The Social Significance of Religion in the Enlarged Europe: Secularization, Individualization and Pluralization

Researching more precisely the present social relevance of church and religion at different levels, The Social Significance of Religion in the Enlarged Europe raises and responds to both descriptive and explanatory questions: Can we observe tendencies of religious decline in the various Western and Eastern European countries? Are we witnessing trends of religious individualization? To what extent has there been a religious upswing in the last few years? And what are the factors causing the observed processes of religious change?

Detlef Pollack is Professor of Sociology of Religion at Wilhelms-University MÃ1/4nster, Germany. Olaf MÃ1/4ller is Research Associate at the Institute for Sociology at Wilhelms-University MÃ1/4nster, Germany. Gert Pickel is Professor of Sociology of Religion at the Institute for Practical Theology, University of Leipzig, Germany.