Sociology of Religion

In This Place Called Prison offers a vivid account of religious life within an institution designed to punish. Rachel Ellis conducted a year of ethnographic fieldwork inside a U.S. state women’s prison, talking with hundreds of incarcerated women, staff,...

For the last five decades, Rodney Stark has been one of sociology's most prolific and important scholars of religion. The theoretical depth, the scientific rigor, and the clarity of style manifested in Stark's oeuvreaover 30 books and 140 articlesahave...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780800638320Author Laua MagnanoFormat PaperbackPage Count 208Imprint Augsburg FortressPublisher Augsburg Fortress

In this brief book the author examines the central doctrine of important Christian, Jewish, and Muslim philosophers and shows the contributions of medieval thought to present-day philosophy. Intended not only for philosophers, but for anyone seeking a...

For more than a decade the 'Muslim question' on integration and alleged extremism has vexed Europe, revealing cracks in long-held certainties about the role of religion in public life. Secular assumptions are being tested not only by the growing presence...

The 1950s religious boom was organized around the male-breadwinner lifestyle in the burgeoning postwar suburbs. But since the 1950s, family life has been fundamentally reconfigured in the United States. How do religion and family fit together today? This...

The social structures of Moroccan society have been changing in accordance with western models at an ever-growing rate. The role of Islam in sharing the burden of these changes and in narrowing the ever-expanding gap between modernity and tradition is...

Conspicuously, Islam has become a key concern in most European societies with respect to issues of immigration, integration, identity, values and inland security. As the mere presence of Muslim minorities fails to explain these debates convincingly, new...

American spirituality - meaning astrology, yoga, and the huge number of other alternative strains of religion pursued by individuals outside of traditional organizations - is usually thought to be a product of the postmodern era. Aromatherapy, crystals,...

This book is about cultural and political figures, institutions and ideas in a period of transition in two Muslim countries in Southeast Asia, Malaysia and Indonesia. It also addresses some of the permutations of civilising processes in Singapore and the...

Religious groups constitute a large part of America's voluntary sector, yet relatively few works have investigated them broadly. This collection of essays investigates the public roles of religious congregations and associations. With contributions by...

Many scholars and citizens alike have counted on civic groups to create broad ties that bind society. Some hope that faith-based civic groups will spread their reach as government retreats. Yet few studies ask how, if at all, civic groups reach out to...

Transforming Post-Catholic Ireland is the first major book to explore the dynamic religious landscape of contemporary Ireland, north and south, and to analyse the island's religious transition. It confirms that the Catholic Church's long-standing...

Why do people go to church? What about a congregation attracts new members? What is it that draws women and men differently into diverse types of congregations? Getting to Church assesses the deeply personal and gendered narratives around how women and...

For more than three decades, Talal Asad has been engaged in a distinctive critical exploration of the conceptual assumptions that govern the West's knowledges-especially its disciplinary and disciplining knowledges-of the non-Western world. The essays...

Tracing the centrality of women in the definition of Turkish secularism, this study investigates the 2003 decision to increase the number of women officers employed by the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet). It explores how, as professional...

Instant Guides are packed with essential information and useful facts covering a wide variety of subjects from survival skills to stargazing. Portable, easy to use and durable they contain all the basics whether you're studying the subject or just...

This book is a microsociological study of religious practice, based on fieldwork with Conservative Jews, Bible Belt Muslims, white Baptists, black Baptists, Buddhist meditators, and Latino Catholics. In each case, the author scrutinizes how a...

Starting from an ethnographic appraisal of the place of religious practices, and thereby returning to an approach more recently neglected, this book offers a detailed understanding of English everyday life. Three contemporary case studies - the life of a...

It is often claimed that we live in a secular age. But we do not live in a desacralized one. Sacred forms--whether in 'religious' or 'secular' guise--continue to shape social life in the modern world, giving rise to powerful emotions, polarized group...

In recent years, the leaders of the American evangelical movement have brought their characteristic passion to the problem of race, notably in the Promise Keepers movement and in reconciliation theology. But the authors of this provocative new study...

Inspired by overtly negative coverage by the Western mainstream press of Muslims in particular, and minorities in general, this book asks: Why are negative narratives and depictions of Muslims and other minorities so hard to change?News reports about...

Rodney Stark's provocative new book argues that, whether we like it or not, people acting for the glory of God have formed our modern culture. Continuing his project of identifying the widespread consequences of monotheism, Stark shows that the Christian...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780307457578Author Kay ArthurFormat PaperbackPage Count 96Imprint Waterbrook Press (A Division of Random House Inc)Publisher Waterbrook Press (A Division of...

Perhaps best known for his coauthored bestselling books Habits of the Heart and The Good Society, Robert N. Bellah is a truly visionary leader in the social study of religion. For more than four decades, he has examined the role of religion in modern and...

How important is religion for young people in America today? What are the major influences on their developing spiritual lives? How do their religious beliefs and practices change as young people enter into adulthood? Christian Smith's Souls in...

The great pilgrimage center of southeastern Sri Lanka, Kataragama, has become in recent years the spiritual home of a new class of Hindu-Buddhist religious devotees. These ecstatic priests and priestesses invariably display long locks of matted hair, and...

Is there an inevitable global violent clash unfolding between the world's largest religions: Islam and Christianity? Do religions cause violent conflicts, or are there other factors at play? How can we make sense of increasing reports of violence between...

Mindful meditation is now embraced in virtually all corners of society today, from K-12 schools to Fortune 100 companies, and its virtues extolled by national and international media almost daily. It is thought to benefit our health and overall...

Nancy Tatom Ammerman examines the stories Americans tell of their everyday lives, from dinner table to office and shopping mall to doctor's office, about the things that matter most to them and the routines they take for granted, and the times and places...

This core textbook offers a concise, direct and easy-to-use introduction to how semiotics can be employed to understand culture. It adopts a practical and versatile approach to cultural analysis, beginning not with an abstract body of theory but with a...

This book deals with the largest global shift in religion over the last forty years, the astonishing rise of Pentecostalism and charismatic Christianity.About the AuthorProfessor David Martin is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the London School of...

The decline of the Christian churches in the West is undeniable but commentators differ in their understanding of what this represents. For some it shows a decline in interest in religion as such; for others, religion has not declined, it has only...

The surprising similarities in the rise and fall of the Sunni Islamic and Roman Catholic empires in the face of the modern stateCoping with Defeat presents a historical panorama of the Islamic and Catholic political-religious empires and exposes striking...

The new edition of Steve Bruce's Fundamentalism grapples with the combination of social strains and religious ideas that have produced an explosion of fundamentalist activity in the wake of 9/11. In a direct and punchy style, the new edition of his...

For more than three decades, Talal Asad has been engaged in a distinctive critical exploration of the conceptual assumptions that govern the West's knowledges-especially its disciplinary and disciplining knowledges-of the non-Western world. The essays...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781570753732Author Andrew F. WallFormat PaperbackPage Count 288Imprint Orbis Books (USA)Publisher Orbis Books (USA)Weight(grams) 499g

Nineteenth-century Europe turned the political status of its Jewish communities into the "Jewish Question," as both Christianity and rising forms of nationalism viewed Jews as the ultimate other. With the onset of Zionism, this "question" migrated to...

Social thinkers in all fields are faced with one unavoidable question: What does it mean to be human in the 21st century? This ambitious and groundbreaking book provides the first synthesis of historical, philosophical and sociological insights needed to...

An understanding of culture and identity is essential for new sociologists. This student-focused text explains the themes and theories behind these core ideas. With up-to-date discussion of 'chavs', masculinity and social networking, skills-based...