Research

My research focuses on the sociology of religion and on explanatory sociology more generally. Current topics are the secular transition around the world, religious transmission and cohort replacement, religious revivals, local religious groups (congregations) in Switzerland, religious markets and religious-secular competition, mixed methods, and a general theory of social games. Most articles below can be downloaded as PDFs or are available open access.

Secularization

Secularization research is one of my main fields of interest. I argue that one of the main causes of secularization is religious-secular competition, engaging religion in a “silent battle”. Secularization happens as the offer of secular goods is increased, crowding out the religious offer both because of functional superiority and time constraints. See for example:

Stolz, J. 2009. ‘Explaining Religiosity: Towards a Unified Theoretical Model’. British Journal of Sociology 60: 345-376.

Stolz, J., Könemann, J., Schneuwly Purdie, M., Englberger, T. and Krüggeler, M. 2016. (Un)Believing in modern society. Religion, spirituality, and religious-secular competition. London: Routledge.

Here’s an overview article on the state of secularization research that has appeared in Social Compass:

Stolz, Jörg. 2020. Secularization theories in the 21st century: Ideas, evidence, problems. Presidential Address. Social Compass, 67(2), 282-308.

Not everybody agreed and an interesting discussion resulted with François Gauthier, Tobias Müller, Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme, and David Voas. My response can be found here.

David Voas has suggested in excellent publications that secularization takes the form of a “secular transition”. In an article on Germany with Detlef Pollack and Nan Dirk de Graaf we have shown that the state can actually accelerate this transition:

Stolz, J., Pollack, D. and De Graaf , N.D. 2020. ‘Can the State accelerate the Secular Transitition? Secularization in East- and West Germany as a Natural Experiment’. European Sociological Review 36: 626-642.

In a paper with Nan Dirk de Graaf, Conrad Hackett, and Jean-Philippe Antonietti, we have shown that the secular transition happens world-wide and takes a specific form: First, participation declines, then importance of religion, and then belonging (P-I-B sequence). The paper has appeared in Nature Communications: The three stages of religious decline around the world. With Nan Dirk de Graaf, I am currently testing predictions of the secular transition model for 39 countries between 2004 and 2022.

In other publications, we have looked at the secular transition in France with Ferruccio Biolcati and Francesco Molteni. Results on Switzerland, from work with Jeremy Senn, can be found here and in our open-access book Religionstrends in der Schweiz.

Is secularization research itself biased? With Valeria Rainero and Ruud Luijkx, we surveyed scholars working on secularization and coded their publications. Researchers’ own religiosity turns out to be related both to their personal belief in the secularization thesis and to the conclusions of their published work: The Faith Factor. How Scholars’ Religiosity Biases Research Findings on Secularization (Sociological Science, 2026).

Religious transmission and cohort replacement

In western societies, religious decline happens mainly through cohort replacement: every generation is somewhat less religious than its parents because religious transmission in families is incomplete. In a paper with David Voas, Oliver Lipps, and Jean-Philippe Antonietti, we use panel data from Germany to describe and explain this generation gap:

Stolz, J., Voas, D., Lipps, O. and Antonietti, J.-P. 2024. ‘Can We Explain the Generation Gap in Churchgoing?’ Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 63(4): 809-829.

Together with Michael Grätz and Alicia García-Sierra, I am now using sociological and genetic data to test whether religion has become more individualized.

Religious revival

A paper co-authored with Alexi Gugushvili, Francesco Molteni, and Jean-Philippe Antonietti seeks to explain the astounding religious revival in Georgia from 1985 onwards. It has appeared in BJS and can be found here. A paper co-authored with David Voas proposes a new typology of mechanisms that lead to religious revival in the context of long-term secularization. It can be found here.

A follow-up paper co-authored with Maruša Novak describes the three most important religious revivals in the past decades world-wide: The Pentecostal, the Muslim, and the Orthodox revival. It has appeared in the Journal of Religion and Demography; an author version can be found here.

Ethnicity

Together with Anaïd Lindemann, I have conducted work on islamophobia. Check out papers on explaining islamophobia, islamophobia in media discourses, the Muslim unemployment gap, perceived discrimination among Muslims, or the reporting of discrimination among Muslims and Jews.

Evangelicals, Charismatics, Pentecostals, Fundamentalists

I have always been fascinated by evangelicals, pentecostals and fundamentalists. Most of my work on evangelicals has been done in collaboration with Olivier Favre, Caroline Gachet and Emmanuelle Buchard. Check out articles on the evangelical milieu, the evolution of Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and Fundamentalists, or the explanation of Pentecostal healings. Our book-length treatment of evangelicals in Switzerland is available in German and French.

