ABSTRACT

Religion is a major force in contemporary society. It is also one of the least understood social and political influences on individuals and communities. In this innovative collection of original essays and classic readings, experts explore the significance of contemporary religiosity: as a source of meaning and motivation, how it unites and divides us, and how it is used politically and culturally. Readers will be introduced to the broad debates in ways that will equip them to analyze, discuss, and make their own judgments about religion and society. This book should be read by anyone interested in understanding religion as a central source of meaning and politics, and is ideally suited for undergraduate teaching on religion and social issues and from a global perspective.

part I|110 pages

What is Religion?

part 1|39 pages

Defining Religion

chapter 2|21 pages

Contested Meanings and Definitional Boundaries

Historicizing the Sociology of Religion

part 2|55 pages

Imagining Religion's Future

chapter 3|5 pages

Selections from The Sacred Canopy

Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion

chapter 5|11 pages

The Desecularization of the World

A Global Overview

chapter 6|11 pages

The Curious Case of the Unnecessary Recantation

Berger and Secularization

chapter 7|21 pages

Selections from “Bringing the Sacred to Life

Explaining Sacralization and Secularization”

part II|102 pages

Religion and Social Institutions

part 3|40 pages

Religion, State, and Law

chapter 8|21 pages

Positioning Religion in Modernity

State and Buddhism in China

chapter 9|19 pages

Realigning Religion and Power in Central Asia

Islam, Nation-State and (Post)Socialism

part 4|48 pages

Religion and the Nation

chapter 10|14 pages

Civil Religion in America

chapter 11|6 pages

Civil Rights–Civil Religion

Visible People and Invisible People

chapter 13|19 pages

Selections from Japan's Holy War

The Ideology of Radical Shintō Ultranationalism

part III|105 pages

Religion and Social Power

part III 5|25 pages

Theorizing Religion and Power

chapter 16|11 pages

Nepantla Spirituality

Negotiating Multiple Religious Identities among U.S. Latinas

part 6|62 pages

Enacting Religion and Power

chapter 17|15 pages

Selections from Mama Lola

A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn

chapter 18|26 pages

Agency, Gender, and Embodiment

chapter 19|12 pages

Queering Religious Texts

An Exploration of British Non-heterosexual Christians' and Muslims' Strategy of Constructing Sexuality-affirming Hermeneutics

chapter 20|9 pages

“Intersexed Bodies in Mishnah

A Translation and an Activist's Reading of Mishnah Androgynos” and “An Ancient Strategy for Managing Gender Ambiguity”

part IV|90 pages

Religion and Social Movements

part 7|41 pages

Religion in Social Movements

chapter 21|12 pages

Faith-Based, Multiethnic Tenant Organizing

The Oak Park Story

chapter 22|15 pages

Religious Coalitions for and against Gay Marriage

The Culture War Rages On

chapter 23|14 pages

Displacing Religion, Disarming Law

Situating Quaker Spirituality in the ‘Trident Three' Case

part 8|35 pages

Religions as Social Movements

chapter 24|13 pages

When Prophecy is Not Validated

Explaining the Unexpected in a Messianic Campaign

chapter 25|22 pages

The Age of Satan

Satanic Sex and the Black Mass, from Fantasy to Reality

part V|109 pages

Religion, Local and Global

part 9|41 pages

Religion, Immigration, and Transnationalism

part 10|56 pages

Religion and Violence, Local and Global

chapter 29|8 pages

<Christianity and the Experience of Domestic Violence

What Does Faith Have to Do with It?

chapter 30|12 pages

The Cross-Generational Transmission of Trauma

Ritual and Emotion among Survivors of the Holocaust

chapter 32|23 pages

The Association of ‘Religion' with Violence

Reflections on a Modern Trope