1. Theme and Methods
1.1. The theme of the sociology of religion is religion as a social phenomenon. General agreement obtains regarding the universal and directly perceptible features of religious social phenomena. Phenomena of this kind are the result of a process of institutionalizing, in the course of which the original religious experience of an individual or group has gradually taken fixed forms in the shape of a myth or a doctrine (Dogma). This doctrine finds ritual expression in the cult (Rite). Regulations a…