ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an article about the current state of the sociology of religion. The contrast between the relative secularity of Europe and the continuing religious activity in large parts of the United States was central to this discussion. Very different approaches to the discipline have emerged as a result: in Europe, secularization has remained a leading theory; in the United States, this is much less the case. The agenda in the sociology of religion is critical' in that people need to get it right; religion is a crucially important issue in the modern world about which students need to be properly informed. Officially founded in 1948, the WCC became the channel through which the varied streams of ecumenical life that already existed in the churches were brought together. The world is not 'an increasingly secular place'; it is full of very different forms of religious life, many of which are expanding rather than contracting.
