From Pillar to Postmodernity: The Changing Situation of Religion in Belgium
The “pillarized” structure of Belgian society has been a frequent topic for research, but sociologists began to notice that major changes were taking place in the 1960s. In particular, decline in church attendance in Belgium was accelerating rapidly, and a style of “pick and choose” Catholicism was...
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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: |
1990
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| In: |
Sociological analysis
Year: 1990, Volume: 51, Pages: S1-S13 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | The “pillarized” structure of Belgian society has been a frequent topic for research, but sociologists began to notice that major changes were taking place in the 1960s. In particular, decline in church attendance in Belgium was accelerating rapidly, and a style of “pick and choose” Catholicism was emerging. This pattern has been interpreted in terms of secularization on the collective and individual levels. Changes in the institutions of the Catholic Church converged with these changes in personal beliefs and practice. By contrast, many organizations associated with the Catholic pillar have survived relatively unscathed, albeit at the cost of deemphasizing their specifically Catholic identity. Indeed, the new emphasis on the generally Christian character of institutions is proving ideologically attractive. This is interpreted as evidence of declining faith in some of modernity's central values and assumptions as well as of evidence of a postmodern disposition to affirm the value of Gemeinschaft, emotion, ritual, and pilgrimage. In short, a “bricolage” of popular Catholicism is retaining the commitment of 80 percent of Belgians and, thereby, demanding a revision of crude theories of secularization. |
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| ISSN: | 2325-7873 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Sociological analysis
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/3711670 |