotes

Bibliography

“Fourteen Kilometers from Europe”: Islam and Globalization in Morocco

Quantitative survey research and social disparities in North Africa

Morocco under Mohammed VI

Religious values and practices

Political Islam

Outlook

Bibliography

The Omnipresence of the Religious: Religiosity in Nigeria

A complex religious heritage

War of numbers

High values for religiosity

Initial observations

Fundamental aspects of religiosity-Muslims and Christians compared

Preliminary conclusions

Points of interreligious comparison

Additional interim conclusions

Beyond Nigeria

Beyond Africa

Bibliography

On the Contemporary Development of Religion(s) in India

Rituals

Karman and fate

Old and new ritualizations

The Ram-Setu controversy

The institution of the guru

Hindu nationalism and flexible Hinduism

On the findings of the Religion Monitor survey

Bibliography

The Religious Situation in the United States

The American way: “The first freedom”

Some features of the religious situation in the United States

Two potential scenarios for the future

Bibliography

Selected Country Comparisons

Spiritual Dynamics? A Comparison of Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Methodological considerations

Religiosity

Prayer and meditation

Rituals

Belief structures

God or the divine

The theme of death

Church affiliation

Church attendance

Typology

Religious curiosity

Distribution in the four socio-religious types

Distribution according to social characteristics

Additional correlations

Indices

Areas of life

Meaning of life

Ethics

Preliminary conclusions

Bibliography

Religiosity in “Laicist” States in Europe: France and Turkey

Theoretical considerations on religiosity in secular countries

Empirical findings on religiosity in France and Turkey

Secular religious policy and the dynamics of the religious field

France, Turkey and Europe

Bibliography

Churchliness, Religiosity and Spirituality: Western and Eastern European ...

Religious diversification

Churchliness and traditional religiosity

The new religious diversity in the eyes of the European population

Religious individualization, “alternative” religiosity and spirituality

Patterns and relationships: who believes in what?

Summary

Endnotes

Bibliography

Varieties of Religious Commitment in Great Britain and Australia

Introduction

Religious identity

Religious practice

Belief

Religiosity

Heterodoxy

Salience

Views about religion

Tolerance

Summary

Bibliography

The Experience of Divine Presence: Religious Culture in Brazil, the United ...

Theoretical concepts and cross-national studies

The culturally specific intensity of religiosity

Reasons for cultural differences in the intensity of religiosity

The continued vitality of religion

Endnotes

Bibliography

Latin America: The Dynamics of the Religious Field

Actors in the religious field

Strength of religious beliefs

Strategies in the religious field

Religion and the public sphere

Endnote

Bibliography

Thematic Approaches

The Religiosity Profile of European Catholicism

Intensities of everyday religiosity

Contours of Catholic religiosity

Institutionally supported religiosity

Socio-structural explanation of the religious shift

Religiosity with a Protestant Profile

Typically protestant: reflection, openness, and tolerance

Protestantism in the Volkskirchen : Religiosity beyond participation

The relevance of religiosity

The public and the private

Impact of religiosity

Summary and outlook

Bibliography

The Pentecostal Movement: Social Transformation and Religious Habitus

Understanding Pentecostalism from a sociological perspective

Pentecostalism, total populations and social structure

Experiential religiosity

Religious-symbolic processing of time and space

Political and transnational strategies

Endote

Acronyms used

Bibliography

What do Muslims Believe?

Country comparison

Centrality of religiosity

Public and private religious practice

Pantheistic religious experiences and religious reflexivity

Beliefs: angels and demons

Bibliography

Religiosity and Spirituality among Young Adults

Do young adults think about religious issues less often than older people?

Do young adults believe in God and an afterlife?

How often do young adults pray?

Willingness to live according to religious commandments

Young adults: Less fear and more joy in religion?

More spiritual than religious?

How strongly do young adults tend toward bricolage religiosity?

Are young adults less inclined to religious fundamentalism?

Are young adults more likely to favor a scientific interpretation of life?

Religious upbringing

Conclusion

Bibliography

The Older the More Devout? Religiosity in the Twilight Years

The older the more devout? Yes!

The older the more devout? Yes and no!

The older the more devout? No!

