Insider and Outsider Scholars in the Contemporary Secularization Debate: Do the Researchers’ Religious Beliefs Affect their Research Outcomes?

Despite its prominent relevance in the theoretical debate and the not negligible methodological consequences, the Insider/Outsider problem in religious studies keeps suffering from a lack of empirical investigation. The study is an attempt to provide the starting ground for a more informed discussion about the position that scholars should take with regards to the object of their studies, religion. To test the role of religious values entering the scientific judgment in religious studies, one of the most debated theses in sociology is analysed, namely, the secularization theory, which provokes strong disagreements among religious studies’ scholars about the trajectory of the sacred in the contemporary world. The aim of this study is to investigate whether researchers’ religious affiliation or religious (un)beliefs may contribute to the divergence in opinions towards the secularization theory and whether this divergence in opinion is reflected in the empirical findings of scholars. An original research design has been implemented, reaching 954 religious studies’ scholars through a web survey delivered in May 2021, getting a response rate of 49%. Although results suggest that the Insider/Outsider problem might have very few practical consequences for the research process by demonstrating the absence of the impact of religious belonging and beliefs on the outcome determination, interesting results emerge from specific categories of scholars. Moreover, findings highlight the role of personal preferences and methodological strategies in determining research findings on secularization. Further investigation is fostered for a wider analysis on the role of non-epistemic values, prior beliefs on the outcome, and analytical strategies in explaining outcome variability in scientific controversies in religious studies.