Jaak Billiet

Karel Dobbelaere

Liliane Voyé

What are the relations between sociology and the different religions--Christianity with its various branches, Judaism, Islam, Oriental religions, sects and New Religious Movements? That is the question which this work, conceived on the occasion of the XXVth Conference of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion/Société Internationale de Sociologie des Religions (SISR), wishes to clarify.The book retraces the varied and troubled history of these relations and also reveals how in opening up its research to other religions besides the Christian, sociology is forced to redefine the very object of its field of study. What is the religious? This question, which until recently was considered impertinent, informs this book throughout.If confronts the necessity of rethinking theories and methodological approaches which, constructed in the context of 19th and early 20th century Western Europe, prove to be rather inadequate for encompassing contemporary religious phenomena and religious manifestations in other contexts. To these new theoretical and methodological demands is added, for the sociologist, a deontological imperative, which takes on all the more importance today as the religious provokes passionate social debate.

Des Relations Ambiguës

Sociologie Et Religions

At the end of the 1997-1998 academic year, Professor Karel Dobbelaere was awarded emeritus status by the Catholic University of Leuven. For four decades, he contributed and gave shape to academic sociology in Flanders. During this period, he showed students how to find their way into general sociology and sociological research at the Catholic University of Leuven and the University of Antwerp. At the same time, he brought the sociology of religion in Flanders to maturity. With indefatigable dedication, he defended the autonomy and the necessity of a scientific, empirical study of churches, denominations, sects, and religious beliefs from a sociological perspective. Karel Dobbelaere managed to reconcile harmoniously a permanent presence in Flemish sociology with an international scientific career. He enjoys great recognition within the world community of sociologists of religion and within its representative organization, the Soci.

Karel Dobbelaere

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