Religious Indifference

This volume comprises original anthropological, historical and sociological research on religious indifference. Religious indifference is a core category for understanding contemporary societies. Controversially, for some scholars it indicates a dramatic decline of religiosity and epitomizes the endpoint of secularization processes. Others evaluate religious indifference as an indicator/marker for/ going hand in hand with moral apathy and philosophical nihilism or, by contrast, as enabling/inducing/bringing forth new forms of political tolerance and solidarity. Both conceptually as well as exemplified empirically by detailed and illustrative case studies, indifference is analysed as a symbolically powerful and contested concept. We highlight how religious indifference constitutes a challenge to very different actors and agendas - both religious and secular. Using a relational approach to nonreligion via genealogical sketches, this volume outlines indifference in its interrelatedness with Christianity as well as organized secularism. The different chapters entail anthropological and qualitative data based case studies from Great Britain, Germany, Estonia, the USA, Canada, and India. They further include analyses of indifference based on large quantitative data sets, as well as philosophical-literary inquiries into the phenomenon. This book is a conceptually and empirically rich introduction into religious indifference. It will be of value to all those interested in religion, secularity and nonreligion in contemporary societies.