Join us on March 18 (Thu), 2021 18:00-19:00 (GMT+9) for the presentation “A Need for Religion: Insecurity and Religiosity in the Contemporary World”
Author: Francesco Molteni (University of Milano)
Abstract: Among the many possible explanations been proposed for explaining the declining patterns of religiosity observed in modern world, that about the increase in existential security has recently gained much consensus (Norris and Inglehart 2011). By assuming the positive role of religion as coping strategy, such a theory links the feeling of security typical of modern societies with the diminished need for religion as source of reassurance, support and predictability.
Aim of this presentation is to go deeper into this and to inspect all the possible mechanisms behind such association. Starting for a comprehensive discussion of both the sociological and psychological bases of this idea, the presentation is structured as to provide empirical explorations of both the static and the longitudinal version of the theory as well as of both aggregate and individual postulations. By using a combination of contextual data, repeated cross-sectional data and individual panel data, it shows that it is not enough to rely on the positive association between country levels of development and religiosity to argument about the effect of security: both the longitudinal and the individual relations must be tested (Molteni 2020).
While doing so, the argumentation strongly relies on the cohort replacement as the main driver of religious change and advance the idea that progress in security and development is more like a ladder involving a few steps than a linear path. It is only after a big leap forward in human security that individuals can start to appreciate other forms of coping mechanisms alternative to religion. Given also that religiosity has to be shared within a person’s surroundings in order to be effective, the passing of this threshold likely pushes a country into its journey toward secularization.
How to join: Send an email to [email protected] with your name and affiliation to be added to the mail list. A link to Zoom will be sent to you before the meeting.