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[German Version] I. Folk/Folk Religion – II. Religious Studies – III. Judaism – IV. Christianity – V. Islam I. Folk/Folk Religion In the English-speaking realm, the adjective “folk” marks common cultu…

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[German Version] Generally speaking, conformity refers to the observance of the conventions, norms, behavioral patterns, opinions, etc. of a social unit (Group, Milieu, etc.) on the part of its members. Depending on the type and the extent of a unit's social influence and of its integration mechanisms, conformity may range from an external or even unwilling accommodation all the way to voluntary approval and interiorization. The study of conformity thus distingui…

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[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. Greco-Roman Antiquity – III. Bible – IV. Church History – V. Systematic Theology – VI. Practical Theology – VII. Missiology – VIII. Judaism – IX. Islam I. History of Religions “Conversion” denotes the religiously interpreted process of total reorientation in which individuals or groups reinterpret their past lives, turn their backs on them, and reestablish and reshape their future lives in a new network of social relationships. The phenomenon was initially treated historically (Hellenistic religions and Early Church history, missionary history); later, primarily in the context of American and British sociology of religion, it was exa…

[German Version] I. General – II. Recent Theories – III. Religion as Communication I. General Communication theories are not only developed in the natural sciences (physical information theory, cybernetics, biology) but also in the humanities and social sciences (…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies, Systematics – II. Academic Research Disciplines – III. History – IV. Christian Theology…

[German Version] With reflection on forced social differentiation, the question of the forces of social integration also arose in the course of the 19th century. H. Spencer in his sociology was the first to view differentiation and integration as mutually complementary processes. The search for answers quickly led to religion. Already the French counter-revolutionaries J.M. de Maistre and L.G.A. Bonald considered religion the guarantor of social order. W.R. Smith attributed a socio-integrative fun…