Germany is one of the more secular societies of the industrialized nations in Europe, but there are substantial differences in church membership between its eastern and western part. Only about 25-30 percent of eastern Germans belong to a church, compared to about 75 percent in western Germany. Does this east-west differential in church membership extend to religious values as well? The analysis addresses the debate about the indicators of secularization: is church membership sufficient, or has the decline in membership led to a privatization of religion exhibited by a continuation of religious values? Religious values items from the World Values Survey/European Values Survey, show that (1) overall, western Germans hold much stronger religious values than eastern Germans; (2) eastern German church members are more religious than their western counterparts; and (3) non-members are less religious than are members in both parts of Germany. The findings provide no support for the thesis that modernization and secularization lead to a privatization of religion.
Joachim Singelmann, Ph.D., is the David J. Kriskovich Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Louisiana State University, USA. His research focuses on poverty, transformation of Germany after unification, service society, and class structure and social mobility. As guest researcher at the WZB, he works on a monograph on post-socialist transformation that is based on a case study of a Landkreis in Thuringia. The main issues addressed in this study are democratic values, the changes in agriculture, industrial restructuring, and secularization.
Information on participating / attending:
Please reply by February 18, 2011 to Marie Unger, e-mail: marie.unger@wzb.eu.
The WZB provides child care during the lecture. If you are interested, please respond by February 9, 2011 to Marie Unger, e-mail: marie.unger@wzb.eu.
Date:
02/22/2011 17:00 - 02/22/2011 20:00
Registration deadline:
02/18/2011
Event venue:
Reichpietschufer 50, Room A 300
10785 Berlin
Berlin
Germany
Target group:
Journalists, Scientists and scholars
Email address:
Relevance:
transregional, national
Subject areas:
Religion, Social studies
Types of events:
Presentation / colloquium / lecture
Entry:
02/09/2011
Sender/author:
Dr. Paul Stoop
Department:
Informations- und Kommunikationsreferat
Event is free:
no
Language of the text:
English
URL of this event: http://idw-online.de/en/event34172
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