Bøker i Theology and Religion in Interdisciplinary Perspective Series in Association with the BSA Sociology of Religion Study Group-serien

This book addresses the relationship between religion and knowledge from a sociological perspective, taking both religion and knowledge as phenomena located within ever changing social contexts. Including critical engagement with live debates about intelligent design and the 'new atheism'.

To what extent is religion inherently textual? What might the term 'textual' mean in relation to religious faith and practice? Addressing these questions, this book aims to disclose the various ways in which meaning can be read of sacred writing and from discourses such as the body, the built and natural environment, drama and ritual.

What does religion mean to the individual? How are people religious and what do their beliefs, practices and identities mean to them? The individual's place within studies of religion has tended to be overlooked recently in favour of macro analyses. Religion and the Individual draws together authors from around the world to explore belief, practice

Including chapters on music, architecture, festivals, ritual, artefacts, dance, dress and magic, this book offers a useful resource to students of sociology and anthropology of religion, art, culture, history, liturgy, theories of late modern culture, and religious studies.

The divergent and oftentimes contradictory state of Christianity in the modern world fuels questions about its place and future in the world: in politics, education, healthcare, and even in sport. This book brings together cutting edge research on the most recent changes and trends in Christianity worldwide. Contributors drawn from the USA.

Addresses a crucial issue within the debate on religious belonging and departure: the role of women in and out of religion and spirituality. This volume addresses not only women's place in and out of Christianity but also alternative spiritualities and Islam, asking how questions of secularization differ between faith systems.

The notion of a life in which little is fixed, all is malleable and identity can be a neutral phenomenon is becoming normal according to the editors. These papers focus upon the modern problems that emerge out of the confusion of what constitutes identity and the role that religion plays in this.

What is the future of religion given the responses of young people? Offering a comprehensive international perspective on the sociology of youth and religion, this book reveals key geographical and organisational variables as well as the complexities of the engagement between youth and religion.

The emergence of spirituality in contemporary culture in holistic forms suggests that organised religions have failed. This book explores and disputes this thesis in ways that mark important critical divisions. It explores the relationship of spirituality to the visual, individualism, gender, identity politics, education and cultural capital.

Combining theoretical frameworks for the analysis of religion, media and popular culture, with case studies of texts, practices, communities and audiences, the authors examine topics such as media rituals, marketing strategies, investigations of audience testimony, and the influence of religion on music, reality television, and the internet.

Contributions from 20 experts present predictions about the future of religion in the 21st century, based on careful analysis of the contemporary religious scene from traditional forms of Christianity to new spiritualities.

Religion lies near the heart of the classical sociological tradition, yet it no longer occupies the same place within the contemporary sociological enterprise. This relative absence has left sociology under-prepared for thinking about religionΓÇÖs continuing importance in new issues, movements, and events in the twenty-first century. This book seeks to address this lacunae by offering a variety of theoretical perspectives on the study of religion that bridge the gap between mainstream concerns of sociologists and the sociology of religion. Following an assessment of the current state of the field, the authors develop an emerging critical perspective within the sociology of religion with particular focus on the importance of historical background. Re-assessing the themes of aesthetics, listening and different degrees of spiritual self-discipline, the authors draw on ethnographic studies of religious involvement in Norway and the UK. They highlight the importance of power in the sociology of religion with help from Pierre Bourdieu, Marx and Critical Discourse Analysis. This book points to emerging currents in the field and offers a productive and lively way forward, not just for sociological theory of religion, but for the sociology of religion more generally.

Combining erudite examinations of the British Sociological Association Sociology of Religion Study Group¿s work so far with explorations of the future directions its research might take, this book is vital reading for any scholar whose work combines religious studies and sociology.

Material culture has emerged in recent decades as a significant theoretical concern for the study of religion. This book contributes to and evaluates this material turn, presenting thirteen chapters of new empirical research and theoretical reflection from some of the leading international scholars of material religion. Following a model for material analysis proposed in the first chapter by David Morgan, the contributors trace the life cycle of religious materiality through three phases: the production of religious objects, their classification as religious (or non-religious), and their circulation and use in material culture. The chapters in this volume consider how objects become and cease to be sacred, how materiality can be used to contest access to public space and resources, and how religion is embodied and performed by individuals in their everyday lives. Contributors discuss the significance of the materiality of religion across different religious traditions and diverse geographical regions, paying close attention to gender, age, ethnicity, memory and politics. The volume closes with an afterword by Manuel Vásquez.

Bringing together an international and interdisciplinary group of contributors who operate at the vanguard of theoretical and empirical work on how social structures of power can generate equalities and inequalities in religion, this collection shows how religion can enable and challenge the inequities that affect people's everyday lives.

What does religion mean to the individual? How are people religious and what do their beliefs, practices and identities mean to them? This work draws together authors from around the world to explore belief, practice and identity. Using case studies firmly placed in the empirical, it discusses what religious belief means to the individual.

This book offers a variety of theoretical perspectives on the study of religion that bridge the gap between mainstream concerns of sociologists and the sociology of religion. Following an assessment of the current state of the field.