The DOI matches its Crossref record; none of the 5 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.
The Future of Religion
Open accessAbstract
Because what is understood by religio changes with time and place, even in those places dominated by western European languages the use of the trem is bound to specific cultural politics. When examining the possible future of religion, then, place matters. In the West, I argue, modes of believing and the structure of sensibilities are morphing following the new visibility of religion in the public sphere. The transformation will have long-reaching effect upon both the study and the practice of religion.
Overview
AI snapshot
Written from the paper’s full text.
TL;DR
Graham Ward argues that the future of religion must be understood in relation to changing meanings of *religio* across time and place, especially in Western Europe and its former colonies. He predicts that religion will become more publicly visible and culturally pervasive, producing both renewed academic interest and sharper divisions between commodified spirituality and disciplined faith.
Key findings
- The term “religion” has no fixed universal meaning; it works as a set of family resemblances embedded in cultural politics and shifting semantic networks, so Ward rejects dropping the term and denies that any study of religion can be ideology-free.
- In the West, modes of believing and structures of sensibility are changing; Ward cites post-secular thinkers such as Berger, Bauman, Habermas, and Taylor against secularization narratives, and notes that the 1999 European Values Study shows national differences and a reported rise in Europeans holding religious beliefs.
- He predicts three trajectories: greater study of religions and cultural respect for it; increased questioning of secularity and neutrality in public institutions; and polarization between committed faith and consumer spirituality, with faith communities tightening definitions of belonging.
- For religious studies, he expects more attention to socially and historically embedded practices and to genealogies, phenomenologies, and anthropologies of believing, with religion playing a paradigmatic role.
Methods
- Theoretical and argumentative essay rather than an empirical study; no sample, formal data collection, or statistical analysis is conducted.
- Draws on historical examples of the term’s use (Ficino, Calvin, Cranmer, Grotius, Augustine), contemporary cultural examples (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, films, television, a papal funeral), and selected sociologists and philosophers; it also references the 1999 European Values Study.
- The main analysis is conceptual prediction about future trajectories of religion and religious studies.
Limitations
- Stated in the paper: space allows only one example of how changing beliefs affect sensibilities; the new cultural a priori and their social consequences require much further analysis; and survey questions about religious belief are abstract while the category itself is nebulous.
- Evident from the text: the argument is speculative and programmatic, relying on illustrative cultural phenomena and selected theorists rather than systematic evidence; broad claims about the West may not travel to other contexts.
Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
15 Own interpretation · 4 Sources not found · 1 No basis given
In the paper
“The survey points to a rise in Europe of those who hold religious beliefs.”
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites European Values Study
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Rests on an assumption: The European Values Study's measures of religious belief are adequate for showing a rise in religious belief in Europe.
- Not matched
None of the sources cited for this claim could be matched to a paper in Crossref, so there is nothing to check it against.
In the paper
“As thinkers like Louis Althusser and Foucault have demonstrated, there is no ideology-free zone.”
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Louis Althusser
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Not matchedcites Foucault
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
boosted- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: unclear — It is unclear whether it could be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Not matched
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“When examining the possible future of religion, then, place matters.”
- Also stated in: § The Future of Religion · plain
“Place matters then when we begin to think of the future of religion.”
plainstates an association- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: unclear — It is unclear whether it could be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Also stated in: § The Future of Religion · plain
A statement the paper makes itself — it cites no source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“the use of the trem is bound to specific cultural politics.”
- Also stated in: § The Future of Religion · plain
“the employment of the term is fraught with certain cultural politics; enmeshed in ideologies, if you will.”
plainstates an association- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: unclear — It is unclear whether it could be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Also stated in: § The Future of Religion · plain
In the paper
“Technologies affect our perception and experience of the world.”
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Walter Benjamin
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
plainstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Not matched
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Third, there will be an increasingly polarization between those who talk of spirituality and those who talk of faith.”
plainstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Rests on an assumption: The future of religion can be predicted from current cultural signs and trends.
- Probably not a substantial claim. 11
- It may state two separate claims as one. 4
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“In the West, I argue, modes of believing and the structure of sensibilities are morphing following the new visibility of religion in the public sphere.”
plainstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“For they concern a return to mythological modes of thinking and imagining.”
plainstates an association- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Because we see the world as, we never just see the world, changes in the modes of believing will alter the structure of sensibilitiesthat is, the acceptable range and interrelated network of emotional responses to the world.”
plainstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Because what is understood by religio changes with time and place, even in those places dominated by western European languages the use of the trem is bound to specific cultural politics.”
plainstates an association- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“So, what we are treating with the term religio, even in a given period of time, in Western Europe and their former colonies, is at best a set of family resemblances.”
