Secularization and Social Integration

At the end of the 1997-1998 academic year, Professor Karel Dobbelaere was awarded emeritus status by the Catholic University of Leuven. For four decades, he contributed and gave shape to academic sociology in Flanders. During this period, he showed students how to find their way into general sociology and sociological research at the Catholic University of Leuven and the University of Antwerp. At the same time, he brought the sociology of religion in Flanders to maturity. With indefatigable dedication, he defended the autonomy and the necessity of a scientific, empirical study of churches, denominations, sects, and religious beliefs from a sociological perspective.

Karel Dobbelaere managed to reconcile harmoniously a permanent presence in Flemish sociology with an international scientific career. He enjoys great recognition within the world community of sociologists of religion and within its representative organization, the Société Internationale de Sociologie des Religions/International Society for the Sociology of Religion (SISR/ISSR). Particularly on the themes of pillarization and secularization, he did pioneering theoretical and empirical work. His often renewing insights have been expressed in several studies and numerous articles in scientific books and international journals.

Given that Karel Dobbelaere gained world-wide respect as a sociologist of religion, it seemed appropriate to honour him at the end of his academic career with an international Festschrift. Many of his colleagues and friends within the field of the sociology of religion contributed to this volume, whose title, Secularization and Social Integration, refers, of course, to one of the main themes in Dobbelaere's work.

"Secularization and Social Integration" was written by Rudi Laermans.

Rudi Laermans is als gewoon hoogleraar verbonden aan het Departement Sociologie van de K.U.Leuven, waar hij ook het Centrum voor Cultuursociologie leidt. Hij is co-promotor van het interuniversitaire steunpunt Re-Creatief Vlaanderen.

Yes, "Secularization and Social Integration" is part of the "Sociologie Vandaag / Sociology Today" series. It's book 4 in the series.

Introduction

Karel Dobbelaere, sociologist of religion
Rudi Laermans

Part I. Karel Dobbelaere and the secularization thesis

In appreciation of Karel Dobbelaere on secularization
Mark Chaves

Secularization disproved or displaced?
N.J. Demerath III

Secularization: Karel Dobbelaere and Japanese sociology
Yoshiya Abe

From the classics to Luhmann and back again? Notes on Karel Dobbelaere's sociology of religion
Rudi Laermans

Part II. Religion and secularization: theoretical perspectives

Sociology and religion: Durkheim and Simmel
Roberto Cipriani

The secularization thesis: Criticisms and rebuttals
Bryan Wilson

Secularization in a religiogeneous modernity
Staf Hellemans

Sociological theory of religion between description and predication: A Weberian question revisited
Peter Beyer

Secularization and the unity of the R.C. Church
Leo Laeyendecker

Postscriptum: "That all may be one". Explorations of Catholic unity on a global scale
Mady A. Thung

Part III. Secularization and social integration: case studies

Secularization and social solidarity: a social constructionist view
James A. Beckford

A few notes on secularization and pillarization: The case of Japan
Jan Swyngedouw

The Helmet and the Turban. Secularization in Islam
Enzo Pace

Contradictions of secularism and the preservations of the sacred. Four contexts of religious change in communism
Miklós Tomka

State imposed secularism: Yet another dimension?
Eileen Barker

The scope and limits of religious functions according to the European Value and IISP surveys
Yves Lambert

Social capital, religious-philosophical involvement and social integration in Belgium: An empirical investigation
Jaak Billiet

Part IV. Religion, identity and meaning

Religion as a resource for the creation of personal identity in a secularized context
Olivier Tschannen

Religion, individualization of meaning, and the social bond
Jean-Paul Willaime

The figure of the converted as descriptive figure of religious modernity: A reflection based on the file of conversions to Catholicism in France
Danièle Hervieu-Léger

Death and Christmas revisited. Beyond secularization: a search for meaning
Liliane Voyé

Marginals for a sociology of fear and trust
Jan Kerkhofs

Bibliography Karel Dobbelaere