SOC 101. the Andersen textbook. Required forum nine.

I don’t understand this Sociology question and need help to study.

Sociologists have typically been concerned with the status of religion and religious belief in American society. That concern may be rooted in their understanding of religion as being both a source of cohesion and division. So they seek to measure the extent to which Americans are religious while at the same time affected by an increasingly secularized society.

What exactly is “secularization” and how do sociologists try to measure it? How might the term “religiosity” help explain the process of secularization, if it does? How might sociologists “measure” religiosity?