Skeptical generation

Endnote

Bibliography

On Opening the Black Box: Religious Determinants of the Political Relevance of Religiosity

Theory and methods

Descriptive analysis

Linear correlations

Typological differentiation

Summary and future prospects

Bibliography

Secularization or the Revival of Religion? Worldviews in 22 Societies: Findings ...

From transcendent to secular worldviews?

Classifying societies

Transcendent and secular worldviews in 22 societies

Societies without a dominant monotheistic religion

General tendencies

Secularization rather than a revival of religion

Endnotes

Bibliography

Popular Spirituality, or: Where is Hape Kerkeling?

I’ll Be Gone a While-secularization or spirituality?

The concept of spirituality

Religious and popular spirituality

Religion and the concept of spirituality

Spirituality, experience and the Religion Monitor

Popular spirituality

Bibliography

Appendix

Questionnaire

List of Questions

Sociodemographics

Countries, Regions, Methods

Graphics: International Religiosity

The Authors

Preface

Globalization is bringing together various cultures and religions in ways never imagined before. People everywhere are coming closer together. As they do, their private and professional surroundings are affected in ways both visible and invisible. Fundamental questions about how societies navigate values and beliefs are being raised: What are the values underpinning our sense of community? From what do human beings derive the meaning of life? How are conflicts to be handled? Many decision-makers throughout the world have called for international understanding to reach beyond languages and borders, and rightly so. I believe that genuine understanding takes place only when individuals have respect for the historical, cultural and religious roots of others. Religious identity and practice in particular have a profound impact on the beliefs and behavior of many people.

But just how important is religiosity to individual people? Just how intensely are personal beliefs practiced? To what extent does religiosity shape different societies? Answers to these questions and more are found in the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Religion Monitor. In a representative survey conducted in 21 countries, more than 21,000 people were interviewed to talk about their faith, conceptions of God, personal values and other areas of their lives. Behind every number in the Religion Monitor stands a person who has opened up and shared with us their view of the world and their understanding of the meaning of life. These 21,000 individuals are representative of millions of others throughout the world. The Religion Monitor thus provides an inside view of how the world’s major religions are experienced while allowing us to participate in cultures found around the world.

In selecting the countries surveyed for the Religion Monitor, special attention was given to including all major religions on every continent. Through the standardized survey alone, the Religion Monitor underscores the surprising extent to which religions can be compared. Indeed, despite all of the differences between the world’s major religions and their centuries-long traditions, they appear to share similar structures and contents. For this reason, it is my personal wish that our Religion Monitor offer fresh approaches toward dialogue between religions.

The Religion Monitor is a project shaped by interdisciplinary approaches and interfaith dialogue. Experts from fields as diverse as psychology, religious studies, sociology and theology have worked together to develop the standardized questionnaire used for our international and inter-religious survey. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the scholars and experts who have contributed so much not only in developing the Religion Monitor, but also by way of assessing and commenting on the results.

Liz MohnVice-Chair of the Bertelsmann Stiftung Executive Board and Board of Trustees

Secularization, Privatization or Resacralization?

Martin Rieger

Comparing religiosity across 21 countries is an enormous challenge, especially when these countries are spread across all the continents and the aim is to survey world religions in their entirety. Scholars from the disciplines of sociology, psychology, theology and religious studies have taken up this challenge and have succeeded in developing an interdisciplinary instrument for measuring religiosity: the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Religion Monitor survey.

There are several questions and concerns regarding the state of religiosity in the world today: Is secularization or, rather, desecularization increasing? Is resacralization or, instead, respiritualization making headway? Can we identify a trend toward the privatization of religious life, leading in turn to a new level of pluralism, or is the religious field beginning to “deprivatize?” Perhaps we are currently witnessing a renaissance of religiosity or even the return of religion.

In recent years, religious-sociological thought has given rise to numerous theses that frequently contradict one another. The Religion Monitor survey aims to contribute to and facilitate a differentiated analysis of the global religious field. However, its initial character is exclusively that of a stock-taking, an assessment of the current state of affairs. It is only through a planned second iteration of the survey that its potential to trace emerging social trends will be realized.

