Social and Political Sciences, Philosophy, and Anthropology

Photo of Emeritus Professor Grace Davie

Emeritus Professor Grace Davie

BA (Exon); Ph D (London); Honorary Doctorate (Uppsala)

Emeritus Professor of Sociology

g.r.c.davie@exeter.ac.uk

Overview

My research finds its focus in the sociology of religion, with a particular emphasis on patterns of religion in Europe. I am also interested in the theoretical paradigms that have emerged in this field – not least 'European exceptionalism' and the notion of ‘multiple modernities’. How are we to make sense of the growing significance of religion in the modern world with tools and concepts that derive (largely) from the 'exceptional' European case?

At a more practical level, I have explored the interactions between religion and welfare, religion and healthcare and (to a lesser extent) religion and law, recognizing the implications of these diverse fields for sociological thinking about religion.

I continue to pursue these interests in retirement.  My most recent publications are:

Religion in Britain: A Persistent Paradox. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015.

With Nancy Ammerman et al. (2018) Religions and social progress: Critical assessments and creative partnerships. In International Panel on Social Progress (Ed) Rethinking Society for the 21st Century. Cambridge: Cambirdge Univiersty Press, 641-676.  

Ed. (with Lucian Leustean) The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.

Revisiting secularization in light of growing diversity: The European case. Religions 2023, 14(9), 1119;  https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14091119

Academic / Other Awards

2003     Lay Canon, Anglican Diocese of Europe

2018     BSA Sociology of Religion Study Group Outstanding Contribution Award

2018     Invited Member, Academia Europaea

2008     Honorary Doctorate, Uppsala University, Sweden

2023     Honorary Doctorate, University of Helsinki, Finland

2015     Festschrift presented:

       Day, A. and Lövheim, M. (eds), Modernities, Memory and Mutations: Grace 

       Davie and the Study of Religion. Farnham, Ashgate, 2015. 

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Research

My concerns with the connections between religion and modernity date from the mid 1980s. The canvas on which I have worked has, however, steadily widened: from an initial engagement with faith in the inner cities of modern Britain (Ahern and Davie 1987), through a more general consideration of the religious life of Britain (Davie 1994), to a concern with the patterns of religion in modern Europe (Davie 2000). The next step was to place Europe itself within a global context, but at this point the narrative took a rather different turn. It is simply not the case that the patterns of religious activity discovered in Western Europe are those of the modern world more generally. Europe: The Exceptional Case (2002) deals with these issues by looking at Europe from the outside rather than within.

The next stage of my writing developed this thinking in new ways. In the first instance, this found expression in a book commissioned by Sage for their Millennium Series, which reflects on why the subject matter of the sociology of religion has developed in the way that it has. Why, in other words, have certain aspects of the research agenda received disproportionate attention and what are the consequences for sociological understanding? The text becomes in fact a critical appraisal of both content and method within the sociology of religion, underlining the importance of contextual factors for its development in different parts of the world (the comparative element is central). It was first published in May 2007; a new edition appeared in 2013.

A co-authored book (with Peter Berger and Effie Fokas) followed in September 2008. It emerged from three meetings in Berlin concerned with European Secularity. Its eventual publication, coinciding with the American Presidential election in 2008 under the title Religious America, Secular Europe: A Theme and Variations (Ashgate 2008) was nothing if not timely. 

A third strand of research was rather different. It developed out of my links with Swedish colleagues at the Uppsala University which have led in turn to a series of European wide collaborative projects on religion and welfare. The first of these, Welfare and Religion in a European Perspective, 2003-06, was funded by the Tercentenary Foundation of the Bank of Sweden; the second, Welfare and Values in Europe, 2006-09, was financed by the European Commission, under the Framework 6 programme. Both are central to the understanding of modern Europe and develop – both empirically and theoretically – ideas about inclusion and exclusion. WaVE is predicated on the assumption that values can best be understood through the ways that they are expressed in practice. Accordingly, WaVE aims to study values through the prism of welfare. Two co-edited books on welfare and religion in 21st century Europe are the fruit of these collaborations.

