The Sociological Study of Religion

Dear Colleagues,

The sociological study of religion-seeking to understand the relations between society and religion, as well as the role religion plays in social life, is a classic field of sociology that is receiving new attention today. Its origins go back to the studies of Auguste Comte and Karl Marx, but above all to Émile Durkheim and Max Weber, re-read today in the light of critiques of modernization theory. Secularization as a requirement of modernity does not cancel out the dimension of the sacred in social life. Contemporary societies, along with their appeal to rationality, also manifest shared feelings of collective effervescence that push for social transformation, creating new forms of meaning.

The sacred thus redefined illuminates the permanence of the religious in social life while reinforcing its centrality in human cultures and as a factor of social structuring, and, thanks to sociological analysis, makes it possible to translate into a rational key what was previously inexplicable because of its divine origin. The current sociology of religion breaks with a vision of modernity in radical opposition to religious tradition. It is not a matter of projecting the religious universe directly into the analysis of contemporary society, but of assessing the transfers of sacredness that accompany the very development of contemporary symbolic representations, among other aspects, beyond the validity of the spiritual sense as a force of individual transformation.

We are pleased to invite you to participate in this Special Issue of the journal dedicated to the sociological study of religion, whose purpose is to deepen in this field of study and its relations with other related areas, in order to illuminate from a plurality of approaches the protagonism, the new forms and the projection that religious beliefs and practices, religious institutions and, in short, religion as a factor of social change acquire in the global world in which we live, assessing its influence and impact on the conformation or validity of norms, values, communities, social movements and cultural changes.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Sociology of religion and related areas: the sociological study of religion and its particular relationship to anthropology and history: concepts, objects and methods.
• Religious pluralism and globalization: multiple religions and mapping of the religious fact in today's world in comparative perspective.
• Secularization, religious mutations and modern re-sacralizations: dynamics surrounding religion in today's contemporary and advanced societies.
• Churches and religions: functions, dimensions and transformations of religious institutions in modernity.
• Religion and conflict: religion and its relationship with power as a trigger for conflicts, tensions and violent radicalizations; and the role of religion also as a factor of pacification and social cohesion.
• Religion and identity: the contribution of religion to the formation of individual and collective identities, to the expression of cultures and to the progress of symbolic languages.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Juan Maria Sánchez-Prieto
Dr. Josetxo Beriain
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• sociology of religion
• religious pluralism
• secularization
• religious beliefs and practices
• churches
• religious conflicts
• fundamentalisms
• nationalisms
• identities