ABSTRACT
This chapter works at three levels. First, it draws on Davie’s recent Religion in Britain: A Persistent Paradox (2015) to identify both continuities and change in the religious life of Britain in the last twenty years. Second, it considers the shifts in theoretical thinking in the same period. Specifically, it interrogates the relationship between the sociology of religion and its parent discipline in relation to religious change. Third, it pays attention to the role of the British Sociological Association Sociology of Religion Study Group – as a principal forum for debate – in helping us to understand these issues. Given the growing complexity of the religious situation in both Europe and the rest of the world, we need to think again about the adequacy of the theoretical corpus available to us. Davie suggests that the sub-discipline of the sociology of religion is willing to engage these issues, despite the associated challenges. Davie’s challenge to younger scholars is to find new ways to respond to this question. Might it be possible for the sociology of religion to provoke a more positive response from the mainstream? And how might this be done?
