This article first appeared on the London School of Economics site. The religiosity of the United States has impressed observers since the early 19th century, and American levels of religious ...

Back in the 1960s, there was almost universal acceptance among social scientists of the “secularization thesis,” the belief that as societies became more modern—more economically developed, ...

Here is a proposition that may seem self-evident to many people: As societies become more modern, religion loses its grip. People separate their religion from their institutions and from parts of ...

Is there an inexorable trend toward secularization in the West because younger generations are less likely to affiliate with organized religion? Or does long-standing evidence that people become more ...

VATICAN CITY — Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor’s academic career has been crowned with numerous distinctions, to which was recently added the prestigious Ratzinger Prize, a sort of equivalent to ...

Questioning Europe’s devout past and secular present. Technology is a wonderful thing. The spread of global travel, news media, and communications networks means not only that opportunities for ...

The idea of secularization is fundamental to contemporary debates over the sociology of religion. As sociologist Steve Bruce puts the issue succinctly, “The basic proposition is that modernization ...

Meeting with a group of German bishops for their “ad limina” visit today, Pope Benedict XVI said that the “crisis of secularization” is the providential challenge of our day. The Holy Father ...

A re the humanities over? Are they facing an extinction event? There are certainly reasons to think so. It is widely believed that humanities graduates can’t easily find jobs; political support for ...