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.
A statement the paper makes itself — it cites no source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The cultural a priori that makes any belief believable are constantly changing.”
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“recognizes that never is religion or the labeling of what is religious nonideological.”
- Also stated in: § The Future of Religion · boosted
“There is no view from no where-religion is always studied from embodied perspectives, concrete situations, and specific standpoints.”
boosted- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: unclear — It is unclear whether it could be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Also stated in: § The Future of Religion · boosted
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The signs of the times (and it really does not matter whether we define these times as postmodernity, late capitalist, late modernity, or post-Fordist) index changes in what I would call the modes of believing and the structure of sensibilities.”
plainstates an association- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The transformation will have long-reaching effect upon both the study and the practice of religion.”
plainstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“But because its semantic field is changing what is being understood by religion (or presupposed by those who use the word) is changing also.”
plainstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“To establish the authenticity and value (social and personal) of their religious convictions, believers of whatever school within a major faith grouping will have to define themselves over against those who consume religion as a special effect.”
plainstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“In this transformation the discipline itself will pay more attention, I believe, to socially and historically embedded practices and their inter-association with (and even in their avowed disassociation from) other practices.”
hedgedstates a possible cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
In the paper
“As religion becomes more culturally pervasive, the more it becomes commodified and the more it becomes in Taylor's term post-Durkheimian.”
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Taylor
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
plainstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: unclear — It is unclear whether it could be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Not matched
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“First, if I am right then we are going to see a rise in Western Europe in those wishing to study religions and a new cultural respect for such study among academics and intellectuals more generally.”
hedgedstates a possible cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: unclear — It is unclear why the paper says it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: The future of religion can be predicted from current cultural signs and trends.
The paper relies on this without support.
Popularity is a strong indicator of dominant cultural thematics.
“I would suggest (and here the sociologist's statistics have their place) that popularity is a strong indicator of dominant cultural thematics.”
The paper relies on this without support.
The future of religion can be predicted from current cultural signs and trends.
“I would predict the following trajectories are going to become more evident:”
The paper relies on this without support.
The European Values Study's measures of religious belief are adequate for showing a rise in religious belief in Europe.
“The survey points to a rise in Europe of those who hold religious beliefs.”
Citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Parish, H. L. (2020) · Religions · doi:10.3390/rel11060276 · Cited by 117
“(Ward 2006, Foley 2002).”
Religion in a Post‐Secular Society
Turner, B. S. (2010) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9781444320787.ch29 · Cited by 88
Köhrsen, J. (2012) · Acta Sociologica · doi:10.1177/0001699312445809 · Cited by 54
Religious worship online: A qualitative study of two Sunday virtual services
Dein, S. L., & Watts, F. (2023) · Archive for the Psychology of Religion · doi:10.1177/00846724221145348 · Cited by 45
“Ward (2006) argues that the Internet impacts the nature of communication and the senses of time and place, and the ways we see the world.”
BackgroundReligion and the COVID-19 pandemic: mediating presence and distance
Lorea, C. E., Mahadev, N., Lang, N., & Chen, N. (2022) · Religion · doi:10.1080/0048721x.2022.2061701 · Cited by 39
“Religion online can be perceived as running the risk of creating a community of believers ‘without any anchor’ in the physical embodiment of faith (Ward 2006).”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Ward, G.
- Affiliations
- University of Manchester (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Ward, Graham
- ORCID
- Ward, Graham
- Venue
- Journal of the American Academy of Religion
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2006-01-19
- Volume
- 74
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 179-186
- ISSN
- 0002-7189 (ISSN-L)
- 1477-4585
- OpenAlex
- W2047970146
- Cited by
- 21
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 3 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 3 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 1.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- muse.jhu.edu
- Locations
- Journal of the American Academy of Religion (publishedVersion)
- Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Religion and Society Interactions
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Study and Philosophy of Religion
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Religious, Philosophical, and Educational Studies
- Keywords
- future of religion, religio, public sphere, sensibility, religious visibility, Western religion
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- The paper
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