Explaining a Religious Anomaly: A Historical Analysis of Secularization in Eastern Germany

• Published in: Journal for the scientific study of religion Vol. 44; no. 4; pp. 397 - 422
• Main Authors: FROESE, PAUL, PFAFF, STEVEN
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK and Boston, USA Blackwell Publishing Inc 01.12.2005; Blackwell Publishers, Inc; Blackwell; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Atheism; Christianity; Churches; Communism; Contemporary period; General subjects; German Democratic Republic; Germany; History and sciences of religions; Modernization; Postcommunism; Protestantism; Religion; Religiosity; Religious history; Religious studies; Science; Secularism; Secularization; Social history; Socialism; Sociological studies; Sociology; Supply and Demand; East Germany; Germany
• ISSN: 0021-8294; 1468-5906
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-5906.2005.00294.x

The sociology of religion is engrossed in a debate concerning the process of secularization. Some theories of secularization hold that religiosity decreases under the effects of modernization. In opposition, supply-side models of religious change maintain that declines in religiosity can be explained only through changes in the supply of religious goods. To further examine mechanisms of secularization, this article investigates the emergence of the most secularized society in the world today-eastern Germany. The extremely high percent of atheists in contemporary eastern Germany suggests that the public demand for religion has diminished. But the process of modernization did not bring about this change; instead, current drops in religious demand and religiosity in eastern Germany are the result of dramatic interventions in the supply of religious goods over the past two centuries. We trace the historical conditions that have created the most atheistic society ever.