Though many scholars and commentators have predicted the death of religion, the world is more religious today than ever before. And yet, despite the persistence of religion, it remains a woefully understudied phenomenon. With Objective Religion, Baylor University Press and Baylor's Institute for Studies of Religion have combined forces to gather select articles from the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion that not only highlight the journal's wide-ranging and diverse scope, but also advance the field through a careful arrangement of topics with ongoing relevance, all treated with scientific objectivity and the respect warranted by matters of faith. This multivolume project seeks to advance our understanding of religion and spirituality in general as well as particular religious beliefs and practices. The volume thereby serves as a catalyst for future studies of religion from diverse disciplines and fields of inquiry including sociology, psychology, political science, demography, economics, philosophy, ethics, history, medicine, population health, epidemiology, and theology. The articles in this volume, Freedom, Politics, Secularization, use rigorous methodologies to scrutinize profoundly important topics that are so often misunderstood. In this way Objective Religion helps us rethink the conventional beliefs and stereotypes that occupy so much of popular discourse on religion.
Byron R. Johnson is Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University and the founding director of the Institute for Studies of Religion.
Foreword - Philip Jenkins Introduction Part One: Religious Freedom 1. International Religion Indexes: Government Regulation, Government Favoritism, and Social Regulation of Religion Brian J. Grim and Roger Finke 2. Strict but Not (Gender) Conservative: Refining the Strict Church Thesis in Light of Brazilian Pentecostalism Kevin Neuhouser 3. New Data and Measures on Societal Discrimination and Religious Minorities Jonathan Fox, Roger Finke, and Dane R. Mataicf 4. Deregulation and Demographic Change: A Key to Understanding Whether Religious Plurality Leads to Strife Brian J. Grim, Vegard Skirbekk, and Jesus Crespo Cuaresma 5. Consumer Expenditures and the Faith Factor Vince E. Showers, Linda S. Showers, James E. Cox, Jr., Jeri M. Beggs, and Hulda G. Black 6. Is Religious Freedom Good for Business?: A Conceptual and Empirical Analysis Brian J. Grim, Greg Clark, and Robert Edward Snyder Part Two: Religion and Politics 7. Catholic Young Adults' Attitudes Toward the Church's Pro-Life Teachings: A Bellwether for the Church's Political Strategy? Tia Noelle Pratt 8. Same-Sex Sexuality, Marriage, and the Seminary Professor: Catholic, Evangelical, and Mainline Protestant Robert J. Priest 9. Christian Theology and Attitudes Toward Political and Religious Ideological Groups George Yancey, Marie A. Eisenstein, and Ryan P. Burge 10. Are Religion and Environmentalism Complements or Substitutes?: A Club-Based Approach Feler Bose and Timothy M. Komarek 11. Divided by Age?: Generational Shifts in White Evangelical Christians' Attitudes Toward Racial Diversity Darin M. Mather Part Three: Religion, Technology, and Secularization 12. Religious Apps for Smartphones and Tablets: Transforming Religious Authority and the Nature of Religion Cortney Hughes Rinker, Jesse Roof, Emily Harvey, Elyse Bailey, and Hannah Embler 13. Introducing Jesus's Social Network: Support, Conflict, and Compassion Jennifer M. McClure 14. Fear of Love Online: The Effect of Religious Salience on the Early Adoption of Online Dating (2000-2005) Benjamin Thomas Gurrentz 15. Human Development and the Demography of Secularization in Global Perspective Eric Kaufmann 16. Are Religious "Nones" Really Not Religious? Jeff Levin, Matt Bradshaw, and Byron R. Johnson About the Contributors
