This volume describes and maps congregations of Christian confessions and denominations, as well as groups with Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, and various other spiritual faiths, in different European countries. Consisting of three parts, it presents concrete sociological studies addressing how established and not established, old and new congregations of various faiths create a new kind of religious diversity at the country level; how religious congregations are challenged and thrive in large cities; and how religious congregations change in the 21st century.
The book enlightens by its descriptive analysis and the theoretical questions it raises concerning the religious transformations happening all over Europe. It addresses issues of religious diversity in the cities of Europe by presenting large studies conducted in cities such as Barcelona in Spain, and Aarhus in Denmark. By means of large-scale censuses taken in areas such as North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany and in countries like Switzerland and Italy, the book shows how the historically established churches restructure their congregations and activities. It clarifies for the new gatherers where and how a new diversity of religious congregations is in the process of being established. Finally, the book covers two important topical issues: pluralisation and secularisation. It provides new data on religious diversity, painting a new picture of secularisation: the impact and structural consequences of the long-term decrease of membership in the established churches
.Christophe Monnot is assistant professor of Sociology of Religion at the University of Strasbourg. His work focuses on religious institutions and congregations. After his PhD on the Swiss Congregations, he was awarded by several grants to pursue his research on the implantation and institutionalization process of Mosques in France and in Switzerland. He has edited several book in French and in English, the last one is “Religion in times of Crisis” (Brill, 2014). He is also board member of the Research Network 34 (Sociology of Religion) of the European Sociological Association (ESA) since its founding in 2011.
Jörg Stolz is full professor of Sociology of Religion at the University of Lausanne. Substantively, he works on the description and explanation of different forms of religiosity, evangelicalism, secularization, and comparison of religious groups across religious traditions. He is the author of many articles in leading sociology journals,
among which 'Explaining religiosity: towards a unified theoretical framework' in the British Journal of Sociology. He is the president of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion.
