Not the Opium of the People: Income and Secularization in a Panel of Prussian Counties The interplay between religion and the economy has occupied social scientists for long. We construct a unique panel of income and Protestant church attendance for six waves of up to 175 Prussian counties spanning 1886-1911. The data reveal a marked decline in church attendance coinciding with increasing incom...

Three concepts are often used in missiological literature relating to the West. These are “postChristian,” “post-Christendom,” and “post-modern.” Often, they have been used as if they are more or less synonyms without much precision or reflection. By relating them to different strands in social theory around “secularization,” this article suggests how these terms can be defined more precisely. ...

Much theorizing about secularization tells a “differentiation story” that puts historical process of structural differentiation at the center its understanding secularization. The heart story is claim increasing social spheres over time freed “secular” life (politics, economics, etc.) from religious control or domination. This conceptual framing has been widely shared by scholars in field, not ...

This research paper addresses secularization from both political and religious perspectives. One of its manifestations in the political sphere is that of globalization that can lead to alienation within society; and in the United Kingdom this is exemplified by Brexit. Within the religious sphere secularization is usually couched in oppositional terms. This paper reclaims the original use ...