I was the co-director of both WREP and WaVE both of which fed into the establishment in Uppsala of a Linnaeus Centre of Excellence in Uppsala concerned with the Impact of Religion: Challenges for Society, Law and Democracy. My involvement in this Centre resulted further visits to Uppsala, which continued into retirement.  

My commitment to the relationship between religion and society found a rather different application in an invitation to act (with Nancy Ammerman) as a Co-ordinating Lead Author for the chapter on religion in the report of the International Panel for Social Progress (IPSP) – an international consortium that came into existence to assess and synthesize the state-of-the-art knowledge that bears on social progress across a wide range of economic, political and cultural questions, For more information about the work and publications of IPSP and the place of religion within this, see 

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/religionglobalsociety/2019/01/a-lived-situated-and-constantly-changing-reality-why-religion-is-relevant-to-the-pursuit-of-social-progress/

In terms of my own writing, I have to an extent closed the loop with a comprehensively revised edition of Religion in Britain since 1945. This was published in 2015 under the title Religion in Britain: A Persistent Paradox. My European interests found expression in the co-editing (with Lucian Leustean of The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Europe (OUP 2021).

     

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Supervision

I am now retired and can no longer accept post-graduate students at Exeter.

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Publications

Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.

| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1998 | 1996 | 1994 | 1987 |

2024

  • Davie G. (2024) Reflections on noreligion and nonbelief in Europe: Typology or spectrum, The Faith and Beliefs of "Nonbelievers", The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 85-104.

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

  • Molokotos-Liederman L. (2017) Religion and welfare in Europe Gendered and minority perspectives, Policy Press.
  • Davie G. (2017) Religion in Public Life: Levelling the Ground, Theos.
  • Davie G. (2017) Secularization, The Wiley‐Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Theory, Wiley, 1-4, DOI:10.1002/9781118430873.est0325.

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

  • Davie G. (2012) A short afterword: Thinking spatially about religion, Culture and Religion, volume 13, no. 4, pages 485-489, DOI:10.1080/14755610.2012.728387.
  • Davie G. (2012) A European Perspective on Religion and Welfare: Contrasts and Commonalities, Social Policy and Society, volume 11, no. 4, pages 589-599, DOI:10.1017/s1474746412000267.
  • Davie GRC. (2012) Thinking sociologically about religion: Discerning and explaining pattern, Studying Religion and Society: Sociological Self Portraits, Routledge, 116-127.
  • Davie GRC, Percy M. (2012) The future of religion, Spirituality in Healthcare, Oxford University Press, 481-487.
  • Davie GRC. (2012) A European perspective on religion and welfare: Contrasts and commonalities, Social Policy and Society, volume 11, no. 4, pages 989-999.
  • Davie GRC. (2012) Belief and unbelief: Two sides of a coin, Approaching Religion, volume 2, no. 1, pages 3-7.
  • Davie GRC. (2012) Law, sociology and religion: An awkward threesome’, Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, volume 1, no. 1, pages 235-247.
  • Davie GRC. (2012) Thinking sociologically about religion: Implications for faith communities’, Review of Religious Research, volume 54, no. 3, pages 273-289.

2011

  • Davie GRC, Wyatt D. (2011) Document analysis, Research Methods in the Study of Religion, Routledge, 151-160.
  • Davie GRC. (2011) Public and private in the study of religion: Imaginative approaches, Religion and Society: Advances in Research, volume 2, pages 9-12.
  • Davie GRC. (2011) Thinking sociologically about religion: A step change in the debate, ARDA Guiding Paper Series. [PDF]

2010

  • Davie GRC. (2010) A perspective from the sociology of religion, Law and Religion in the 21st Century: Relations between States and Religious Communities, Ashgate, 1-14.
  • Davie G. (2010) Religious America, secular Europe: Framing the debate, World Religions and Multiculturalism: A Dialectic Relation, Brill, 41-62.
  • Davie G. (2010) Thinking broadly and thinking deeply: Two examples of the study of religion in the modern world, Secularisation in the Christian World, Ashgate, 219-232.
  • Davie G. (2010) An English example: Exploring the via media in the twenty-first century, Between Relativism and Fundamentalism, Eerdmans, 35-55.
  • Davie G. (2010) Vicarious religion: A response, Journal of Contemporary Religion, volume 25, no. 2, pages 261-267.
  • Bäckström A, Davie GRC. (2010) Welfare and Religion in 21st century Europe (Volume One): Configuring the Connections, Ashgate.
  • Davie G. (2010) Resacralization, The New Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Religion, Blackwell, 160-178.