A survey of the religious field in modern societies requires a finely tuned measuring instrument in order to adequately sample and map the diversity of characteristics and orientations in the field. Encompassing the various core dimensions of religiosity and their relevance for everyday life, Religion Monitor data permit a well-grounded understanding of each individual form of religiosity, its attendant practices and saliency.

Results from the Religion Monitor survey were first published in December of 2007. At the same time, commentaries on a number of the findings, in particular from the German-speaking countries, were published in an anthology (“Religionsmonitor 2008,” Gütersloher Verlagshaus). This book, directed at a broad readership, proved extremely popular. The present publication is primarily directed at an international audience of scholars and specialists. For the first time, findings from all 21 countries surveyed will be considered in a single volume. The accompanying CD ROM contains all the primary analyses.

The complexity of the Religion Monitor survey extends well beyond the respondents’ self-assessments. Religious self-perception, in the sense of the formation of one’s own religiosity, is fundamentally shaped by exogenous parameters such as one’s immediate cultural environment or the resonance of religious speech in the public sphere. Environments have indeed an enduring effect on individuals’ religious codes and self-understandings. For this reason, the religious self-perception of individuals in Central and Western Europe-which is almost unique in the world in the extent of individuals’ delimitation or negation of religiosity-is situated within the context of the surrounding religious culture. Respondents confirm or deny their own personal religiosity in relation to the socially dominant religious code, which is often shaped by the norms of organized church religion, and position themselves within a reference system that has grown out of actual or supposed knowledge of religious plurality.

The Religion Monitor survey looks deeper into the factors shaping religious self-perception. It allows for an objective description of religiosity by mapping five core dimensions in addition to the everyday relevance of religiosity through a rich selection of survey items. It considers exogenous factors (e.g., public practice) as well as endogenous factors (e.g., attitudes) of religiosity, condensing these findings in a “centrality scale,” which distinguishes among highly religious, religious and non-religious respondents.

The Religion Monitor survey reveals an impressive degree of religious heterogeneity in the countries surveyed. This diversity, in turn, underscores the need to survey the religious field with such a differentiated measuring instrument. In other words, the multidimensional character of the Religion Monitor survey’s instruments has generated the expanse of findings found here in this publication. At the same time, these findings point to the necessity of studying the religious landscape in individual societies in an equally differentiated manner.

Special thanks are due to Stefan Huber, whose scholarship decisively shaped the design of the Religion Monitor survey. In the first contribution to this book, he explains the framework of analysis used, which includes the methodology and structural principles behind the Religion Monitor as well as the architecture of this measuring instrument. In this chapter, he introduces readers to the Religion Monitor survey’s diverse range of perspectives and interpretative possibilities.

Thanks to the international uniformity of its catalogue of questions, the Religion Monitor survey provides a very rich data set for analysis and comparison. Only a portion thereof has been mined for the purposes of this book, which is divided into three sections that constitute quasi-concentric approaches to the data. The first section examines the findings for specific countries, the second section is concerned with selected country comparisons, and the third section addresses specific themes.

In their article surveying the total sample, Volkhard Krech and Stefan Huber rightly emphasize that the so-called world religions such as “Christianity” or “Islam” do not constitute monolithic blocks. In fact, religions are composed of a variety of different currents and milieus. In our efforts to examine this in more detail, it has been possible to win the support of 30 authors, to whom I would like to extend a warm word of thanks.

In the first section, contributions from Karl Gabriel, Matthias Petzoldt and Monika Wohlrab-Sahr explore the heterogeneity of the religious landscape in Germany. This includes a discussion of the contrast between Eastern and Western Germany as well as of the stable non-religious third of the population. The Religion Monitor’s quantitative survey in Germany was supplemented by in-depth interviews that underlie Armin Nassehi’s analysis of the results in two regions. He points to a high level of religious connective and receptive potential; however, he also finds that the pronounced level of religious individualization simultaneously impedes the identification of respondents’ belief systems.

