Religion's Sudden Decline: What's Causing it, and What Comes Next?

Mass attachment to religion is rapidly declining in most of the world; Why, and What comes next?\nThe world is becoming less religious. Since 2007, there has been a pervasive decline in religious belief and most of the world's people now say that God is less important in their lives than they said He was in the quarter century before 2007. The American public showed the most dramatic shift of all. The United States, which for many years stood as a highly religious outlier among the world's high-income countries, now ranks as the 12th least religious country for which data are available. Many factors contributed to this dramatic worldwide shift, but as Inglehart shows, certain ones stand out. For centuries, virtually all major religions encouraged women to stay home and produce as many children as possible; and they sternly discouraged divorce, abortion, homosexuality, contraception, and any other form of sexual behavior not linked with reproduction. These norms were necessary for societies to survive when facing high infant mortality and low life expectancy: societies that didn't 
instill them tended to die out. Recent technological advances have greatly increased life expectancy and cut infant mortality to a tiny fraction of its historic levels, making these norms no longer necessary for societal survival. These norms require repressing strong natural urges, but, since they present traditional norms as absolute values, most religions strongly resist change. The resulting tension, together with the fact that rising existential security has made people less dependent on religion, opened the way for an exodus from religion. Utilizing a massive global data base, Inglehart analyzes the conditions under which religiosity collapses, and explores its implications for the future.

History

Inglehart, Ronald F.

World

Oxford University Press

Mass attachment to religion is rapidly declining in most of the world; Why, and What comes next?The world is becoming less religious. Since 2007, there has been a pervasive decline in religious belief and most of the world's people now say that God is less important in their lives than they said He was in the quarter century before 2007. The American public showed the most dramatic shift ofall. The United States, which for many years stood as a highly religious outlier among the world's high-income countries, now ranks as the 12th least religious country for which data are available. Many factors contributed to this dramatic worldwide shift, but as Inglehart shows, certain ones standout. For centuries, virtually all major religions encouraged women to stay home and produce as many children as possible; and they sternly discouraged divorce, abortion, homosexuality, contraception, and any other form of sexual behavior not linked with reproduction. These norms were necessary forsocieties to survive when facing high infant mortality and low life expectancy: societies that didn't instill them tended to die out.Recent technological advances have greatly increased life expectancy and cut infant mortality to a tiny fraction of its historic levels, making these norms no longer necessary for societal survival. These norms require repressing strong natural urges, but, since they present traditional norms asabsolute values, most religions strongly resist change. The resulting tension, together with the fact that rising existential security has made people less dependent on religion, opened the way for an exodus from religion. Utilizing a massive global data base, Inglehart analyzes the conditions underwhich religiosity collapses, and explores its implications for the future.

Democratization is the most comprehensive volume on this critical field of contemporary politics, with insightful coverage of the key theories, actors, dynamics, and developments. This authoritative guide brings together leading experts from diverse international backgrounds, including some of the best known names in the field, making it an invaluable resource to students of democratization. This second edition reflects the dramatic changes in today's political world, with empirical coverage of developments on every continent. It considers the role of new technologies, including a dedicated chapter on social media and democratization, as well as the resilience of authoritarian tendencies in many parts of the world. The book is accompanied by a range of online resources designed to support both students and lecturers. For students: Revise key terms and test your knowledge of terminology from the book with our digital flashcard glossary. Expand your knowledge of key developments in world affairs with additional case studies. Take your learning further with links to reliable web content and relevant OUP journals. For registered adopters of the textbook: Guide class debate with suggested seminar questions and activities. Adapt PowerPoint slides as a basis for lecture presentations, or use as handouts in class.

Democratization

Politics & Social Sciences

Welzel, Christian

Politics & Government

China as Number One?: The Emerging Values of a Rising Power (China Understandings Today)

Zhong, Yang

University of Michigan Press

Value Change in Global Perspective

In this pioneering work, Paul R. Abramson and Ronald Inglehart show that the gradual shift from Materialist values (such as the desire for economic and physical security) to Post-materialist values (such as the desire for freedom, self-expression, and the quality of life) is in all likelihood a global phenomenon. Value Change in Global Perspective analyzes over thirty years worth of national surveys in European countries and presents the most comprehensive and nuanced discussion of this shift to date. By paying special attention to the way generational replacement transforms values among mass publics, the authors are able to present a comprehensive analysis of the processes through which values change. In addition, Value Change in Global Perspective analyzes the 1990-91 World Values Survey, conducted in forty societies representing over seventy percent of the world's population. These surveys cover an unprecedentedly broad range of the economic and political spectrum, with data from low-income countries (such as China, India, Mexico, and Nigeria), newly industrialized countries (such as South Korea) and former state-socialist countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. This data adds significant new meaning to our understanding of attitude shifts throughout the world. Value Change in Global Perspective has been written to meet the needs of scholars and students alike. The use of percentage, percentage differences, and algebraic standardization procedures will make the results easy to understand and useful in courses in comparative politics and in public opinion. Paul R. Abramson is Professor of Political Science, Michigan State University. Ronald Inglehart is Professor of Political Science and Program Director, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan.

