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Author: Jesse M. Smith
Publisher:
ISBN: 1350407445
Category : Non-church-affiliated people
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
This book surveys the growing field of secularity and non-religion, focussing on the North American context. The introductory overview article explains that the field encompasses a wide and disparate set of people and processes. These include the religious nones and unaffiliated, atheists and agnostics, secular humanists and secular activists, and many other kinds of the "traditionally nonreligious" along with novel forms of secular identities, organizations, and worldviews.Chapters highlight the key topics, findings, arguments, and controversies from the past 20 years of research, including issues of secular and nonreligious identity, health, organization, family, inequality, discrimination. The book is illustrated throughout with over 60 images and each chapter includes guidance on further reading. A glossary of key terms and concepts is included. This is a much-needed resource for teaching secularity and non-religion, as well as the sociology of religion.
Author: Jesse M. Smith
Publisher:
ISBN: 1350407445
Category : Non-church-affiliated people
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Get Book Here
Book Description
This book surveys the growing field of secularity and non-religion, focussing on the North American context. The introductory overview article explains that the field encompasses a wide and disparate set of people and processes. These include the religious nones and unaffiliated, atheists and agnostics, secular humanists and secular activists, and many other kinds of the "traditionally nonreligious" along with novel forms of secular identities, organizations, and worldviews.Chapters highlight the key topics, findings, arguments, and controversies from the past 20 years of research, including issues of secular and nonreligious identity, health, organization, family, inequality, discrimination. The book is illustrated throughout with over 60 images and each chapter includes guidance on further reading. A glossary of key terms and concepts is included. This is a much-needed resource for teaching secularity and non-religion, as well as the sociology of religion.
Author: Elisabeth Arweck
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134910657
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 184
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Book Description
The present collection brings together a set of essays which shed light on recent research into non-religion, secularity and atheism—topics which have been emerging as important areas of current research in a number of different disciplines. The essays cover a wide span—in terms of the various stances they discuss (secular, atheist, non-religious), the settings in which these topics are relevant (families, wider society, politics, demography) and the different perspectives which relate to socialisation and social relations (belief acquisition, discrimination). Written by authors from a variety of national settings and academic disciplines, the collection presents a range of methodologies, combining theoretical approaches with quantitative and qualitative research findings. The authors address issues related to an important academic field which had been neglected for some time, but which has been made relevant by the increasing percentage of people professing a non-religious stance. This collection represents a major contribution to this area of academic research, not only because it puts the themes of non-religion and secularity firmly on the academic map, but also because it offers a variety of different viewpoints and aims to bring clarity into the use of concepts and terminology. The authors make important contributions to the emerging body of research in this area and point out areas where further research is needed. The first essay provides a thorough introduction to this field, taking stock of the work done so far, highlighting the overarching issues, and embedding the essays in the wider context of existing literature. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary Religion.
Author: Ryan T. Cragun
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479825301
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 352
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Book Description
"Through careful analysis of the best empirical data, this book helps make sense of one of the most important questions regarding social change in the United States in recent decades-how and why are so many people leaving religion, and what does (and will) this mean for American society"--
Author: Joel Thiessen
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780889777460
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 272
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Book Description
Author: Joseph O. Baker
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 147989687X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304
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Book Description
Honorable Mention, American Sociological Association Section on Religion Distinguished Book Award A rapidly growing number of Americans are embracing life outside the bounds of organized religion. Although America has long been viewed as a fervently religious Christian nation, survey data shows that more and more Americans are identifying as “not religious.” There are more non-religious Americans than ever before, yet social scientists have not adequately studied or typologized secularities, and the lived reality of secular individuals in America has not been astutely analyzed. American Secularism documents how changes to American society have fueled these shifts in the non-religious landscape and examines the diverse and dynamic world of secular Americans. This volume offers a theoretical framework for understanding secularisms. It explores secular Americans’ thought and practice to understand secularisms as worldviews in their own right, not just as negations of religion. Drawing on empirical data, the authors examine how people live secular lives and make meaning outside of organized religion. Joseph O. Baker and Buster G. Smith link secularities to broader issues of social power and organization, providing an empirical and cultural perspective on the secular landscape. In so doing, they demonstrate that shifts in American secularism are reflective of changes in the political meanings of “religion” in American culture. American Secularism addresses the contemporary lived reality of secular individuals, outlining forms of secular identity and showing their connection to patterns of family formation, sexuality, and politics, providing scholars of religion with a more comprehensive understanding of worldviews that do not include traditional religion. Data Analyses Appendix
Author: Lois Lee
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191056650
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 248
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Book Description
In recent years, the extent to which contemporary societies are secular has come under scrutiny. At the same time, many countries, especially in Europe, have increasingly large nonaffiliate, 'subjectively secular' populations, whilst nonreligious cultural movements like the New Atheism and the Sunday Assembly have come to prominence. Making sense of secularity, irreligion, and the relationship between them has therefore emerged as a crucial task for those seeking to understand contemporary societies and the nature of modern life. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in southeast England, Recognizing the Non-religious develops a new vocabulary, theory and methodology for thinking about the secular. It distinguishes between separate and incommensurable aspects of so-called secularity as insubstantial—involving merely the absence of religion—and substantial—involving beliefs, ritual practice, and identities that are alternative to religious ones. Recognizing the cultural forms that present themselves as non-religious therefore opens up new, more egalitarian and more theoretically coherent ways of thinking about people who are 'not religious'. It is also argued that recognizing the nonreligious allows us to reimagine the secular itself in new and productive ways. This book is part of a fast-growing area of research that builds upon and contributes to theoretical debates concerning secularization, 'desecularization', religious change, postsecularity and postcolonial approaches to religion and secularism. As well as presenting new research, this book gathers insights from the wider studies of nonreligion, atheism, and secularism in order to consolidate a theoretical framework, conceptual foundation and agenda for future research.
