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Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide (Cambridge Studies in Social Theory, Religion and Politics)
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- ISBN-100521548721
- ISBN-13978-0521548724
- PublisherCambridge University Press
- Publication dateSeptember 27, 2004
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions5.98 x 0.78 x 9.02 inches
- Print length348 pages
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Editorial Reviews
Review
R.L. Herrick, emeritus, Westmar University
"This is a landmark book that deserves to be read widely and closely. It is rigorously grounded, carefully researched, and cogently argued ... A rare coup de grace in the form of a sharp and elegant empirical thrust to the heart of a protracted debate... Overall, this is a landmark book that deserves to be read widely and closely. It is rigorously grounded, carefully researched, and cogently argued... While not a holy text, it merits the kind of exegesis that many such texts receive."
N. J. Demerath, American Journal of Sociology
"Sacred and Secular is a very well-structured book, enriched by valuable survey data. It engages in important debates on development and secularization with its methodological elegancy and theoretical parsimony. It is a significant source to understand the classical social scientific approach to religion and a necessary basis to locate conflicting arguments on the field."
Ahmet T. Kuru, University of Washington, Comparative Political Studies
"Norris & Inglehart's book is a pleasure to read and an inspiration for scholars for its effort to generate solid knowledge on a much-debated question. Along the way, the reader will find much fascinating material..."
Sven Gunnar Simonsen, Journal of Peace Research
Sacred and Secular is a fine reference book for statistics on trends in religious observance throughout the world." Journal of Church and State Wendy Dackson
"The book is a major contribution to the life of the idea of secularization and the larger issues about the nature and meaning of modernity bound up with that idea. It merits close study."
Daniel Silver, University of Chicago
"The book’s evidence and arguments―which are likely attracting the attention of a broad reading public beyond academia―certainly merit more critical discussion and focused evaluation by religion scholars, as they bear importantly on many larger concerns in the scientific study of religion and have many potential important policy implications."
Christian Smith, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
Book Description
About the Author
Ronald Inglehart is professor of political science and program director at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. His research deals with changing belief systems and their impact on social and political change. He helped found the Euro-Barometer surveys and directs the World Values Surveys. Related books include Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic and Political Change in 43 Societies (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), Rising Tide (2003, with Pippa Norris) and Development, Cultural Change and Democracy (2004, with Christian Welzel).
Product details
- Publisher : Cambridge University Press (September 27, 2004)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 348 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0521548721
- ISBN-13 : 978-0521548724
- Item Weight : 1.12 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.98 x 0.78 x 9.02 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #4,542,064 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,213 in Political History (Books)
- #4,382 in Sociology & Religion
- #5,638 in Church & State Religious Studies
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

PIPPA NORRIS is a comparative political scientist who has taught at Harvard for a quarter century. She is the McGuire Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and ARC Laureate Fellow and Professor of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney.
Honors include award of the Sir Isaiah Berlin Lifetime Award by the PSA UK, the Johan Skytte prize in political science, the Karl Deutsch Award by IPSA, the Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellowship, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Doctor honoris causa from the University of Edinburgh, Warwick University and Leuphana University.
Her research compares public opinion and elections, democratic institutions and cultures, gender politics, and political communications in many countries worldwide. She currently leads major research projects, www.electoralintegrityproject.com and www.TrustGov.net.
A well-known public speaker and prolific author, she has published almost fifty books. This includes a series for Cambridge University Press: A Virtuous Circle: Political Communications in Postindustrial Societies (2000, winner of the 2006 Doris A. Graber award for the best book in political communications), Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty and the Internet Worldwide (2001), Democratic Phoenix: Political Activism Worldwide (2002) and Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change Around the Globe (with Ronald Inglehart, 2003), Electoral Engineering: Voting Rules and Political Behavior (2004), Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide (with Ronald Inglehart, 2004, winner of the Virginia Hodgkinson prize from the Independent Sector), Radical Right: Voters and Parties in the Electoral Market (2005), Driving Democracy: Do power-sharing institutions work? (2008) and Cosmopolitan Communications: Cultural Diversity in a Globalizing World (2009, with Ronald Inglehart), Democratic Deficit: Critical Citizens Revisited (2011), and Making Democratic Governance Work: The Impact of Regimes on Prosperity, Welfare and Peace (Cambridge University Press 2012), Why Electoral Integrity Matters (2013), Why Elections Fail (2014), Strengthening Electoral Integrity (2016), and Cultural Backlash: Trump, Brexit and Authoritarian Populism (2019).
