Theoretical and Methodological Background to Understandings of (Non)religion

Abstract

The importance of studying nonreligion is growing with the increase of people in many countries who do not identify as religious or as having a religion. Conceptualising nonreligion, however, is inherently difficult because the phenomenon is primarily negative: it is not religion. Positive conceptions therefore usually insist that nonreligion bear some relation to religion. This chapter suggests the use of Weber’s idea of systems of life regulation as a way forward. It identifies various areas of social life where religious systems of life regulation operate and where therefore nonreligious life regulation might be found, operationalized, and studied. These include sexual, food, and life passage regulation, among others. Illustrations of nonreligious approaches to these areas are provided to show how such regulation might work without being another form of or substitute for religion, without using religious content or being structured through familiar religious determinations such as sacredness, transcendence, or super-empirical actors.