Abramson, Paul

Social Sciences

In this pioneering work, Paul R. Abramson and Ronald Inglehart show that the gradual shiftfrom Materialist values (such as the desire for economic and physical security) to Post-materialist values (such as the desire for freedom, self-expression, and the quality of life) is in all likelihood a global phenomenon. Value Change in Global Perspective analyzes over thirty years worth of national surveys in European countries and presents the most comprehensive and nuanced discussion of this shift to date. By paying special attention to the way generational replacement transforms values among mass publics, the authors are able to present a comprehensive analysis of the processes through which values change.In addition, Value Change in Global Perspective analyzes the 1990-91 World Values Survey, conducted in forty societies representing over seventy percent of the world's population. These surveys cover an unprecedentedly broad range of the economic and political spectrum, with data from low-income countries (such as China, India, Mexico, and Nigeria), newly industrialized countries (such as South Korea) and former state-socialist countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. This data adds significant new meaning to our understanding of attitude shifts throughout the world.Value Change in Global Perspective has been written to meet the needs of scholars and students alike. The use of percentage, percentage differences, and algebraic standardization procedures will make the results easy to understand and useful in courses in comparative politics and in public opinion.Paul R. Abramson is Professor of Political Science, Michigan State University. Ronald Inglehart is Professor of Political Science and Program Director, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan.

For over twenty-five years Ronald Inglehart and his colleagues have been collecting survey data on the beliefs and opinions of people all over the world on a variety of topics. This work led Inglehart to expound his noted theory about the development of post-materialist values in developed countries and explore its effect on politics. This book, based on the most comprehensive of these surveys, the World Values Survey conducted in over forty countries from 1990-93, publishes for the first time all of the findings of this survey. The questions cover issues such as politics, economics, religion, family life, and gender roles, and reflect differences in response by age, gender, economic standing, and education. This book provides a wealth of data that will appeal to social scientists, journalists, people in international business, and policy makers interested in understanding social, political, or cultural attitudes in different countries. Ronald Inglehart is Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan, and coauthor of Value Change in Global Perspective, as well as many other books and articles. Miguel Basanez is Professor of Political Science, Institutio Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico, and director of MORI de Mexico. Alejandro Moreno is Professor of Political Science, Institutio Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico.

Human Values and Beliefs: A Cross-Cultural Sourcebook

Basanez, Miguel

Moreno, Alejandro

Philosophy

Cultural Evolution argues that people's values and behavior are shaped by the degree to which survival is secure; it was precarious for most of history, which encouraged heavy emphasis on group solidarity, rejection of outsiders, and obedience to strong leaders. For under extreme scarcity, xenophobia is realistic: if there is just enough land to support one tribe and another tribe tries to claim it, survival may literally be a choice between Us and Them. Conversely, high levels of existential security encourage openness to change, diversity, and new ideas. The unprecedented prosperity and security of the postwar era brought cultural change, the environmentalist movement, and the spread of democracy. But in recent decades, diminishing job security and rising inequality have led to an authoritarian reaction. Evidence from more than 100 countries demonstrates that people's motivations and behavior reflect the extent to which they take survival for granted - and that modernization changes them in roughly predictable ways. This book explains the rise of environmentalist parties, gender equality, and same-sex marriage through a new, empirically-tested version of modernization theory.

Cultural Evolution

Cambridge University Press

Sociology

Cultural Evolution: People's Motivations are Changing, and Reshaping the World

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Inglehart, Ronald F.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Inglehart, Ronald F.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Inglehart, Ronald F.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Religion's Sudden Decline: What's Causing it, and What Comes Next?

Religion's Sudden Decline: What's Causing it, and What Comes Next?

Democratization

China as Number One?: The Emerging Values of a Rising Power (China Understandings Today)

Value Change in Global Perspective

Value Change in Global Perspective

Human Values and Beliefs: A Cross-Cultural Sourcebook

Cultural Evolution

Cultural Evolution

Cultural Evolution: People's Motivations are Changing, and Reshaping the World