Secularization and Census Data

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Abstract
One of the many paradoxes of the sociology of religion as it has developed over the last twenty years is that it has given more attention to sects and to new religious movements than it has to long-established denominations or churches. With a few important exceptions,1 mainstream churches have not received the sort of detailed attention that one might expect given their prevalence and greater size. In part this may be due to lingering suspicions of ‘Religious Sociology’ and to the ecclesiastical control often thought to lurk behind it in France. It may also be due to the sheer difficulty of analysing amorphous religious institutions. Small-scale religious bodies are often exotic and deviant and hence more interesting and, because they usually have a very clear notion of who is a member, they·are easier to study.2 Whatever the reason, longestablished churches remain surprisingly unresearched.

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