A Critical Overview of Religious Market Theory

Year 2017, Volume: 58 Issue: 2, 121 - 143, 01.08.2017

Fatih Varol

https://doi.org/10.1501/Ilhfak_0000001474

Abstract

The secularization thesis expects the decline of religion as a result of the modernization process. However, with modernization the effect of religion is not diminished in many societies and in some modern societies such as the United States, there are high religiousness rates. For these reasons, in recent years the classical secularization thesis has been questioned in the academic world. Therefore, alternative approaches to the secularization thesis have begun to develop. Religious Market Theory has emerged as a new approach attempting to apply the basic principles of classical economics to the social scientific study of religion. In this article, my aim is to examine the basic premises of Religious Market Theory and its application to the United States and European countries. After that I critique it and show that it is also as misleading as the secularization thesis to understand the phenomenon of religion in societies. While the secularization thesis is based on Europe’s experience to understand the place of religion in modern societies and universalizes it, Religious Market Theory theorizes and universalizes the American experience of religion

Keywords

Religious Market Theory, Rational Choice Theory, Secularization, Religiosity, Religious Participation, Religious Pluralism

Dinî piyasalar teorisi: eleştirel bir değerlendirme

Abstract

Klasik sekülerleşme tezi modernleşme ile birlikte dinin toplum üzerindeki etkisinin azalacağını beklemektedir. Ancak hem modernleşme ile birlikte birçok toplumda dinin etkisinin azalmaması hem de Amerika Birleşik Devletleri gibi modern kabul edilen bazı toplumlarda yüksek dindarlık oranı nedeni ile klasik sekülerleşme tezi akademi dünyasında son yıllarda sorgulanır hale gelmiştir. Bu nedenle sekülerleşme tezine alternatif yeni yaklaşımlar gelişmeye başlamıştır. Gelişmekte olan alternatif yaklaşımlar içerisinde klasik iktisat teorisindeki en temel yaklaşımları dini alana uygulamaya çalışan Dini Piyasalar Teorisi ön plana çıkmaktadır. Bu çerçevede, makalede hem Dini Piyasalar Teorisinin teorik temelleri hem de Amerika ve Avrupa örneğinde ampirik uygulaması ele alınmıştır. Nihayetinde ise Dini Piyasalar Teorisinin toplumlardaki din olgusunu anlamak bakımından en az sekülerleşme tezi kadar yanıltıcı olduğu gösterilmiştir. Zira, sekülerleşme tezi modern toplumlarda dinin yerini anlamak için Avrupa’da yaşanan tecrübeyi kendine temel almakta ve onu evrenselleştirmekte iken, Dini Piyasalar Teorisi de Amerika’da yaşanan dini tecrübeyi teorileştirmekte ve onu evrenselleştirmektedir

Keywords

Dinî Piyasalar Teorisi, Rasyonel Seçim Teorisi, Sekülerleşme, Toplumsal Dindarlık, Dinî Katılım, Dinî Çoğulculuk

References

• Bankston III, Carl L. “Rationality, Choice and the Religious Economy: The Problem of Belief,” Review of Religious Research 43:4 (2002), ss.311-25.
• Becker, Gary S. The Economic Approach to Human Behavior. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.
• Berger, P. L. The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics. Washington, D.C.: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999.
• Bruce, Steve. Secularization: In Defence of an Unfashionable Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
• Casanova, Jose. Public Religions in the Modern World. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1994.
• Chaves, Mark ve Philip S. Gorski. “Religious Pluralism and Religious Participation,” Annual Review of Sociology 27:1 (2001), ss.261-81.
• Çapcıoğlu, İhsan ve Bünyamin Solmaz. Din Sosyolojisi: Klasik ve Çağdaş Yaklaşımlar. Konya: Çizgi Kitabevi, 2006.
• Davie, Grace. Religion in Britain since 1945: Believing without Belonging. Oxford: Blackwell, 2008.
• Finke, Roger. “Church Membership in America: Trends and Explanations,” Helen Rose Ebaugh (ed.), Handbook of Religion and Social Institutions (Boston, MA: Springer, 2006) içinde, ss.335-52.
• Finke, Roger, Avery M. Guest ve Rodney Stark. “Mobilizing Local Religious Markets: Religious Pluralism in the Empire State, 1855 to 1865,” American Sociological Review 61:2 (1996), ss.203-18.
• Finke, Roger ve Laurence R. Iannaccone. “Supply-Side Explanations for Religious Change,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 527:1 (1993), ss.27-39.
• Finke, Roger ve Rodney Stark. The Churching of America, 1776-1990. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992.
• ---------. “The Dynamics of Religious Economies,” Michele Dillon (ed.), Handbook of the Sociology of Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003) içinde, ss.96-109.
• ---------. “Evaluating the Evidence: Religious Economies and Sacred Canopies,” American Sociological Review 54:6 (1989), ss.1054-56.
• ---------. “Religious Choice and Competition,” American Sociological Review 63:5 (1998), ss.761-66.
• ---------. “Religious Economies and Sacred Canopies: Religious Mobilization in American Cities, 1906,” American Sociological Review 53:1 (1988), ss.41- 49.
• Greeley, Andrew M. Religious Change in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989.
• Grim, Brian J. ve Roger Finke. The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the Twenty-First Century. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
• Iannaccone, Laurence R. “Introduction to the Economics of Religion,” Journal of Economic Literature 36:3 (1998), ss.1465-95.
• ---------. “Religious Practice: A Human Capital Approach,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 29:3 (1990), ss.297-314.
• ---------. “Rational Choice: Framework for the Scientific Study of Religion,” Lawrence A. Young (ed.) Rational Choice Theory and Religion: Summary and Assessment (New York, NY: Routledge, 1997) içinde, ss.25-44.
• Introvigne, Massimo ve Rodney Stark. “Religious Competition and Revival in Italy: Exploring European Exceptionalism,” Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion 1:1 (2005), ss.1-15.
• Kepel, Gilles. The Revenge of God: The Resurgence of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism in the Modern World. University Park, PA: Penn State Press, 1994.
• Kirman, M. Ali. “Dinin Ekonomik Modeli: Küreselleşme Sürecinde Dine Yeni Bir Yaklaşım,” Ondokuz Mayıs Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 18-19 (2005), ss.145-160.
• Köse, Ali. Kutsalın Dönüşü. İstanbul: Timaş Yayınları, 2014.
• Norris, Pippa ve Ronald Inglehart. Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide. New York: NY: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
• Stark, Rodney. “Secularization, Rip,” Sociology of Religion 60:3 (1999), ss.249-73.
• ---------. The Triumph of Faith: Why the World Is More Religious Than Ever. Wilmington: ISI Books, 2015.
• Stark, Rodney ve William Sims Bainbridge. The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
• ---------. A Theory of Religion. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1996.
• Stark, Rodney ve Roger Finke. Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
• Stark, Rodney ve Laurence R. Iannaccone. “A Supply-Side Reinterpretation of the “Secularization” of Europe,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 33:3 (1994), ss.230-52.