2009

  • Davie G. (2009) Is Europe an Exceptional Case?*, International Review of Mission, volume 95, no. 378‐379, pages 247-258, DOI:10.1111/j.1758-6631.2006.tb00562.x.

2008

  • Davie GRC. (2008) Thinking sociologically about religion: Contexts, concepts and clarifications, The Centrality of Religion in Social Life: Essays in Honour of James A. Beckford, Ashgate, 15-28.
  • Berger P, Davie GRC, Fokas E. (2008) Religious America, Secular Europe: A Theme and Variations, Ashgate.

2007

  • Davie GRC. (2007) Pluralism, tolerance and democracy: Theory and practice in Europe, Democracy and the New Religious Pluralism, Oxford University Press, 223-242.
  • Davie, G.. (2007) The Sociology of Religion, Sage.
  • Davie GRC. (2007) Vicarious religion: A methodological challenge, Everyday Religion: Observing Modern Religious Lives, OUP, 21-36.

2006

  • Davie GRC. (2006) 'Is Europe an exceptional case, The Hedgehog Review, volume 8, pages 23-34.
  • Davie GRC. (2006) 'The sociology of religion', The Blackwell Companion to the Study of Religion, Blackwell, 171-192.
  • Davie GRC. (2006) Religion in Europe in the 21st century: The factors to take into account, European Journal of Sociology, volume 47, no. 2, pages 271-296, DOI:10.1017/S0003975606000099.
  • Davie GRC. (2006) 'Borders, boundaries and frontiers in the study of religion: A sociological response', Social Compass, volume 53, no. 2, pages 243-249.

2005

  • Davie GRC. (2005) From obligation to consumption: A framework for reflection in northern Europe, Political Theology, volume 6, no. 3, pages 281-301.

2004

2003

  • Davie GRC. (2003) 'The evolution of the sociology of religion: Theme and variations', Handbook for the Sociology of Religion, Cambridge University Press, 61-75.
  • Davie GRC. (2003) 'Seeing Salvation: The use of data as text in the sociology of religion', Public Faith? The State of Religious Belief and Practice in Britain, SPCK, 28-44.
  • Davie GRC, Heelas P, Woodhead L. (2003) Predicting Religion: Christian, Secular and Alternative Futures, Ashgate.
  • Davie GRC. (2003) Religious minorities in France: A Protestant perspective, Challenging Religion: Essays in Honour of Eileen Barker, Routledge, 159-169.

2002

  • Davie GRC. (2002) Praying alone: Church-going in Britain and social capital, Journal for Contemporary Religion, volume 17, no. 3, pages 329-335.
  • Davie GRC, Woodhead L. (2002) 'Predicting religion: Four case studies', Religion, volume 32, no. 1, pages 1-50.
  • Davie GRC. (2002) Europe, the Exceptional Case. Parameters of Faith in the Modern World, Darton, Longman and Todd.

2001

  • Davie GRC. (2001) European religion, International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioural Sciences, vol. 7, Pargamon, 4925-4929.
  • Davie G. (2001) The persistence of institutional religion in modern Europe, Peter Berger and the Study of Religion, Routledge, 101-111.
  • Davie GRC. (2001) Global civil religion: A European perspective, Sociology of Religion, volume 62, no. 4, pages 455-473.
  • Davie GRC. (2001) Women's religiosity, International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioural Sciences, vol. 24, Pargamon, 16532-16534.
  • Davie GRC. (2001) 'French Protestants and the general theory, Restoring the Image. Essays on Religion and Society in Honour of David Martin, Sheffield Academic Press, 69-81.

