Levensbeschouwing en sociologie

Samenvatting

Sociology and World Views. A number of trends in contemporary Dutch society are noted: decreasing church attendance, an increasing variety of religious and semi-religious organizations, and a growing tendency towards withdrawal from religious and doctrinal affiliations. In order to put these current trends into a wider context, several major lines are traced in the longterm development of religion and world views in Europe. The concepts of "religious regime" and "doctrinal regime" are used to bring the processes of church formation or "religiofication" and "secularization" into sharper sociological focus. A sociological inquiry into trends in religion and world views must inevitably lead to an examination of the part played by sociology itself in these trends. It is argued that the "disenchantment of the world" is not to be deplored by sociologists; their task is rather to further it.