Author: T. O. Beidelman
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1725237644
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 106
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Book Description
William Robertson Smith (1846-94) was one of the most profound and versatile Victorian thinkers--a principal figure in the development of social anthropology and the founder of modern sociology of religion. In W. Robertson Smith and the Sociological Study of Religion, T. O. Beidelman, a renowned anthropologist and ethnographer, relates Smith's personality and career to the radical nature of his investigations. His study contains the only readily available account of Smith's life, and represents the only attempt to place Smith's work within the contemporary perspective of the field of social studies. Professor Beidelman discusses how Smith introduced to Britain the revolutionary interpretations in the fields of biblical and Semitic literary studies first formulated by Continental scholars, as well his original views on the interrelationship between human psychology, social structure, and history. The author also reviews the intellectual background and basic themes of Smith's work, the impact that it had upon his contemporaries, and the later influence that his theories had upon such diverse thinkers as Durkheim, Mauss, Hubert, Frazer, Radcliffe-Brown, Evans-Pritchard, and Freud. In his Lectures on the Religion of the Semites, his last and most famous work, Smith sought to define the essential nature of religious behavior, and he approached the analysis of social institutions through comparative and historical studies. This is a problem that remains central to social anthropology, and the general methods by which Smith endeavored to clarify it are still employed today. Professor Beidelman indicates the ways in which Smith may still be read with profit, and he supplements his study with an extensive bibliography of works by and about this influential thinker.
Author: Peter Clarke
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191557528
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1063
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Book Description
The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion draws on the expertise of an international team of scholars providing both an entry point into the sociological study and understanding of religion and an in-depth survey into its changing forms and content in the contemporary world. The role and impact of religion and spirituality on the politics, culture, education and health in the modern world is rigorously discussed and debated. The study of the sociology of religion forges interdisciplinary links to explore aspects of continuity and change in the contemporary interface between society and religion. Using a combination of theoretical, methodological and content-led approaches, the fifty-seven contributors collectively emphasise the complex relationships between religion and aspects of life from scientific research to law, ecology to art, music to cognitive science, crime to institutional health care and more. The developing character of religion, irreligion and atheism and the impact of religious diversity on social cohesion are explored. An overview of current scholarship in the field is provided in each themed chapter with an emphasis on encouraging new thinking and reflection on familiar and emergent themes to stimulate further debate and scholarship. The resulting essay collection provides an invaluable resource for research and teaching in this diverse discipline.
Author: James A. Beckford
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107320100
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 407
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Book Description
Many aspects of religion are puzzling these days. This 2003 book looks at ways of improving our understanding of religious change by strengthening the links between social theory and the social scientific study of religion. It clarifies the social processes involved in constructing religion and non-religion in public and private life. Taking illustrations of the importance of these boundaries from studies of secularisation, religious diversity, globalisation, religious movements and self-identity, Beckford reviews social scientific knowledge about religion and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of a wide range of theoretical attempts to account for religious change and continuity. The discussion goes in two directions. The first is towards identifying ways in which studies of religion would benefit from taking better account of themes in recent social theory. The second is towards identifying reasons for social theorists to pay more attention to the findings of empirical investigations of religion.
Author: Abby Day
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429619170
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 411
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Book Description
The first sociology of religion textbook to begin the task of diversifying and decolonizing the study of religion, Sociology of Religion develops a sociological frame that draws together the personal, political and public, showing how religion – its origins, development and changes – is understood as a social institution, influenced by and influencing wider social structures. Organized along sociological structures and themes, the book works with examples from a variety of religious traditions and regions rather than focusing in depth on a selection, and foregrounds cultural practice-based understandings of religion. It is therefore a book about ‘religion’, not ‘religions’, that explores the relationship of religion with gender and sexuality, crime and violence, generations, politics and media, ‘race’, ethnicity and social class, disease and disability – highlighting the position of religion in social justice and equality. Each chapter of this book is framed around concrete case studies from a variety of Western and non-Western religious traditions. Students will benefit from thinking about the discipline across a range of geographical and religious contexts. The book includes features designed to engage and inspire students: Up-to-date and comprehensive analysis of engaging and accessible material ‘Case Examples’: short summaries of empirical examples relating to the chapter themes Visually distinct boxes with bullet points, key words and phrases focusing on the context Questions suitable for private or seminar study Suggested class exercises for instructors to use Suggested readings and further readings/online resources at the end of each chapter Following a review and critique of early sociology of religion, the book engages with more contemporary issues, such as dissolving the secular/sacred binary and paying close attention to issues of epistemology, negotiations, marginalities, feminisms, identities, power, nuances, globalization, (post) (multiple) modernity (ies), emotion, structuration, reflexivity, intersectionality and urbanization. This book is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students exploring the sociology of religion, religion and society, religious studies, theology, globalization and human geography.
Author: Max Weber
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Religion and sociology
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Author: Lawrence A. Young
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134953429
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 204
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Book Description
Rational Choice Theory and Religion considers one of the major developments in the social scientific paradigms that promises to foster a greater theoretical unity among the disciplines of sociology, political science, economics and psychology. Applying the theory of rational choice--the theory that each individual will make her choice to maximize gain and minimize cost--to the study of religion, Lawrence Young has brought together a group of internationally renowned scholars to examine this important development within the field of religion for the first time.
Author: Michele Dillon
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521000789
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 500
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Book Description
Table of contents
Author: Adam Possamai
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1529721962
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 2399
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Book Description
The SAGE Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Religion takes a three-pronged look at this, namely investigating the role of religion in society; unpacking and evaluating the significance of religion in and on human history; and tracing and outlining the social forces and influences that shape religion. This encyclopedia covers a range of themes from: • fundamental topics like definitions • secularization • dimensions of religiosity to such emerging issues as civil religion • new religious movements This Encyclopedia also addresses contemporary dilemmas such as fundamentalism and extremism and the role of gender in religion.
Author: Elaine Howard Ecklund
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197539165
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 225
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Book Description
Why study atheism among scientists? -- "Tried and found wanting" : how atheist scientists explain religious transitions -- "I am not like Richard:" modernist atheist scientists -- Ties that bind : culturally religious atheists -- Spiritual atheist scientists -- What atheist scientists think about science -- How atheist scientists approach meaning and morality -- From rhetoric to reality : why religious believers should give atheist scientists a chance.
Author: Karen Sternheimer
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780393419481
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
Innovative readings and blog posts show how sociology can help us understand everyday life.