Author: Phil Zuckerman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199393834
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 337
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Book Description
The number of nonreligious people has increased dramatically over the past several decades, yet scholarship on the nonreligious is severely lacking. In response to this critical gap in knowledge, The Nonreligious provides a comprehensive summation and analysis of existing social scientific research on secular people and societies. The authors present a thorough overview of existing knowledge while also drawing upon ongoing research and suggesting ways to improve our understanding of this growing population. Offering a research- and data-based examination of the nonreligious, this book will be an invaluable source of information and a foundation for further scholarship. Written in clear, accessible language that will appeal to students and the increasingly interested general reader, The Nonreligious provides an unbiased and thorough account of relevant existing scholarship within the social sciences that bears on lived experiences of the nonreligious.
Author: Johannes Quack
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429589565
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 308
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Book Description
This book explores the relational dynamic of religious and nonreligious positions as well as the tensions between competing modes of nonreligion. Across the globe, individuals and communities are seeking to distinguish themselves in different ways from religion as they take on an identity unaffiliated to any particular faith. The resulting diversity of nonreligion has until recently been largely ignored in academia. Conceptually, the book advances a relational approach to nonreligion, which is inspired by Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory. It also offers further analytical distinctions that help to identify and delineate different modes of nonreligion with respect to actors’ values, objectives, and their relations with relevant religious others. The significance of this conceptual frame is illustrated by three empirical studies, on organized humanism in Sweden, atheism and freethought in the Philippines, and secular politics in the Netherlands. These studies analyze the normativities and changing positions of different groups against the background of both institutionalized religious practice and changing religious fields more generally. This is a fascinating exploration of how nonreligion and secularities are developing across the world. It complements existing approaches to the study of religion, secularity, and secularism and will, therefore, be of great value to scholars of religious studies as well as the anthropology, history, and sociology of religion more generally.
Author: Ronald A. Lindsay
Publisher: Pitchstone Publishing (US&CA)
ISBN: 1939578167
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 203
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Book Description
For the first time in human history, a significant percentage of the world's population no longer believes in God. This is especially true in developed nations, where in some societies nonbelievers now outnumber believers. Unless religion collapses completely, or undergoes a remarkable resurgence, countries across the globe must learn to carefully and effectively manage this societal mix of religious and irreligious. For in a world already deeply riven by sectarian conflict, this unprecedented demographic shift presents yet another challenge to humanity. Writing in an engaging, accessible style, philosopher and lawyer Ronald A. Lindsay develops a tightly crafted argument for secularism—specifically, that in a religiously pluralistic society, a robust, thoroughgoing secularism is the only reliable means of preserving meaningful democracy and rights of conscience. Contrary to certain political pundits and religious leaders who commonly employ the term secularism as a scare word, Lindsay uses clear, concrete examples and jargon-free language to demonstrate that secularism is the only way to ensure equal respect and protection under the law—for believers and nonbelievers alike. Although critical of some aspects of religion, Lindsay neither presents an antireligious tirade nor seeks to convert anyone to nonbelief, reminding us that secularism and atheism are not synonymous. Rather, he shows how secularism works to everyone's benefit and makes the definitive case that the secular model should be feared by none—and embraced by all.!--?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /--
Author: Phil Zuckerman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313351821
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 540
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Book Description
This important two-volume contribution to the field of secular studies offers the first comprehensive examination of atheists and non-religious people around the world. Who are atheists? How does atheism relate to various aspects of our social world, such as politics, feminism, globalization, and the family? And what is the current state of atheism internationally? Atheism and Secularity addresses the growing interest in the non-religious world by exploring these and related questions. It is a comprehensive and compelling look at atheists and atheism both nationally and internationally, covering a range of topics often overlooked in other books on the subject. Atheism and Secularity is not a philosophical, polemic work, but rather an exploration of who atheists are, what they believe, how they relate to the world, and how the world relates to them. The first volume focuses on topics such as family life, gender, sexuality, politics, and social movements. The second volume looks at atheism and secularity around the world, exploring the lives of non-religious people in North America, Japan, China, India, Europe, the Arab World, and other locations.