2000

  • Davie G. (2000) Religion in Modern Europe: A Memory Mutates, Oxford University Press.

1998

  • DAVIE G, VINCENT J. (1998) Religion and old age, Ageing and Society, volume 18, no. 1, pages 101-110, DOI:10.1017/s0144686x97006776.

1996

  • Davie G, Hervieu-Léger D. (1996) Identités religieuses en Europe, Editions La Découverte.

1994

  • Davie G. (1994) Religion in Britain since 1945: Believing without Belonging, Blackwell.

1987

  • Ahern G, Davie G. (1987) Inner City God: The Nature of Belief in the Inner City, Hodder and Stoughton.

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Biography

I began my sociological career with an undergraduate degree in Sociology at Exeter (1967); this was followed by a doctorate at the London School of Economics (1975). It was at this stage that I developed the two aspects of my work which were to endure throughout: an interest in the sociology of religion and an acquaintance with both France and French sociology. My doctoral thesis on the political aspects of the French Protestant community in the interwar period brought these together.

After a break from academic life when my children were small, and when I lived in Liverpool, I returned to the Department of Sociology in Exeter where I taught a wide variety of both undergraduate and postgraduate modules. I was also involved with the Erasmus Exchange Programme at both Department and School level. From 2002-06 I was the Director of Exeter's Centre for European Studies. Post-graduate supervision formed an important part of my work both in Exeter and elsewhere.

During my time at Exeter, I enjoyed close collaboration with and visits to a number of European Universities, notably the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. In 2000-01, I held the Kerstin Hesselgren Professorship at Uppsala University, where I returned in 2006-07 and again in 2010, 2012 and into retirement. The 2006-07 visit included a month at the Collegium for Advanced Studies at the University of Helsinki. In 2005, I spent the fall semester at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut. The details are listed below.

Appointments in other universities

1992 Visiting scholar, Faculty of Theology, University of Uppsala; return visits in September 1994, December 1995 

1994 Visiting lecturer, Centre for Religious Studies, Vilnius University

1996 Directeur d'études invité, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris

1998 Visiting lecturer, Institute of Sociology, Jagiellonian University, Krakow

1998 Directeur d'études invité, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris 

2000-01 Kerstin Hesselgren Professor in the University of Uppsala 

2002 Visiting scholar, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia

2003 Directeur d'études invité, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris

2005 Adjunct professor, Hartford Seminary, Connecticut (fall semester)

2006-07 Visiting professor, University of Uppsala (including a month at the Collegium for Advanced Studies of the University of Helsinki)

2007 Guest lecturer, Fourth Symposium and Summer Institute for the Scientific Study of Religion, Shanghai University

2010 onwards - further visits to the University of Uppsala to support the work of a new research programme on The Impact of Religion - Challenges for Society, Law and Religion

2012 Intensive course, Department of Theology, University of Otago, Dunedin

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More information

Professional Organizations

SISR (International Society for the Sociology of Religion)

1990-98 Council member

1994-98 Convenor and in this capacity, program chair of two major international conferences (Québec 1995, Toulouse 1997) each of which gathered 300 plus scholars from over 30 countries.


ISA (International Sociological Association)

1990-98 Member of Research Committee 22 (Sociology of Religion) of the ISA

2002-06 President, Research Committee 22

2006-10 Invited member of Programme Committee for 2010 ISA Conference

ASR (Association for the Sociology of Religion)

1997 Member International Committee

1998 Chair International Committee

1999 Elected member of the Council

2002 President Elect and Program Chair for Chicago meeting

2003 President
 

Trusteeships

1991-2014 Trustee of The Scott Holland Trust

See http://www.scotthollandtrust.org.uk/

1991- Trustee, then Chair (until 2018) of The Reid Trust for the Higher Education of Women

See http://www.reidtrust.org.uk

1996-2022 Trustee, then Vice-chair and Chair of The St Luke's College Foundation

For more information, see https://stlukescf.org.uk/

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