(Mitte)religioossuse kvantitatiivsest uurimisest postkristlikus kultuurimiljöös

Abstract

On the quantitative study of (non-)religion in the post-Christian cultural landscape

The article discusses Christocentrism in the quantitative sociology of religion. The attention on ideal congregation-centered Christianity falls short in describing contemporary Estonian society since the share of people whom this focus would describe is increasingly marginal, even among Christians. This argument is supported by the analysis of the most interesting part of the EUU 2020 database, the qualitative explanations of picking certain identity labels and justifying attitudes towards different religious traditions. On the basis of the findings, it can be argued that when measuring „religion”, Christians are a relatively isolated group and that much of the descriptive statistics that, on superficial examination, seem to prove the still important position ofChristianity in society, in fact, do not do so. Therefore, in the post-Christian cultural context, the focus solely on „religion” alone is not justified as the aspects of the existential sphere and interpretations of „religion” outside Christianity are increasingly important in measuring and making sense of the data. The article concludes with a discussion on the possible focus of future EUU studies.