Religion Studies: Sociology and Religion

The Blackwell Companion to Sociology of Religion is presented in three comprehensive parts. Written by a range of outstanding academics, the volume explores the current status of the sociology of religion, and how it might look in future. Explores the current status of the sociology of religion, and how it might look at the beginning of the next millennium. Traces the boundaries between sociology and other closely related disciplines, such as theology and social anthropology. Edited by one of the best known and most widely respected sociologists of religion Accessibly presented in three comprehensive parts.

This book contains the work of international scholars who address the contemporary globalizing antagonism between religion and secularity, in the theoretical and practical pursuit for this antagonism's reconciliation in a more just, humane and peaceful future society and world.

Religion is a critical construct for understanding contemporary social life. It illuminates the everyday experiences and practices of many individuals, is a significant component of diverse institutional processes including politics, gender relations, and socioeconomic inequality, and plays a vital role in public culture and social change. This handbook showcases current research and thinking in the sociology of religion. The contributors, all active writers and researchers int eh area, provide original chapters focusing on select aspects of their own engagement with the field. Aimed at students and scholars who want to know more about the sociology of religion, this handbook also provides a resource for sociologists in general by integrating broader questions of sociology (e.g. demography, ethnicity, life course, inequality, political sociology) into the analysis of religion. Broadly inclusive of traditional research topics (modernity, secularization, politics) as well as newer interests (feminism, spirituality, faith-based community action), this handbook illustrates the validity of diverse theoretical perspectives and research designs to understanding the multilayered nature of religion as a sociological phenomenon.

An Introduction to the Sociology of Religion provides an overview of sociological theories of contemporary religious life. Some chapters are organized according to topic. Others offer brief presentations of classical and contemporary sociologists from Karl Marx to Zygmunt Bauman and their perspectives on social life, including religion. Throughout the book, illustrations and examples are taken from several religious traditions.

Key Thinkers in the Sociology of Religion takes a focused look at the foremost figures in the development of the field. From the groundbreaking work of Max Weber, right up to that of contemporary writers such as Peter Berger and Niklas Luhmann, this volume is an essential companion for the student of sociology of religion. Charting the development of theory in this area, each chapter looks at the life and work of an individual theorist, building to a picture of the field as it is today. Richard Fenn's book provides a route to a rounded understanding of the field, through the thought that defined it.

Mediating Faiths brings together scholars working across a range of fields, including cultural studies, media, sociology, anthropology, cultural theory and religious studies, in order to illustrate how religion continues to be responsive to the very latest social and cultural developments in the environments in which it exists. They raise fundamental questions concerning new media and religious expression, religious youth cultures, the links between spirituality, personal development and consumer culture, and contemporary intersections of religion, identity and politics. Together the chapters demonstrate how belief in the superempirical is negotiated relative to secular concerns in the twenty-first century."

Exploring the pre-political en pre-legal spiritual infrastructure from which modern, liberal democracies in the West live, but cannot guarantee, this book inquires the relations between religion, politics and law from a philosophical perspective, discussing historical, systematical and practical issues.

Religion is a driving force of the twenty-first century. Here is a book that discusses every aspect of this fascinating subject, proposing an agenda for future study. The authors are leading scholars from all over the world.

This book looks at ways of improving our understanding of religious change by strengthening the links between social theory and the social scientific study of religion. James Beckford reviews the current state of social scientific knowledge about religion. He clarifies the social processes involved in constructing religious and non-religious environments in public and private life. Beckford reveals the importance of these boundaries by referring to studies of secularization, religious diversity, globalization, religious movements and self-identity.

The Blackwell Companion to Sociology of Religion ispresented in three comprehensive parts. Written by a range ofoutstanding academics, the volume explores the current status ofthe sociology of religion, and how it might look in future. Explores the current status of the sociology of religion, andhow it might look at the beginning of the next millennium. Traces the boundaries between sociology and other closelyrelated disciplines, such as theology and socialanthropology. Edited by one of the best known and most widely respectedsociologists of religion Accessibly presented in three comprehensive parts.

How do you study religion and society? In this fascinating book, some of the most famous names in the field explain how they go about their everyday work of studying religions in the field. They explain how the ideas for their projects and books have come together, how their understanding of religion has changed over the years, and how their own beliefs have affected their work. They also comment on the changing nature of the field, the ideas which they regard as most important, and those which have not stood the test of time. Lastly they offer advice to young scholars, and suggest what needs to be done to enable the field to grow and develop further.

Sinceits founding by Jacques Waardenburg in 1971, Religion and Reason has been a leading forum for contributions on theories, theoretical issues and agendas related to the phenomenon and the study of religion. Topics include (among others) category formation, comparison, ethnophilosophy, hermeneutics, methodology, myth, phenomenology, philosophy of science, scientific atheism, structuralism, and theories of religion. From time to time the series publishes volumes that map the state of the art and the history of the discipline.