Patterns of religiosity and modernization in Georgia - rural urban dimensions

Abstract

The general objective of the presented research is to determine and show trends in secularism through the rural – urban prism. In this paper we have examined secularization at two levels: 1) individual religious beliefs and practice and 2) separation between church and civic domain, such as politics. For decades, sociologists have believed that due to the rational, liberal nature of the city the degree of religiosity and consequently the rate of secularism would fall. Although in Georgian context study has shown the extent of religiosity in the city areas is significantly higher than religiosity in the rural residents. For measure of religiosity has been used The Centrality of Religiosity Scale (CRS) - a differentiated model by Huber, which is constituted by five core dimensions: public practice, private prac- tice, religious experience, ideology and the intellectual dimensions. The findings of the research has shown that there is a significant difference in all dimensions of religiosity between rural and urban residents (except private practice) and the level of these sub-dimen- sions in urban residents is higher. However, the findings of the research show that Tbilisi (the capital) even though comparatively higher rate of religiosity (the first level of secularization) is considerably more secular in terms of the relationship between politics and religion (the second level of secularization).