Sociology of Religion: Overview and Analysis of Contemporary Religion

Description

Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of contents Preface Part I Mapping the field Chapter 1 What is a sociology of religion? Inventing sociology Materialism and the social From material to meaning Durkheim and the social collective The function of religion Notes Indicative reading Chapter 2 How do we know what we know? Introduction Religion is ‘man’ made Questioning the questioner Sociology of religion and ethnography Asking questions Surveys Ethics and method Note Indicative reading Chapter 3 The contemporary religious landscape: Retreat, reinvention and resurgence Introduction Retreat Reinvention New religious movements Resurgence Notes Indicative reading Part II Religion and its publics Chapter 4 Politics and religion Introduction Locating the study of politics and religion At stake is the state: sharing the load Religion and nationalism Religion and politics by census Notes Indicative reading Chapter 5 Violence and crime Introduction Defining religious violence Religious genocide Religious terrorism Suicide bombing Religious response to crime Creating the criminal subject Note Indicative reading Chapter 6 Policing religion: Religious equality, social justice and the law Introduction What are ‘human rights’? The public, the private: are human rights sacred? The role of the state in human rights Human rights and religion: case examples Right to education Right to work with religious beliefs Courts compared: the ECHR and Supreme Court (USA) The right to rights ‘Rights’ and the conservative/liberal divide Note Indicative reading Part III Contested borders Chapter 7 Gender and sexuality Introduction The body in the sociology of religion Defying definition On power Adapting and resisting Saving and surrendering ‘self’ Note Indicative reading Chapter 8 Generations ‘Generation’: a contested concept Age and alcohol Age and voting Age and marriage Age and military service Age and religious change The ‘baby-boomer’ effect Young people retaining and reviving religion Religion, youth and politics Notes Indicative reading Chapter 9 ‘Race’, ethnicity, social class Introduction ‘Race’ From ‘race’ to ethnicity Explaining racism Identity politics Social class Note Indicative reading Part IV Is nothing, or everything, sacred? Chapter 10 Religion and media Religion, media and changing times Media and the role of the state Digital religious spaces Indicative reading Chapter 11 Disease, disability and the religious response Introduction The religious ‘problem’ Multiple healing agents Care versus cure Miraculous healing Religion, disability and stigma Notes Indicative reading Chapter 12 Future religion: Nones and beyond Introduction Noting the ‘nones’ Everyday ghosts: a ‘secular’, social, sensuous supernatural Spiritual but not religious? Notes Indicative reading Index