ABSTRACT
The idea that institutional differentiation has made religion problematic in advanced industrial societies has also been elaborated by scholars who do not necessarily share Luhmann’s, Berger’s, or Luckmann’s assumptions. This chapter will be devoted to a discussion of theoretical positions which, in widely different ways, argue that religion is problematic either because industrial society is coming ‘unglued’ or because it is being excessively well integrated. There is general agreement among these scholars that religion’s capacity to integrate societies by means of shared beliefs, values, motivations and sentiments has become irrelevant, marginal, or inadequate; but they reach different conclusions about the capacity of industrial societies to survive in the absence of such overarching symbols. At one extreme is the view that the stability and survival capacity of industrial society have been adversely affected by the decline of religion. But at the opposite extreme is the view that the peculiar situation of advanced industrial societies may actually create opportunities for new forms of religious expression.
