WHAT IS RELIGION, AND WHAT IS RELIGION FOR: A SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH

This article presents the fundamental elements of a sociological approach to the phenomena of religion primarily to the advantages and disadvantages of two basic definitions of religion - substantive and functional - that endeavour to answer the question of what is religion and what religion for. Limitations of individual approaches are overcoming in research by measuring various dimensions of religion (believing, alternative believing, religiousness in the narrowest sense, churchness, the public role of the Church, repercussive dimensions of religion). Dominant theoretical approaches on their part indicate a challenge to understanding changing social relations and the role of religion within these processes. Although for quite some time there was a dilemma whether secularisation or revitalisation trends were in force, today there are many theories that accept secularisation as a dominant structural trend. However, that theory cannot explain an entire series of other dimensions of the role of religion in the world. Other particularly interesting theoretical directions indicate a continual (re)(de) construction of the meaning and role of religion by various social groups, that is, that religion remains to be a vital source of meaning and identity. The article concludes by presenting some fundamental empirical data regarding religion in several European countries which once again indicate huge differences in the role of religion in individual societies but also within individual social groups.