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The Blackwell Companion to Sociology of Religion is presented in three comprehensive parts. Written by a range of outstanding academics, the volume explores the current status of the sociology of religion, and how it might look in future. Explores the current status of the sociology of religion, and how it might look at the beginning of the next millennium. Traces the boundaries between sociology and other closely related disciplines, such as theology and social anthropology. Edited by one of the best known and most widely respected sociologists of religion Accessibly presented in three compre

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.

Front Cover -- Title Page -- Durkheim's Sociology of Religion -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- References, notation, translations -- Abbreviations -- Introductory remarks -- PART ONE: Historical Perspectives -- Chapter One: Durkheim's religious quest. I: Adolescent changes, family life and personal beliefs -- (1) Introduction -- (2) Boyhood, youth and the rejection of Judaism -- (3) Psychoanalytic factors -- (4) The significance of Jewishness -- (5) Asceticism and family life -- (6) His religious quest -- (7) Patriotism, politics and war -- (8) The epilogue -- Chapter Two: Durkheim's religious quest. II: In professional achievement -- (1) To greater things -- (2) Disciples and the journal -- (3) Influence in the realm of education -- (4) 'More a priest than a scholar'? -- Chapter Three: The development of Durkheim's thought on religion. I: The early period -- (1) The search for lines of demarcation -- (2) Publications and substantive issues -- (3) The beginnings and early influences -- (4) Characteristics of the period -- Chapter Four: The development of Durkheim'sthought on religion. II: The middle period -- (1) The 'revelation' -- (2) Durkheim's reading of Robertson Smith -- (3) Feverish activity -- (4) Characteristics -- Chapter Five: The development of Durkheim'sthought on religion. III: The final formulation -- (1) The work continues with lectures, articles and thebook -- (2) The 1906-7 lectures: 'La Religion: les origines' -- (3) Les Formes elementaires -- (4) Its reception -- (5) Continued glory and demise -- PART TWO: Taking up positions -- Chapter Six: Procedures and assumptions -- (1) The religious beliefs of the sociologist -- (2) The careful experiment -- (3) The issue of totemism -- Chapter Seven: The sacred and the profane: the ground of religion. I: Defining the two poles -- (1) Introduction.

Acting ritually: evidence from the social life of Chinese rites / Catherine Bell -- Moralizing sermons, then and now / Thomas Luckmann -- Health, morality and sacrifice: the sociology of disasters / Douglas J. Davies -- Contemporary social theory as it applies to the understanding of religion in cross-cultural perspective / Peter Beyer -- The return of theology: sociology's distant relative / Kieran Flanagan -- Epilogue: toward a secular view of the individual / Richard K. Fenn.