Religion as a Chain of Memory

Daniele Hervieu-Leger

Presents a sociological redefinition and reexamination of religion. For religion to endure in the modern world, Hervieu-Léger finds, it must have deep roots in traditions and times in which it was not defined as irrelevant.

Foreword / Grace Davie Introduction Part I Doubt about the Subject Matter Sociology in Opposition to Religion? Preliminary Considerations - From religious sociology to the sociology of religion - Science opposed to religion - Undermining the subject? The Fragmentation of Religion in Modern Societies - The future of religion in the modern world: the classical sociological approaches - Constructing a new perspective - Defining religion: a new look at an old debate - Religion and systems of meaning: an inclusive approach - In contrast: a much more restrictive framework - A false opposition - One way out of the dilemma? The Elusive Sacred - The sacred: an impossible concept - The genealogy of the sacred: Isambert's contribution - Emotional experience vis-a-vis religion - Between the sacred and religion: the example of sport - The sacred opposed to religion: the emotional culmination of secularization? Part II As our Fathers Believed...         Religion as a Way of Believing - Metaphorical religion, following Jean Seguy - Towards an analysis of the transformation of belief in contemporary society - Religion as a way of believing: the example of apocalyptic neo-rural communities Questions about Tradition - Tradition opposed to modernity - The creative power of tradition - Religion as folklore - The religious productions of modernity: is this concept meaningful? - Back to the question of definition From Religions to the Religious - A second look at sport as a religion - Two ways of thinking - Is the notion of a religious sphere still a helpful one? - From the sociology of religion to the sociology of the religious: a political example Part III A Break in the Chain Religion Deprived of Memory - Memory and religion: a structural connection - The crumbling memory of modern societies - Secularization as a crisis of collective memory: the example of French Catholicism The Chain Reinvented - Utopia: a major manifestation of religious innovation in modernity - The religious reinforcement of elective fraternities - The rise of ethnic religions Conclusion: Post-traditional Society and the Future of religious Institutions - Post-traditional religion and the institution of the religious - Beyond secularization, de-institutionalization - The institutional production of a chain of memory Notes Select Bibliography Index of Names