Congregations

Inspired by the work of Mark Chaves, I have conducted a National Congregations Study in Switzerland together with Christophe Monnot. This research produces representative information on the local religious groups across all religions. One of the interesting questions to be solved before doing such a study is how to actually recognize a congregation.

This research has allowed us to shed light on female religious leadership, the relationship between established and newcomer religions, diversity of diversity, and political engagement of local religious groups in Switzerland.

Apart from showing basic facts about religion in Switzerland, NCS data has also allowed us to speak to more general theoretical debates. Thus, we have been able to show that - contra rational choice expectations - disestablishment does not lead to religious vitality:

Stolz, J. and Chaves, M. 2017. ‘Does Disestablishment Lead to Religious Vitality? The Case of Switzerland’. British Journal of Sociology 2: 412-435.

With Christophe Monnot, we have edited a book on “Congregations in Europe” where findings from various countries are assembled.

The second wave of the National Congregations Study Switzerland (2020-2023), conducted with Jens Köhrsen, Jeremy Senn, and colleagues, shows that the number of local religious groups declined by about 7% between 2008 and 2022, that participants and leaders are getting older, and that groups have become more inclusive, for instance towards female leadership and homosexuality. A summary is available in German, French, and English. The data of both waves are available from FORS.

An article co-authored with Jeremy Senn and Christophe Monnot looks at the way religious diversity has changed in Switzerland:

Senn, J., Stolz, J. and Monnot, C. 2024. ‘Diversity Dynamics. How Local Religious Groups Appear, Persist, or Disappear over Time’. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 63(3): 519-542.

Another article, co-authored with Jeremy Senn, demonstrates a sequence in the rise of female religious leadership: congregations first open their formal rules to women and only later let women lead in practice:

Senn, J. and Stolz, J. 2025. ‘The Sequential Rise of Female Religious Leadership’. Sociological Science 12: 180-201.

Currently, I am studying how clergy perceive the competition between religious and secular alternatives.

Mixed Methods

I believe that the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods has much to offer. I believe that explanatory/analytical sociology could benefit from mixed methods as explained here.

Together with various colleagues, I have conducted three large scale mixed methods studies on religion in Switzerland. On religiosity in Switzerland:

Stolz, J., Könemann, J., Schneuwly Purdie, M., Englberger, T. and Krüggeler, M. 2016. (Un)Believing in modern society. Religion, spirituality, and religious-secular competition. London: Routledge.

This book is available in English, French, and German.

On Evangelicals in Switzerland:

Stolz, J., Favre, O., Gachet, C. and Buchard, E. 2012. ‘Le phénomène évangélique. A l’intérieur d’un milieu compétitif’. Genève: Labor et Fides.

This book is also available in a German version.

On secularists in Switzerland:

Tanner, P. 2020. Das Freidenkertum in der Schweiz. Säkularismus in Zeiten der Säkularisierung. Thèse de doctorat. Lausanne: Université d Lausanne. This book will soon be published.

I also have published three articles on the Titanic example and mixed methods.

Mainline (Reformed) Churches

Work with Edmee Ballif resulted in a book on the Reformed Churches, available both in German and French.

Rational Choice, analytical sociology, and religion

Being a student of Raymond Boudon, I have always been interested in explanatory sociology. Several of my publications concern rational choice approaches and analytical sociology. Some articles concern the question of whether and how religions offer “salvation goods” and can be marketed and branded. Other articles are (friendly) critiques of rational choice approaches to religion. Some are less friendly, though, such as when I show with Mark Chaves that disestablishment does not lead to religious revival:

Stolz, J. and Chaves, M. 2017. ‘Does Disestablishment Lead to Religious Vitality? The Case of Switzerland’. British Journal of Sociology 2: 412-435.

A more historical companion paper can be found here.

With Jean-Claude Usunier, I have edited a book on religions as brands and there is a journal article on the topic here. With Jeremy Senn, I have written an overview of religious markets, religious marketing, and individual religious choice in Europe for the Routledge Handbook of Religion and Politics in Europe (2025).

In a chapter for the volume Boudon Reexamined (2025), I use a generative model in the Boudonian tradition to explain how a small UFO religion - the group studied in Festinger’s “When Prophecy Fails” - emerged within a few months, complete with beliefs, rituals, and leadership.

One of my theoretical ideas, probably inspired by my teacher Niklas Luhmann, is that the concept of the “social game” may be used to construct a general theory of the social world.

A general outline of the theory has appeared in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (2023), and there is a paper on game heuristics. A book-length treatment, “The games we play. A general sociological theory”, is in preparation.

Here’s an extended interview I gave on social game theory and religion at the Graduate Institute, Geneva. The interviewer was Leila Nadine Joutet.