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The Religious Factor in Contemporary Society

The Differential Impact of Religion on the Private and Public Sphere in Comparative Perspective

Work & Organization Research Centre, Tilburg University, The Netherlands

Thorleif Pettersson

Faculty of Theology, University of Uppsala, Sweden

Johan Verweij

Department of Sociology, Tilburg University, The Netherlands

This paper explores the relationships between values in the religious domain and values in other societal spheres. Starting from the general idea that the impact of religion on other domains in life has decreased, we assume 1) a differential impact of religion on the private and public domains; 2) that the impact varies between countries dependent upon the degree of secularization and the speed of secularization. Several more specific hypotheses concerning the interrelationships are developed and empirically tested using the data from the European Values Studies. The hypotheses are partially confirmed, but demonstrate that indeed the relationship between religion and the private domain (e.g., family) has developed differently from the relations between religion and the public areas.

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