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The Blackwell Companion to Sociology of Religion

Richard K. Fenn (Edited by), RK Fenn (Author)

9780631212416, Wiley

Paperback / softback, published 4 January 2003

512 pages
24.6 x 17.2 x 3.7 cm, 0.898 kg

‘If a single theme runs through this anthology, it is an appreciation of the process of secularization. Here, however, secularization does not trumpet the demise of religion but provides a lens through which to scrutinize the shifting location and function of religion in urban, industrial, complex societies. Of value as a reference tool at all readership levels.’ Choice


‘The volume takes the reader immediately to the most interesting issues currently debated in the discipline.’ International Review of Biblical Studies

"This is a milestone of a book." Journal of Contemporary Religion

"Within the cover there is a very stimulating companion indeed - a more than adequate travel guide for any student or scholar seeking a lively and insightful introduction to the contours of the sociology of religion." BSA Network

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.

List of contributors viii

Acknowledgments xii

Preface xiv

Part I Classical and Contemporary Theory: Recycling, Continuity, Progress, or New Departures?

Editorial Commentary: Religion and the Secular; the Sacred and the Profane: The Scope of the Argument 3

1 Personal Reflections in the Mirror of Halévy and Weber 23
David Martin

2 Salvation, Secularization, and De-moralization 39
Bryan Wilson

3 The Pentecostal Gender Paradox: A Cautionary Tale for the Sociology of Religion 52
Bernice Martin

4 Feminism and the Sociology of Religion: From Gender-blindness to Gendered Difference 67
Linda Woodhead

5 Melancholia, Utopia, and the Psychoanalysis of Dreams 85
Donald Capps

6 Georg Simmel: American Sociology Chooses the Stone the Builders Refused 105
Victoria Lee Erickson

7 Transformations of Society and the Sacred in Durkheim’s Religious Sociology 120
Donald A. Nielsen

8 Classics in the Sociology of Religion: An Ambiguous Legacy 133
Roger O’Toole

9 Individualism, the Validation of Faith, and the Social Nature of Religion in Modernity 161
Danièle Hervieu-Léger

10 The Origins of Religion 176
Richard K. Fenn

Part II Contemporary Trends in the Relation of Religion to Society Editorial Commentary: Whose Problem is it? The Question of Prediction versus Projection 197

11 Secularization Extended: From Religious “Myth” to Cultural Commonplace 211
Nicholas J. Demerath III

12 Social Movements as Free-floating Religious Phenomena 229
James A. Beckford

13 The Social Process of Secularization 249
Steve Bruce

14 Patterns of Religion in Western Europe: An Exceptional Case 264
Grace Davie

15 The Future of Religious Participation and Belief in Britain and Beyond 279
Robin Gill

16 Religion as Diffusion of Values. “Diffused Religion” in the Context of a Dominant Religious Institution: The Italian Case 292
Roberto Cipriani

17 Spirituality and Spiritual Practice 306
Robert Wuthnow

18 The Renaissance of Community Economic Development among African-American Churches in the 1990s 321
Katherine Day

19 Hell as a Residual Category: Possibilities Excluded from the Social System 336
Richard K. Fenn and Marianne Delaporte

Part III The Sociology of Religion and Related Areas of Inquiry Editorial Commentary: Looking for the Boundaries of the Field: Social Anthropology, Theology, and Ethnography 363

20 Acting Ritually: Evidence from the Social Life of Chinese Rites 371
Catherine Bell

21 Moralizing Sermons, Then and Now 388
Thomas Luckmann

22 Health, Morality and Sacrifice: The Sociology of Disasters 404
Douglas J. Davies

23 Contemporary Social Theory as it Applies to the Understanding of Religion in Cross-cultural Perspective 418
Peter Beyer

24 The Return of Theology: Sociology’s Distant Relative 432
Kieran Flanagan

25 Epilogue: Toward a Secular View of the Individual 445
Richard K. Fenn

Index 469

Subject Areas: Sociology & anthropology [JH]
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