This volume examines the role and function of religious-based organizations in strengthening
associational life in a representative sample of West European countries: newly democratized
and long-established democracies societies with and without a dominant religious tradition
and welfare states with different levels and types of state-provided social services. It asks
how faith-based organizations in a time of economic crisis and with declining numbers of
adherents might contribute to the deepening of democracy. Throughout the volume invites
social scientists to consider the on-going role of faith-based organizations in Western
European civil society and investigates whether the concept of muted vibrancy aids our
theoretical understanding.