Beata Zarzycka interprets the Polish findings and José Casanova describes the situation in Spain, a country which is undergoing an intense process of transformation. Sonja Hegasy and Klaus Hock direct our attention to the African continent, where, on the basis of the findings for Nigeria, it is possible to draw conclusions for other countries, above all those in sub-Saharan Africa. As Hock shows, the common (Western) juxtaposition of Christianity as a modern, enlightened religion against Islam as a pre-modern, backward religion is utterly misconceived, especially in Africa. In his contribution on India, Michael von Brück observes religious developments in the country that have revitalized traditional paradigms. Hans Joas examines the vitality and pluralism of religiosity in the United States, where 90 percent of the population is religious, of which 62 percent is highly religious. He writes of market-like traits observed in the nation’s religious field, expressed in the form of “church shopping” or the frequency with which individuals change religious affiliations within the course of a lifetime.

The second section casts the findings in a different light by providing selected country comparisons. Focusing on Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Paul M. Zulehner explores the spiritual dynamics in the German-speaking regions. In his comparison of France and Turkey, Matthias Koenig examines the relationship between secular states and religiosity, asking why the two countries display such different levels of religious intensity. In their comparison of Eastern and Western European countries, Olaf Müller and Detlef Pollack direct attention, among other matters, to membership attrition rates in numerous countries and to the significance of religious socialization in childhood.

Using the examples of Great Britain and Australia, David Voas describes the transformation of the religious landscape in modern societies. A characteristic feature of this process is a polarization between religious and non-religious individuals. Clear generational differences can be identified here, as can a reduced relevance of religion as compared to other areas of life. Voas points to a lack of theological education and highlights the issue of tolerance, a quality which has become such an important feature of today’s moral consciousness in Western societies that people are now more likely to espouse religious pluralism than to claim an exclusive truth for their own religion.

Franz Höllinger considers the classical secularization thesis to have failed and the privatization thesis to be inadequate, writing that the European path to secularization is a significant exception internationally. This has several causes. On the one hand, Europe’s situation is a consequence of its long historical tradition of authoritarian-hierarchical state religions, with a concomitant suppression of spiritist forms. On the other hand, the expansion of the welfare state has undermined both the need for religious meaning and the support of organized churches.

Heinrich Schäfer examines the dynamics of the religious field in Latin America. In contrast to Western Europe, but in ways similar to the United States, modern Latin America has not been built upon the ruins of religion.

Further cross-sectional analyses are provided in the third section. With his examination of European Catholicism, Alfred Dubach shows the extent to which the much-discussed globalization and its currents of migration influence religious developments, examining the various consequences of dwindling churchbased religiosity in individual countries. In so doing, he identifies a trend toward the decreasing relevance of religion in Austria and France, but also a pronounced proclivity toward spiritual forms of expression in Spain.

The diverse currents within Protestantism are discussed by Petra-Angela Ahrens, Claudia Schulz and Gerhard Wegner, who identify Central European Protestantism as paradigmatic of a religion reconciled to modern society. Accordingly, the dominant traditional churches will remain religious actors, while relieving people of the necessity of making difficult personal decisions in matters of faith. In a further article, Heinrich Schäfer describes the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements as the most dynamic religious forces worldwide. In a fivecountry comparison, Peter Heine and Riem Spielhaus illustrate the multifaceted character of Islam. On the basis of their data analysis, Heine and Spielhaus maintain that the taxonomy of religious denominations prevalent in Islamic scholarly and political discourse, the Shi’a (Shi’ites) and Sunni (Sunni Muslims), can no longer be usefully upheld as descriptive categories.

Anton A. Bucher and Michael N. Ebertz take a special look at the various age groups and conclude that there is considerable variation within Western societies with respect to public religious practice. The relevance of religiosity for everyday life also appears to be stronger among older people. In contrast, younger age groups frequently display a greater confidence in the plausibility of life after death compared to the older age groups. For Bucher, the significance of emotions for religious commitment is an important finding of the Religion Monitor survey.

Using the example of the correlation between religious determinants and the political relevance of religiosity, Stefan Huber demonstrates the data’s manifold potential. Heiner Meulemann places the findings in the context of other empirical surveys. Furthermore, he reflects on the findings with respect to different conceptions of God. For Hubert Knoblauch and Andreas Graff, the survey brings to light a new aspect of religiosity, in that a majority of the population in supposedly secular Western societies is strongly focused on individual spiritual experiences, a phenomenon reported even by the majority of non-religious respondents. Consequently, in the mainstream discourse, the distinction between being religious and non-religious is loosening.

