Religious Reflexivity: The Effect of Continual Novelty and Diversity on Individual Religiosity
Drawing on recent scholarship by Margaret Archer, Ulrich Beck, and Peter Berger, I summarize a core dynamic of modern experience through the concept of “religious reflexivity.” Religious reflexivity points to a deliberative and problem-solving dynamic that is a distinctive and unavoidable element of...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2015]
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| In: |
Sociology of religion
Year: 2015, Volume: 76, Issue: 1, Pages: 1-13 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | Drawing on recent scholarship by Margaret Archer, Ulrich Beck, and Peter Berger, I summarize a core dynamic of modern experience through the concept of “religious reflexivity.” Religious reflexivity points to a deliberative and problem-solving dynamic that is a distinctive and unavoidable element of contemporary religious selves. Rather than rely on conventional processes of socialization, Archer, Beck, and Berger argue that we must acknowledge that segmented and pluralistic societies contain new sources for self-formation, self-promotion, and legitimization for new forms of self-construction. Religiously, there arise new religiosities, new imperatives for proper or desired religiosity, and new ways of legitimizing religious thoughts, practices, and even larger orientations. Religious reflexivity is so constant and inevitable that a crucial quality of future religious virtuosi will be this: Those who are most able to accommodate the varied pressures of modern society and craft a sustained—even elegant—capacity for consistent, legitimated, and reflexively responsive religious behavior will most readily attain the highest levels of religious prestige and influence. |
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| ISSN: | 1759-8818 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Sociology of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/socrel/sru084 |