religiosity in different generations in iran; case study: sari city

religion, as a social phenomenon, affects society and is affected by it interactively. in iran, basically with religious norms and laws, many scholars and researchers concern with religion and level of religiosity. the paper is a comparative analysis of level of religiosity based on glynn and stark’s dimensions of religiosity, in three different generations in sari city: first generation (pre-revolution[1] (1941-1961)), second generation (during revolution (1962-1977)),and third generation )post- revolution (1978-1992)(. number of sample was 380. the hierarchy of dimensions of religiosity based on results include: religious experience, religious consciousness and finally religious ritual. after measuring significance level of inter-generational difference, the result shows that the level of religiosity in terms of beliefs and rituals is more meaningful in other generations. the findings are partly an evidence of inglehart’s viewpoints on generation difference based on life cycle and development of societies. in addition, we observed that despite of the low level of tendency to secular values, the third generation is more secular. on the other hand, we also probe james’s theory on personalization of religion in new societies and berger’s theory in terms of personal and social secularisms. the finding of the research shows that iranian society is experiencing these developments and religious life is around personal presence, in view of james first hand religious life and according to berger’s social secularism. * m.a in sociology, [email protected] ** assistant professor of sociology 1.islamic revolution of 1979