ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that although Max Weber, along with Emile Durkheim, did appear to accept that religion was becoming increasingly epiphenomenal in the modern world both pioneer sociologists of religion are usually seen as secularization theorists Weber, in particular, also used a rather different paradigm. Instead of viewing religious concepts as simply disappearing under pressure from modernity, he entertained the idea that they still flourished in the modern world albeit not in the form of religious beliefs as such but rather as transposed values or virtues. A number of pieces of evidence seemed to reinforce assumptions about the social and political insignificance of Western religion. There did seem to be a general trend throughout Europe towards a separation of church from state. Differences between epiphenomenalist and the transposition paradigms can soon become exaggerated and polarized, especially in a Western context of culture wars.
