Roczniki Filozoficzne

Volume 23, Issue 2, 1975

Etyka

Religiousness as an Object of Sociological Studies

Sociology of religion, despite of an excellent progress in various countries, still struggles with difficulties in accurately defining its study-object. A specific difficulty represents the problem of how to construct the definition of religiousness adequately to observed religious fenomena of a changing sociological reality. Taking up the problem of sociological definition of religious fenomenon the author first demonstrates that sociology of religion as an sociological subdiscipline deals with religiousness in the socio-cultural aspect. It is concerned with social form of religion, and here the author distinguishes institutional religiousness („churchness”) from conventional religiousness (environmental model) The latter moi£ than the former expresses the social form of religion. Then the author discusses the opinions of those who are in favour of functional and of „substantial” definitions of religiousness. Only the latter ones can be brought to operate and be adapted to needs of empirical studies. In particular, in a definition of religious fenomenon must be taken into account: socio-cultural context, influence of religious institutions and especially of socialization subjects on religious fenomena formation, as well as on the content („substance”) of religious fenomenon. On the basis of analyses carried out the author gives the following definition of religiousness: religiousness is a set of values, norms, symbols and acts connected with them. Shared by group of people, which follow from a distinction between the empirical and extra-empirical reality, and from surrending — in terms of significance — the empirical to the extra-empirical reality.