1.3 Religion and Spirituality Today
What is the status of religion and spirituality in the world today? This is a difficult
question to answer. Both are extraordinarily rich parts of our human experience
and social life, and as such are resistant to easy description. The complexity of the
topic and weaknesses in available statistics are complicated by the fact that different
measures of religion may be appropriate for different cultures (Chaves & Stephens,
2003; Presser & Stinson, 1998; Sherkat & Ellison, 1999; Kisala, 2003). For instance,
traditional research often measures religiosity by membership in a religious community
such as a congregation. However, Asian Buddhists may be very religious but
typically do not belong to a specific group—temples do not have membership lists.
Despite these problems, social commentators and sociologists have produced a
number of descriptions of the current state of religion. These cluster around three
points of view—secularization, religious transformation, and cultural divide.