Sociology of Religion: Overview and Analysis of Contemporary Religion

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