This book shows in several ways the potential the Religion Monitor survey holds for a wide range of scholarly disciplines. Despite a few desiderata in its research, such as the selection of countries or the sample size, this first Religion Monitor survey succeeds in collating data in a unique fashion, which allows it to provide insight into the inner religious structure of societies and world religions. At this point I would like to extend a special thanks to TNS Emnid, in particular to Torsten Schneider-Haase for his reliable coordination and execution of the quantitative survey, throughout all its stages, as well as to Henry Puhe from the SOKO Institute for Social Research and Communication in Bielefeld for conducting and transcribing the qualitative interviews in Germany.

Finally, I would like to draw attention to the online tool: At www.religionsmonitor. com, interested readers have the opportunity to answer, on an anonymous basis, a large part of the survey’s internationally uniform catalogue of questions. At the end of this process, an individual’s personal religiosity profile can be compared with the results for the society as a whole. Group access is also available, allowing the religious particularities of a specific group, such as a school class, to be rendered. The online tool is available in the German, English, Turkish and Spanish languages. Additional versions are planned.

The Religion Monitor survey aims to identify new approaches forming the basis for a future dialogue between religions. Furthermore, it aims to raise awareness of the social relevance of religiosity and its formational role for the majority of the world’s national cultures. In this spirit, this publication can be understood as an invitation to embark on a scholarly discussion of the Religion Monitor survey’s findings as well as to reconsider issues of interreligiosity.

Religion Monitor 2008: Structuring Principles, Operational Constructs, Interpretive Strategies

Stefan Huber

Are we facing a global renaissance of religiosity? What roles do religion and religiosity play in modern societies and in individual life horizons? Are Germany and Europe forging a unique path with regard to religion? How can one describe the position of Germany and Europe in the global religious arena? These are some of the questions that data from the Bertelsmann Foundation’s Religion Monitor should help answer.

To do justice to this task, the Religion Monitor must be able to model the structures and dynamics of various religions and religious cultures in comparative perspective. The survey instrument must thus have high intercultural and interreligious sensitivity. Moreover, the instrument must be comprehensive; it must capture a great many facets of religious experience and behavior, each of which may carry different weight in different religious cultures.

This introduction presents the information necessary to critically assess the survey instrument and its potential. It first explains the Religion Monitor’s structuring principles, focusing mainly on its interconnecting categories and perspectives, which are drawn from sociology, psychology, religious studies, and theology. On this basis, we then discuss individual operational constructs and all of their empirical indicators. Emphasis is placed on the semantics of the indicators, since the empirical fruitfulness of a quantitative instrument ultimately depends on the semantic precision of its indicators. Finally, this chapter outlines some innovative interpretive strategies enabled by the Religion Monitor. Foremost among these is analysis of endogenous religious studies and dynamics, which is a desideratum of empirical research on religion.

Structuring principles

The Religion Monitor is based on a substantial notion of religion (see Pollack 2000) in which the essential quality of religious experience and behavior lies in its connection to transcendence. This connection is not restricted to a theistic concept of transcendence, however. Instead, theistic and pantheistic ideas alike-and their associated forms of practice and experience-are included to ensure the Religion Monitor’s validity over as broad an area as possible. Not least, this lets us systematically study how widespread these two religious semantics are, globally and across religions.

The Religion Monitor further considers special features of individual religions. Examples of this include obligatory prayer in Islam and home altars in Hinduism and Buddhism. Finally, the Religion Monitor integrates questions on respondents’ religious and spiritual self-understanding. This makes the survey instrument equally sensitive to highly individualized manifestations of religiosity and spirituality that take shape outside of traditional religious forms and contents.

The Religion Monitor integrates theoretical concepts and operational constructs from various disciplines that study religion empirically (including sociology of religion, psychology of religion, religious studies and theology). The common denominator of these categories is that they have empirically proven to be of high value, and that they are well known-at least within their own disciplinary discourses. Given this state of affairs, the Religion Monitor’s primary claim to uniqueness lies in its ability to systematically cross-reference and interconnect these categories.