The Dynamics of Religious Change: A comparative study of five western countries
The Dynamics of Religious Change: A comparative study of five western countries
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宗教变迁的动力：西方五个国家的比较研究
DOI：
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发表时间：
2011
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通讯作者：
S. King
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作者：
S. King
宗教变迁的两种主要理论是宗教的世俗化范式和经济模式。世俗化范式？现代化削弱了教会作为一个机构的权力和权威，降低了宗教在人民日常生活中的重要性。这一模式适用于欧洲，但美国是一个强有力的反例。自20世纪40年代以来，美国的宗教出席率基本保持稳定，约有40%的人口声称每周至少参加一次宗教仪式，主要是在基督教教堂。美国社会学家解释这种相对的活力与参考一个开放和竞争性的宗教市场，声称对精神的先天愿望是由宗教团体在美国的纯粹多样性满足。这种宗教的经济模式并不适用于欧洲的情况。本文通过考虑自20世纪70年代或80年代以来五个西方国家宗教变化动态之间的相似性和差异来研究这些明显的矛盾;这些国家是英国，澳大利亚，新西兰，加拿大和美国。关键的问题是，哪种动力组合是西方国家宗教变革的原因。除了移徙和生育率的影响之外，所有人口变化都必然与年龄、时期或群组效应的某种组合有关;年龄效应是指随着人们年龄增长而发生的效应，时期效应是指影响整个人口而不论年龄的效应，群组效应往往归因于青年时期的环境或事件。这些不同的宗教变化的动态将分别表明在个人层面上的宗教变化的不同来源，这可能会支持一个理论的宗教变化在另一个。我表明，有压倒性的证据表明，大多数宗教的变化在英国，澳大利亚，新西兰和加拿大是由于几代人之间的差异，在观察到的时间段与一些轻微的下行周期的影响。在美国，变化的主要驱动力是向下的队列与向上的时期效应，向上的年龄效应，或这三种效应的组合。我的结论是，在青年社会化的变化条件，正式和非正式的，现代化和文化转变可以解释在英国，加拿大，澳大利亚和新西兰的动态。在美国，与其他国家相比，宗教在该国具有很高的社会需求，而且美国特别保守的新教徒能够将自己与自己相冲突的观点隔离开来，这可能抵消了类似的影响;这些群体在这方面得到了人数优势以及社交、工作和观看媒体的能力的帮助，所有这些都增强了他们的宗教世界观。
The two main theories of religious change are the secularization paradigm and the economic model of religion. The secularization paradigm?s main premise is that modernization weakens the power and authority of the church as an institution and reduces the importance of religion in the daily lives of the population. This paradigm applies well to Europe, but the United States acts as a powerful counter-example. Since the 1940s, religious attendance in the United States has remained generally stable, with approximately 40% of the population claiming to attend religious services, mostly in Christian churches, at least once a week. American sociologists explain this relative vitality with reference to an open and competitive religious marketplace, claiming that the innate desire for spirituality is met by the sheer diversity of religious groups in the United States. This economic model of religion applies poorly to the European situation. This thesis examines these apparent contradictions by considering the similarities and differences between the dynamics of religious change in five western countries since the 1970s or 1980s; the countries are Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. The key question is which combination of dynamics is responsible for religious change in western countries. The effects of migration and fertility aside, all population change must be related to some combination of age, period or cohort effects; age effects are those that occur as people age, period effects are those that affect the whole population regardless of age, and cohort effects are often attributed to circumstances or events during youth. These different dynamics of religious change would each indicate different sources of religious change at the individual level, which may lend support to one theory of religious change over another.I show that there is overwhelming evidence that most religious change in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada is due to differences between generations in the time periods observed with some slight downward period effects. The main drivers of change in the United States are either downward cohort with upward period effects, upward age effects, or a combination of these three effects. I conclude that the changing conditions of socialization in youth, both formal and informal, related to modernization and cultural shifts can explain the dynamics in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Similar effects in the United States may be counteracted by the high social desirability of religion in that country by contrast with the other countries and the ability of particularly conservative Protestants in the United States to isolate themselves from views that conflict with their own; these groups are aided in this by numerical strength and by the ability to socialize, work and view media all of which enhance their religious worldview.