PATTERNS OF RELIGIOSITY IN SOUTH-EAST EUROPE (original) (raw)
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Religiosity in Europe: An index, factors, and clusters of religiosity
Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas, 2016
Abstract: This paper has three aims. The first aim is to measure religiosity across all European countries through an index that combines beliefs, practices, and attitudes. The second aim is to analyse the strength of societal factors on religiosity, including modernisation, communist rule, national identity, religious pluralism, and religious freedom. The final aim is to group European countries by religiosity and to characterise each cluster by dominant religions and these five societal factors. Based on EVS 2008, it was applied multivariate analysis to reach these aims. Cluster 1 is mainly composed of Orthodox, Muslims, and Catholics; cluster 2 of Catholics, Orthodox, and people without religion; cluster 3 by people without religion, Protestants, and Catholics. Across clusters, the degree of human development, religious pluralism, and religious freedom increase, while the degree of national identity decreases. Keywords: religiosity, Europe, European Values Study (EVS)
Individual and Social Factors Predicting Religiosity Differences between European Countries
Anuarul Universitatii Petre Andrei Din Iasi Year Book Petre Andrei University from Iasi Fascicula Asistenta Sociala Sociologie Psihologie Fascicle Social Work Sociology Psychology, 2012
Contemporary Europe represents a religious melting-pot if we take into account the increasing number of immigrants and non-Christian religious background populations (Hindu, Muslims etc) who become more relevant as minority groups. The secularization trends within European societies and the interaction with these new cultures creates different patterns of religious behavior in post-communist countries if we compare them with democratic regimes or in countries with a Protestant, Catholic or Orthodox dominant religious tradition. Based on data from European Value Study (1981 - 2010) we will try to observe if and how individual or social factors influence the average level of religiosity from different European countries. The following factors will be considered as possible predictors: gender, age, education, religious affiliation, apartenence to a religious minority or a dominant religious group, country’s GDP, country’s Human development index etc. Keywords: religiosity, religious participation, secularization, sacralization, European countries.
Theoretically placeable within the framework of the secularization versus postsecularism debate, this research employs an aggregated religiosity index as an instrument to compare Western and former Communist Eastern Europe during the globalization era in terms of area trends in religiosity. Structured in eighteen differently weighted components corresponding to three core dimensions of religiosity, i.e. beliefs, practice, and affiliation, the index confirms that over the past decade, while in the West (and Central Europe as well) secularization trends have continued, albeit at different rates and content variations, globalization seems to have finally "stepped in" in the East, where the spectacular religious revival of the 1990s has been considerably slowed down, apparently entering a plateau phase, although the remarkable both denominational and religiosity diversity in the area urges to caution in any generalizing statements.
2017
As has been stated in many papers about postcommunist countries, the ”post-communist” label underlines historical similarities of many countries of Central, Eastern and Southern Europe but is quite unproductive in explaining current social processes and, moreover, developmental possibilities. This is true in particular for the role of religion in light of not only very different religious situations in different countries (measured by the usual sociological indicators of religiosity) but also different confessional traditions (Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy but also Islam and Protestantism to a certain extent), and differences in their church–state relations. Thus, the notion of diversity(-ies) more accurately describes the role of religion in post-communist countries than does the notion of similarity. Diversity, on the other hand, poses another problem, as it lacks an adequate theoretical frame for understanding trends in socio-religious development. Is there any theoretical ex...
Religiosity: A Comparison between Latin Europe and Latin America
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
Se presenta una breve discusión sobre el comportamiento religioso desde una perspectiva microeconómica, teniendo en cuenta las decisiones individuales sobre asistencia al templo religioso y su frecuencia, en algunos países americanos y europeos de origen latino. Con este objetivo, se analizan los vínculos entre el grado de religiosidad de los individuos y varias variables socioeconómicas. Se confirmó que los uruguayos son los menos religiosos. Adicionalmente, se encontró que la actividad religiosa es más intensa para las mujeres y las personas de edad avanzada, y el efecto del nivel educativo es ambiguo. Por último, se encontró que las personas más ricas son más religiosas, pero los países con mayor ingreso per cápita son menos religiosos.
Religiosity in the major religious cultures of the world
International Journal of Sociology
Compared to other cross-national surveys, the religion-modules of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) include a larger number of indicators on individual religiosity and thus allow for more differentiated analyses of cross-national differences. In this paper, we use these findings to point out in which ways the forms and development of religiosity differ between the major religious cultures of the world. In order to have a sufficient number of cases for all geographical macro-regions, three data sources were used: ISSP 2018 data from 37 countries, the 2018 Templeton survey that fielded ISSP 2018 survey questions in another 10 non-European countries, and data from the ISSP 2008 religion module for 10 countries that did not participate in ISSP 2018. The comparison covers three dimensions: religious affiliation and non-affiliation, private and public forms of religious practice, and different types of religious beliefs. In the final section, we discuss what conclusions can be drawn from the results with regard to the secularization thesis, i.e., the assumption that socioeconomic modernization leads to a decline in individual religiosity.
The situation of the former communist countries represents an anomaly within the sociological debate about the various secularisation processes currently underway in Europe. The main issues relate to whether or not Eastern Europe has experienced a religious revival following the fall of communism and, if so, which dimensions of religiosity are most involved in that revival. Sociologists have yet to reach a clear consensus on country trends or on the impact of Christian doctrines on these processes. We will address these issues throughout this article. The results from different piecewise regression analyses of European Values Study (EVS) data show that regular religious practice in general is declining from cohort to cohort, whereas religious belief has shown a revival followed by a decrease from the oldest to the youngest cohorts. The impact of a country's main religious traditions is a relevant factor; predominantly Orthodox countries, for example, break with the overall results by showing a slight increase of religious practice as well as stable (and very high) belief among the youngest cohort. This situation is primarily driven by data from the Russian Federation and Bulgaria.