The sociology of religion concerns the practices, social structures, historical backgrounds, developments, universal themes and roles of religion in society. There is particular emphasis on the recurring role of religion in all societies and throughout recorded history. Crucially the sociology of religion does not involve an assessment of the truth-claims Truth claim refers to any concept or doctrine that says the it alone is the truth and other opinions are false. In the context of religions, this is the opposite of Universalism, in one sense of the word particular to a religion, athough the process of comparing multiple conflicting dogmas may require what Peter L. Berger Peter Ludwig Berger is an Austrian-born American sociologist and Lutheran theologian well known for his work The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (New York, 1966), which he co-authored with Thomas Luckmann has described as inherent 'methodological atheism'. Sociologists of religion attempt to explain the effects of society on religion and the effects of religion on society; in other words, their dialectical relationship. It may be said that academic sociology began with the analysis of religion in Durkheim's 1897 study of suicide Suicide was one of the groundbreaking books in the field of sociology. Written by French sociologist Émile Durkheim and published in 1897 it was a case study of suicide, a publication unique for its time which provided an example of what the sociological monograph should look like rates amongst Catholic The word Catholic is derived from the Greek adjective καθολικός , meaning "universal". In the context of Christian ecclesiology, it has a rich history and several usages. For some, the term "Catholic Church" refers to the church in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, made up of the Latin Rite and the 22 Eastern and Protestant Protestantism is a branch within Christianity that contains many denominations with differing practices and doctrines. It principally originated in the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation, begun with Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 populations.
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