The past is malleable and flexible, changing as our recollection interprets and re-explains what has happened.

I think what I and most other sociologists of religion wrote in the 1960s about secularization was a mistake. Our underlying argument was that secularization and modernity go hand in hand. With more modernization comes more secularization.

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.

Even if one is interested only in one's own society, which is one's prerogative, one can understand that society much better by comparing it with others.

When certain branches of the economy become obsolete, as in the case of the steel industry, not only do jobs disappear, which is obviously a terrible social hardship, but certain cultures also disappear.

The negative side to globalization is that it wipes out entire economic systems and in doing so wipes out the accompanying culture.