Human Rights and Religion: A Sociological Perspective

Abstract

This essay aims to review mainstream literature and research perspectives on the sociology of human rights with the further focus on relationship between human rights and religion. We consider the challenges of late engagement of sociology with human rights and current narratives of the relationship of human rights and religion that encompass normativity as the central category of historically oriented sociology. We discuss the contribution of two empirical research mainstreams on human rights and religion and focus on a new field of study—sociology of religious freedom. A detailed new agenda for sociological research on human rights and religion is explored in the final part of our assessment.

Measuring the Social Perception of Religious Freedom: A Sociological Perspective

“…Being associated with violations of human rights, religious freedom has been treated by sociology with a theoretical caution. The normative and legal nature of rights distanced sociology from engagement with human rights research until recently (Somers and Roberts 2008;Morgan 2009;Breskaya et al 2018). However, exactly from the study on human rights and religion through approaching the topics of gender, peacebuilding, and legal pluralism (Possamai et al 2015;Durham and Clark 2015;Giordan and Zrinščak 2018;Giordan and Breskaya 2018), the sociological dimensions of religious freedom analysis are evolving focused on pluralism policies, interfaith dialogue, empowerment of women, and sustainable development.…”

The New Sociology of Religion

“…Meanwhile, other original topics, to which little attention had been paid in the past, are now being proposed in the scholarly arena, such as the issue of abandonment of one's religion [82] and the opposite phenomenon of conversions [83], gender diversity [84,85], migration [86], mass media [87,88], developments in new Asian religious movements [89] and the contrast between the secular and religious in urban structures in Asia [90], the problems of violence [91] and the relationship between conspiracy theories and religion [92], connections between ecology and religions [93], those concerning peace and conflict [94], the connections between cities and religion [95,96] and sport and religion [97], monasticism [98], religious diversity [99], chaplaincy and religious diversity in prisons [100][101][102], language [103], the economic aspects of religions [104], legislative issues (especially concerning freedom of religion and human rights) [105][106][107][108][109][110], political issues [111][112][113] and globalisation [114]. The methodology only remains somewhat overshadowed, but there is no shortage of relevant contributions [115].…”

A Context-Grounded Approach to Religious Freedom: The Case of Orthodoxy in the Moldovan Republic

“…Within the new framework we described, the relationship between human rights and religion, mostly expressed through the multifaceted topic of religious freedom, attracts an ever-increasing interest. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, in recent decades the research on religious freedom has becomea growing subfield of the emerging sociology of human rights (Breskaya et al 2018). Among many types of research, we could mention those involved in broad theoretical discussions on the relationship between religions and human rights traditions (Ferrari 2005; Witte and Green 2012; Joas 2013; de Sousa Santos 2015; Ventura 2015), studies on the intersectionality of the right to freedom of religion with other human rights (Afkhami 2000;Thornberry 2002;Langlaude 2007;Jenkins 2008), researches in the sociology of law and political science regarding religious policies implemented by states (Van der Vyver and Witte 1996;Sarkissian 2015;Grim and Finke 2006), case studies on religious pluralism, on religious education, and on the influence of religious factors and cultural diversities affecting law and regulations (Price 2002;Richardson 2004;Fox 2008), reflections on the central position of the topic of religious freedom within contemporary societies or in global politics (Banchoff and Wuthnow 2011; Finke 2013; Zuber 2017).…”