Other authored or coauthored books include On Message (1999), Electoral Change Since 1945 (1997), Political Recruitment (1995), British By-elections (1990), Politics and Sexual Equality (1986). Edited books include Britain Votes 2005 (co-edited with Christopher Wlezien, 2005), Framing Terrorism (2003), Britain Votes 2001 (2001), Critical Citizens (1999), Critical Elections (1999), The Politics of News (1998, 2nd edition 2007), Elections and Voting Behaviour (1998), Britain Votes 1997 (1997), Women, Media and Politics (1997), Politics and the Press (1997), Passages to Power (1997), Comparing Democracies (1996, 2nd ed. 2002, 3rd edition 2009), Women in Politics (1996), Different Voices, Different Lives (1994), Gender and Party Politics (1993), British Elections & Parties Yearbook (1991, 1992, 1993). Recently edited reports include Making Democracy Deliver: Governance for Human Development (for UNDP) and Public Sentinel: News Media and the Governance Agenda (World Bank 2010).
She served in 2006-7 as the Director of the Democratic Governance Group at the United Nations Development Program in New York. She has served as an expert consultant for many international bodies including the UN, UNESCO, NDI, the Council of Europe, International IDEA, the OSCE, the World Bank, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the UK Electoral Commission. Her work has been published in more than a dozen languages. Journals articles include those in the British Journal for Political Science, Political Studies, Political Communication, the European Journal of Political Research, the International Political Science Review, Electoral Studies and Legislative Studies, and she co-founded The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics. She has served on executive bodies for the American Political Science Association (APSA), the International Political Science Association (IPSA), the Political Science Association of the UK (PSA), and the British Politics Group of APSA. She was President of the Political Communications section of APSA and of the Women and Politics Research Group of APSA, and Co-Founding Chair of the Elections, Parties, and Public Opinion Group (EPOP) of the PSA and the Elections, Citizens and Parties group of IPSA. She has held visiting appointments at Columbia University, the University of California-Berkeley, the University of East Anglia, the University of Oslo, the University of Cape Town, Otago University, Sydney University, and the Australian National University. Prior to joining Harvard in 1992, she taught at Edinburgh University. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Philosophy from Warwick University, and Masters and Doctoral degrees in Politics from the London School of Economics (LSE).
At Harvard she has taught DPI 403: Democratic Governance, DPI 413 Challenges of Democratization, DPI 415 Comparative Politics in Global Perspective, and Gov1109 Comparative Institutional Design in Harvard’s Government Department. Full details and publications can be found at: www.pippanorris.com and she can be contacted at Pippa_Norris@Harvard.edu.
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Top reviews from the United States
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The funny things as that all the social scientists of Europe from the 1800s who predicted the detah of religion WERE RIGHT -- for their own societies. Their predictions obviously didn't hold for the rest of the world, but heck, no prediction is perfect. Religion in most of Europe is dying -- as was predicted. See the work of Steve Bruce for even more solid contemporary evidence. or Grace Davie.
Greeley, Stark, and Finke are simply wrong. This book proves much of their theories wrong. Shame on Greeley for calling secularization theory "dogma" without data. Shame on Stark for mocking sound sociological evidence.
Rife with clear data and clear theoretical articulation, this is a solid look at religion the world over. Religious faith is indeed flourishing throughout much of the world, but that is only because poverty is also flourishing throughout much of the world. And why is religion so strong in the US? Hm...let;'s see...could it maybe be that we have the highest percentage of people below poverty of any advanced industrial democracy, and we have the greatest gap between rich and poor, and no national health coverage? Well heck, at least Bush is big on prayer....
Top reviews from other countries
Zu den faszinierendsten Befunden der Studie gehört sicher der weltweite, starke Zusammenhang von Religiosität und Geburtenrate, den Inglehart und Norris überzeugend als Knackpunkt vieler derzeitiger Konflikte bestimmen: schrumpfend-säkulare Gesellschaften stehen dynamisch wachsenden, religiösen Gesellschaften gegenüber, der "kulturelle Graben" (cultural gap) zwischen Religiösen und Säkularen vergrößert sich damit eher.
Dem aufmerksamen Leser werden im Buch kleinere Fehler durchaus auffallen. So wird beispielsweise in den Index "Bedeutung von Religion" (Importance of Religion) die Frage nach Gott einbezogen - was in buddhistischen und konfuzianischen Kreisen, die auch ohne Monotheismus religiös sein können, prompt eine (zu) niedrige Wertung ergibt. Auch sind einige Thesen etwa zum Zusammenhang von Wohlstand und Religiosität so spannend, dass eine vertiefte Analyse auch in die Gesellschaften hinein gut getan hätte.
Und doch ist hier ein Buch gelungen, dass einen neuen, datengestützten Blick auf aktuelle Konflikte ermöglicht und für alle, die forschen, auch eine Menge Anregungen bereithält. Sehr gut gelungen sind auch Tabellen und Grafiken, die eine wahre Fundgrube z.B. auch für Vorträge bilden können. So spannend kann Politikwissenschaft sein!







