Overview

The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion draws on the expertise of an international team of scholars providing both an entry point into the sociological study and understanding of religion and an in-depth survey into its changing forms and content in the contemporary world. The role and impact of religion and spirituality on the politics, culture, education and health in the modern world is rigorously discussed and debated. The study of the sociology of religion forges interdisciplinary links to explore aspects of continuity and change in the contemporary interface between society and religion. Using a combination of theoretical, methodological and content-led approaches, the fifty-seven contributors collectively emphasise the complex relationships between religion and aspects of life from scientific research to law, ecology to art, music to cognitive science, crime to institutional health care and more. The developing character of religion, irreligion and atheism and the impact of religious diversity on social cohesion are explored. An overview of current scholarship in the field is provided in each themed chapter with an emphasis on encouraging new thinking and reflection on familiar and emergent themes to stimulate further debate and scholarship. The resulting essay collection provides an invaluable resource for research and teaching in this diverse discipline.

Full Product Details

Author:   Peter Clarke (Professor Emeritus King's College, University of London. Professor, Faculty of Theology, University of Oxford)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 17.60cm , Height: 6.00cm , Length: 25.30cm
Weight:   1.949kg
ISBN:  

9780199279791

ISBN 10:   0199279799
Pages:   1064
Publication Date:   06 November 2008
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

1: Peter Clarke: Introduction:Towards a Global Framework and Organic Understanding of Religion I: Theory: Classical, Modern and Postmodern 2: William E. Paden: Reappraising Durkheim for the Study and Teaching of Religion 3: David N. Geller: The Uses of Max Weber: Legitimation and Amnesia in Buddhology, South Asian History, and Anthropological Practice Theory 4: Hans G. Kippenberg: Max Weber: Religion and Modernization 5: Bryan S. Turner: Max Weber on Islam and Confucianism: the Kantian Theory of Secularization 6: Inger Furseth: Religion in the Works of Habermas, Bourdieu and Foucault 7: Malcolm Hamilton: Rational Choice Theory: A Critique 8: Sian Hawthorne: Religion and Gender 9: Robert W. Hefner: Religion and Modernity Worldwide 10: Nikolai Wenzel: Postmodernism and Religion 11: Meerten ter Borg: Religion and Power 12: Matt Waggoner: Culture and Religion I: Method 13: Ole Preben Riis: Methodology in the Sociology of Religion 14: Jeppe Sinding Jensen: Conceptual Models in the Study of Religion 15: André Droogers: Defining Religion: A Social Science Approach 16: K. Helmut Reich: Explaining Religion through Cognitive Science III: Religion and related spheres: Morality, Science, Irreligion, Art and Sexuality 17: William Sims Bainbridge: Science and Religion 18: William Sims Bainbridge: Atheism 19: John Reeder: Religion and Morality 20: Robert Wuthnow: The Contemporary Convergence of Art and Religion 21: I. M. Lewis: The Social Roots and Meaning of Trance and Possession IV: Religion and the State, the Nation, the Law 22: Phillip E. Hammond and David W. Machacek: Religion and the State 23: Christophe Jaffrelot: Religion and Nationalism 24: James T. Richardson: Religion and the Law: An Interactionist View 25: Enzo Pace: The Socio-cultural and Socio-religious Origins of Human Rights V: Globalisation and its Religious Effects 26: Roland Robertson: Globalization, Theocratization and Politicized Civil Rights 27: Caroline Plüss: Migration and the Globalization of Religion 28: Anson Shupe: Religious Fundamentalism 29: Gary D. Bouma: Religious Diversity VI: Standard or Mainstream Religion 30: Karel Dobbelaere: The Meaning and Scope of Secularization 31: Dean R. Hoge: The Sociology of the Clergy 32: Nancy T. Ammerman: Congregations: Local, Social and Religious 33: Lorne L. Dawson: Church-Sect-Cult:Constructing Typologies of Religious Groups 34: Sam Zubaida: Sects in Islam VII: The Reproduction and Transmission of Religion 35: Mathew Guest: The Reproduction and Transmission of Religion 36: Wade Clark Roof: Generations and Religion 37: Penny Edgell: Religion and Family 38: Peter Collins: Religion and Ritual 39: Stewart M. Hoover: Religion in the Media 40: Gary R. Bunt: Religion and the Internet VIII: New Religion, New Spirituality and Implicit Religion 41: David G. Bromley: New Religious Movements 42: Eva M. Hamberg: Unchurched Spirituality 43: Paul Heelas: Spiritualities of Life 44: Kennet Granholm: The Sociology of Esotericism 45: Edward Bailey: Implicit Religion XI: Environmental and Social Issues 46: Mary Evelyn Tucker: Religion and Ecology 47: Wendy Cadge: Religion, Spirituality and Health: An Institutional Approach 48: Titus Hjelm: Religion and Social Problems: A New Theoretical Perspective 49: Anne Birgitta Yeung: Religion and Social Problems: Individual and Institutional Responses 50: Bryon R. Johnson: The Role of Religious Institutions in Responding to Crime and Delinquency 51: Keishin Inaba and Kate Loewenthal: Religion and Altruism 52: Mark Juergensmaeyer: Religious Violence 53: Michael Kirwan: Girard, Religion, Violence, and Modern Martydom X: Teaching the Sociology of Religion 54: Eleanor Nesbitt: The Teacher as Religious Ethnographer 55: James V. Spickard: Ethnography/ Religion: Explorations in Field and Classroom Index

Reviews

This handsome book... is particularly welcome and should find a place in every well-stocked library, both academic and other... I particulary like the mix of experienced and younger scholoars who have been brought together in this volume and applaud the successful attempt to escape from a study of religion informed by Western, primarily Christian, notions of religion. A further question follows from this. Seriously confronting the realities of religion in the twenty-first century makes new demands on social science, which itself emerged from a similar (i.e., Western) context. To what extent, then, can these demands be met within the parameters of the sociology of religion as we know this? Peter Clarke's meticulously edited volume not only underlines the question, but indicates a way forward. He is to be warmly congratulated. Grace Davie, Theology The contributors of these chapters have been chosen from an impressive pool of top international academics in the field. Not only has the editor done a great job in finding leading academics to write on the most topical issues, but also all the contributors have written a very informative piece, using the most recent data and theories. All the chapters are a delight to read...This is an impressive volume that will delight the student as much as the erudite in the field. All the academic libraries should order this volume as it will soon become an essential reference to any subject in the sociology of religion. It is a must for anyone who calls himself/herself a sociologist of religion to have a copy of this book on his/her bookshels. Adam Possamai, Australian Religion Studies Review

Author Information

Peter Clarke is a professorial member of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oxford where he supervises research and teaches in the social sciences and religion. He has carried out extensive research in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. He is the founding editor and currently the co-editor of The Journal of Contemporary Religion and author and/or editor of some twenty books and over one hundred articles.

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