sociology of religion

Politics in the Church: For Whom Do Orthodox Priests Call to Vote?

The article provides a study of the relationship between politics and religion in contemporary Russia. The authors analyze the materials of the survey “Socio-Political Preferences of Russian Society” (number of people identifying themselves as Orthodox believers N=2,735), which showed that at least 21.1% of the sample make decisions concerning their electoral choices under direct influence of priests and fellow parishioners. The authors reveal the political forces who are beneficiaries of the Orthodox vote.

Social Capital of the Russian Orthodox Christianity in the Early 21st Century: Applying Social Network Analysis

Policing the Sublime: A Critique of the Sociology of Religion

The Scholar’s Personality in Russian Sociology of Religion. In Memory of Yulia Sinelina

The article is devoted to the main components of scientific activity of Russian sociologist Yulia Yurievna Sinelina (1972–2013). She was a well-known researcher of secularization in Russia, particularly the problems of interaction between modern society and religion. Her special attention was devoted to the application of theoretical and methodological investigations in sociology of religion to the religious situation in Russia.

From Stranger to Parishioner, or the Religious Identity of Aged People from Ivanovo Region

The Concept of Religiosity: Operationalization in Empirical Research

The article presents a review of various ways to operationalize the concept of religiosity in quantitative research. The author describes the main stages in the development of quantitative approach to the study of religiosity, and then explores operationalization methods used within four major comparative surveys — International Social Survey Program, European Values Study, World Values Survey, and European Social Survey.

The Conceptual Foundations of the Desecularization Theory

The paper attempts at achieving the conceptual understanding of the desecularization, the idea first proposed by Peter L. Berger in late 1990s. The idea still lacks theoretical elaboration as the sociology of religion is usually late in such theoretical enterprise; this paper tries to fill the gap. In doing so, the author starts with using categorical language of the secularization theory, which was developed in the course of the twentieth century. Yet he adds other theoretical frames and takes a new approach concentrating upon actors, patterns, regimes, and levels of desecularization.