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.

Challenges the notion that declining rates of formal participation in religious life have made faith-based organizations irrelevant for Western European civil society

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.