What the World Believes

Analyses and Commentary on the Religion Monitor 2008

1st edition 2010, 760 pages, E-Book

In recent years, the subject of religion has undergone a dramatic renaissance and attracted considerable media attention. At the same time, however, knowledge about people's individual religiosity and the social characteristics and dynamics of religion has not grown considerably. Nonetheless, this knowledge has become especially important in a context of growing religious plurality and globalization, where interactions between societies with different cultural and religious backgrounds are increasing. To expand upon this knowledge, the Bertelsmann Stiftung-in cooperation with a team of sociologists, psychologists, theologians and religious studies experts-developed the most advanced instrument to date for examining the various dimensions of religiosity in modern society: the Religion Monitor.

A quantitative and representative survey of 21,000 people around the world who represent all of the major religions constitutes the baseline of the Religion Monitor. As the scholarly complement to the popular publication, this second volume includes original analyses by renowned experts of the Religion Monitor's international survey results. A CD-ROM is included that contains the entire set of results as well as the respective method reports for each of the 21 surveyed countries.

Contributors include: José Casanova, Michael N. Ebertz, Karl Gabriel, Hans Joas, Volkhard Krech, Armin Nassehi, Michael von Brück and Paul M. Zulehner.