What Is Happening To Religion? Six Sociological Narratives

This article sorts recent approaches in the sociology of religion into six groups, each of which tells a different story about what is happening to religion in the late-modern world. One, the secularization narrative, sees religion in decline. A second narrative tracks a rise of «funda-mentalisms » worldwide. A third notes that religion in becoming local, especially in the United States. A fourth argues that religion is becoming individualized, both in Europe and world-wide. A fifth narrative claims that religion is alive and well, but only in competitive religious «markets». And a sixth explores the changes religion undergoes in the process of globaliza-tion. Each of these narratives reads evidence through different lenses. The sociology of religion has lately become a complicated discipline – especially when scholars try to describe the present and predict the future. Where sociologists' reflections on European and American developments once led them to see religion as a declining force, they now lack consensus. Some continue to highlight religion's wane – or at least its loss of influence in one social sphere after another. Others celebrate what they call a new paradigm, arguing that religion's institutional strength depends