There is a continuum of values between the churches and the general community. What distinguishes the handling of these values in the churches is mainly the heavier dosage of religious vocabulary involved

Let me say again that the relationship is asymmetrical: there's no democracy without a market economy, but you can have a market economy without democracy.

An economy oriented toward production for market exchange provides the optimal conditions for long-lasting and ever-expanding productive capacity based on modern technology.

He who has the bigger stick has the better chance of imposing his definitions of reality.

I think what I and most other sociologists of religion wrote in the 1960s about secularization was a mistake. Our underlying argument was that secularization and modernity go hand in hand. With more modernization comes more secularization

East Asia confirms the superior capacity of industrial capitalism in raising the material standard of living of large masses of people.

The negative side to globalization is that it wipes out entire economic systems and in doing so wipes out the accompanying culture