The Three Religious Revivals. Pentecostal, Islamic, and Orthodox Upswings in the Context of Long-Term Secularization

Abstract

Abstract Secularization theory is often criticized by pointing to counterexamples where— apparently or really—revivals of religion have coincided with modernization. But secularization theorists have responded to such criticisms by arguing that secularization is compatible with temporary religious upswings. Recently, Stolz and Voas (2023) have proposed a typology, distinguishing 5 mechanisms: “crisis”, “reaction”, “transition”, “state intervention”, and “composition”. This paper puts this typology to the test by examining the three most important religious revivals in the 20th and 21st century: the Pentecostal, the Islamic, and the Orthodox religious revival. We argue that all three revivals have led to strong increases in various indicators of religiosity, each of them built on a different combination of central mechanisms. While the Orthodox revival seems to have come to a standstill, the Pentecostal/Charismatic and Islamic revivals are ongoing.