The aim of this course is to give an understanding of the causes and consequences of religiosity and secularization in the modern and post-modern societies. It further focuses on the importance of institutional religions around the world and on discussions on religious revitalization.
In the first four lectures, work on religion of the big three, Marx, Comte and Weber and the impact of their ideas on the secularization theories will be discussed. One lecture will be dedicated to the causes and consequences of religiosity and fading of the importance of religion in the affluent Western societies. Students will try to find an answer for why religion still survives while all influential sociologists assumed that it would die out with rationalization, industrialization and modernization. Furthermore, the last three lectures will dig into the meaning and importance of religion in migrant groups - especially Muslims -, in the non-Western world and in Britain.
In the classes of this module, students will discuss their readings and will do little assignments, which will help them to interpret religious events in their social environment, in the newspapers and media. Students will need to do a take-home assignment about their readings each week and this will contribute to their overall module mark. The students will obtain skills to develop their own research question on religion and they will be required to write a paper on this research question for their course assignment. To this end, this module will spend a significant time on discussing not only theories but also methodologies and data used in the research that will be discussed throughout the course.
In the first four lectures, work on religion of the big three, Marx, Comte and Weber and the impact of their ideas on the secularization theories will be discussed. One lecture will be dedicated to the causes and consequences of religiosity and fading of the importance of religion in the affluent Western societies. Students will try to find an answer for why religion still survives while all influential sociologists assumed that it would die out with rationalization, industrialization and modernization. Furthermore, the last three lectures will dig into the meaning and importance of religion in migrant groups - especially Muslims -, in the non-Western world and in Britain.
In the classes of this module, students will discuss their readings and will do little assignments, which will help them to interpret religious events in their social environment, in the newspapers and media. Students will need to do a take-home assignment about their readings each week and this will contribute to their overall module mark. The students will obtain skills to develop their own research question on religion and they will be required to write a paper on this research question for their course assignment. To this end, this module will spend a significant time on discussing not only theories but also methodologies and data used in the research that will be discussed throughout the course.
- Module Supervisor: Ayse Guveli