ABSTRACT
Introduction Civilisational approach and modernisation theory are sometimes regarded as incompatible. However, attempts to combine these two distinct perspectives have been made within the school of civilisational analysis in comparative-historical sociology. The theoretical foundations of contemporary civilisational analysis have been formed by classical sociological theories, in particular the approach to the concept of civilisation presented by Emile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss, on the one hand, and Max Weber’s sociology of world religions, on the other hand (Arnason 2003a, 67-104). The works of American sociologist Benjamin Nelson contributed to the revival of civilisational analysis since the 1970s (Nelson 1981). In recent historical sociology this approach was developed by Shmuel Eisenstadt and elaborated by Johann Arnason, Bjorn Wittrock and other scholars. While the civilisational multiple modernities approach was originally introduced in the field of historical sociology its utility for sociology of religion and political sociology of contemporary societies is widely discussed (Spohn 2010; Casanova 2011).
