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.

1. “Use Words Only if Necessary”: the Strategic Silence of Organized Religion in Contemporary Europe.- 2. The Entanglement and Disentanglement of Church and State in Irish Social Policy.- 3. Religiously Oriented Welfare Organizations in the Italy before and after the Great Recession: Towards a More Relevant Role in the Provision of Social Services?.- 4. Muted Vibrancy and the Invisible Politics of Religion: Catholic Third Sector, Economic Crisis, and Territorial Welfare in Spain.- 5. The State, Religious Institutions, and Welfare Delivery: The Case of Portugal.- 6. Church-State Relations in Today’s Crisis-Beset Greece: A Delicate Balance within a Frantic Society.-7. Combining Secular Public Space and Growing Diversity? Interactions between Religious Organizations as Welfare Providers and the Public in Sweden.-  8. Social Capital and Religion in the United Kingdom.- 9. Faith-based Organizations under Double-Pressure: The Impact of Market-Liberalization and Secularization on Caritas and Diakonie in Germany.