Introduction to Sociology course

How important is religion in your life? Why are people in some societies highly religious, whereas religion plays little role in other societies? The topic of religion has been one of the key topics studied by the founding fathers of sociology, such as Durkheim, Weber, Marx and Comte. In this meeting, you will see that the classical sociologists had rather similar ideas about religion. They supposed a deep and intrinsic connection between modernization and religion, such that, with increasing modernity, religious involvement declines. Today, more than 100 years after the classical sociologists developed their arguments, this idea is still at the core of the discussion in the sociology of religion. In this meeting, I guide you through this discussion, presenting the main questions, theoretical arguments and empirical findings in the sociology of religion.