Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion / Edition 1

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More About This Textbook

Overview

Finally, social scientists have begun to attempt to understand religious behavior rather than to discredit it as irrational, ignorant, or foolish—and Rodney Stark and Roger Finke have played a major role in this new approach. Acknowledging that science cannot assess the supernatural side of religion (and therefore should not claim to do so), Stark and Finke analyze the observable, human side of faith.
In clear and engaging prose, the authors combine explicit theorizing with animated discussions as they move from considering the religiousness of individuals to the dynamics of religious groups and then to the religious workings of entire societies as religious groups contend for support. The result is a comprehensive new paradigm for the social-scientific study of religion.

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Editorial Reviews

Times Literary Supplement
A "crucial exposition in an increasingly combative dispute about method in the sociology of religion.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780520222021
  • Publisher: University of California Press
  • Publication date: 8/1/2000
  • Edition description: New Edition
  • Edition number: 1
  • Pages: 343
  • Sales rank: 602,546
  • Product dimensions: 6.00 (w) x 8.75 (h) x 1.00 (d)

Meet the Author

Rodney Stark is Professor of Sociology and Comparative Religion at the University of Washington. Among his many books are The Rise of Christianity (1996), The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation (California, 1985), and, with Roger Finke, The Churching of America, 1776-1990: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy (1992). Roger Finke is Professor of Sociology at Pennsylvania State University.

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Table of Contents

Introduction: Atheism, Faith, and the Social Scientific Study of Religion 1
Pt. 1 Paradigms in Conflict
1 A New Look at Old Issues 27
2 Rationality and the "Religious Mind" 42
3 Secularization, R.I.P. 57
Pt. 2 The Religious Individual
4 The Micro Foundations of Religion 83
5 Religious Choices: Conversion and Reaffiliation 114
Pt. 3 The Religious Group
6 Religious Group Dynamics 141
7 Catholic Religious Vocations: Decline and Revival 169
Pt. 4 The Religious Economy
8 A Theoretical Model of Religious Economies 193
9 Religious Competition and Commitment: An International Assessment 218
10 Church-to-Sect Movements 259
Appendix: Propositions and Definitions 277
Notes 287
References 295
Index 325
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