Sociology of Religion: Contemporary Developments

by Kevin J. Christiano, Peter Kivisto, William H. Swatos, Jr.

Overview

A historical introduction to key principles in the sociology of religion with an emphasis on the United States past and present.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538137994
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	03/12/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	408
File size:	19 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Kevin J. Christiano is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and a past president of the Association for the Sociology of Religion and the American Council for Québec Studies.

William H. Swatos, Jr., served as the executive officer of the Association for the Sociology of Religion and of the Religious Research Association for many years. He is senior priest and Canon Theologian of the Anglican diocese of Quincy, Illinois.

Peter Kivisto is the Richard A. Swanson Professor of Social Thought at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, and a research fellow at the Università di Trento in Italy. An author or editor of more than twenty-five books, he is a member of the Council of the American Sociological Association.

Table of Contents

About Ourselves     xi
About the Book     xiii
The Basics
By Way of Introduction     3
Background     3
The Definition Problem     4
Exploring the Dimensions of Religion     12
Social Relationships     12
Ethical Considerations     16
A Definitional Revision     18
The Plan of the Book     19
Suggestions for Further Reading     25
Studying Religion     27
How Do We Study Religion?     27
Survey Research     29
Participant Observation     32
Historical Research     34
Theory in the Study of Religion     35
Functionalist Theories     35
Conflict Theories     37
A Paradigm Shift     38
Rational Choice Theories     39
Sociologie Religieuse     45
Why Study Religion?     47
Implicit Religion     51
Suggestions for Further Reading     53
The "Religion" of Secularization and the History of Religions     55
The "World" of Religion     55
The Arguments     59
The Critique     63
The "Religions" ofSecularization     64
Civil Religion     65
Invisible Religion     70
The Myth of the Age of Faith     73
Pluralism     74
Suggestions for Further Reading     82
Religion in the United States: Denominationalism and Beyond     85
Churches and Sects     86
Weber's Sociology and Troeltsch's Ethics     88
Elaboration, Reaction, and Revision     89
Neo-Weberian Analyses     91
Denominationalism     92
Typology     93
Denominations Today     95
Congregationalism     98
American Religious Renewal     102
Mainlines and Sidelines in Religion in the United States     105
Evangelicals and Fundamentalists: Alike and Different     112
Suggestions for Further Reading     118
Religion and Social Differentiation
Social Class, Religion, and Power: A Classic Field of Inquiry     123
Sociological Classics     123
Marx: The Permanent Exile and Prophet     124
Weber: Theodicy, Religious Ethics, and Social Class     128
Religion and the U.S. Class Structure     133
U.S. Classes and Religion in the Industrial Age: 1870-1970      134
The Class/Religion Nexus in a Postindustrial Society     143
Suggestions for Further Reading     150
Religion and Ethnicity: A Complex Relationship     153
Clarifying Terms: Ethnic, Nationality, and Racial Groups     154
Defining Ethnic Groups     154
Nationality Groups and Territoriality     155
The Specter of Race     156
Relational Patterns between Religion and Ethnicity     159
Ethnicity in the "Righteous Empire"     161
The Ethnic Factor in the Formative Period of U.S. Catholicism     162
The Jewish Diaspora     164
Herberg's Thesis and the Triple Melting Pot     166
The African-American Religious Experience     168
From Different Shores: The New Immigrants     173
The New Ethnics as Protestants, Catholics, and Jews     175
Beyond Protestant, Catholic, Jew     176
Suggestions for Further Reading     183
Gender, Sexuality, and Religion: Spirituality in Different Voices?     185
The Ordination Debate     187
Women in Clerical and Lay Roles     192
Culture Wars: Gender, Religion, and Family Values     196
Abortion and the Politics of the Body     197
Family Matters      199
Gays, Lesbians, and Religion     204
Images of God and Gendered Spirituality     208
Suggestions for Further Reading     209
Religion, Culture, and Change
Religious Change: The Case of Catholicism in the United States     213
Church with a Capital C     213
Change: From Breeze to Tornado     214
Commitment: Loyalty, but Not Obedience     215
Devotion: A Collapse of Authority     216
Governance: Guiding the People of God     217
Leadership: Failures at the Top     219
Membership: Problems in the Pews     223
African-American Catholics     223
Hispanic Catholics     225
Women in the Church     227
Personnel: People without Priests     231
Finances: Expanding Mission, Declining Resources     237
Suggestions for Further Reading     240
The Globalization Dynamic: Historic Animosities or Postmodern Politics?     243
Global Culture     246
Excursus on the History of Religions     249
Globalization and Fundamentalisms     250
The Religious Right in the United States     251
Islamization     256
Fundamentalism, Globalization, and American Civil Religion     260
Ultraorthodoxy     265
Suggestions for Further Reading     270
Mediating Meaning: Religion in-and as-Contemporary Culture     273
Mass Faith: The Media of Religion     275
Religion in Material Culture: Faith in the Flesh     275
Religious Publishing: Words and The Word     278
"That Old-Time Religion": Broadcast Faith in the United States     283
"In the Beginning..."     283
The Message: "His Master's Voice"?     285
The Messengers: The Return of Elmer Gantry?     286
The Audience: Preaching to the Converted?     288
Cyber-Faith: Religion on the Internet     290
Suggestions for Further Reading     296
Boundary Issues: Church, State, and New Religions     299
Religious Novelty     302
Cult and Anticult: Social Science and Social Movements     304
Asceticism and Mysticism     307
The Attraction of the Margin     310
Illustrations of NRM Dynamics     312
Unificationism     313
"Satanism" and Anti-Satanism     319
Neopaganism: Of Gods and Goddesses     325
Suggestions for Further Reading     328
References      329
Index     361

Editorial Reviews

Clearly written and comprehensive in scope, this revised edition provides a refreshing update of ongoing empirical developments, conceptual debates, and continuing challenges in understanding the complexity of religion in contemporary society.” —Michele Dillon, University of New Hampshire; coauthor of American Catholics in Transition

“I am very impressed with Sociology of Religion: Contemporary Developments. This volume provides a thorough treatment of sociological theories of religion and discusses an array of important conceptual issues in the field.” —Dr. John P. Bartkowski, University of Texas at San Antonio

“Sociology of Religion offers great coverage of topics, in terms of both breadth and depth. The book offers up-to-date treatment, an accessible and engaging writing style, and a very good supporting bibliography.” —Andrew Dawson, Lancaster University, United Kingdom

“Previous edition praise: This excellent book may well be the best text on the sociology of religion in print.” —Teaching Sociology

From the Publisher

Sociology of Religion offers great coverage of topics, in terms of both breadth and depth. The book offers up-to-date treatment, an accessible and engaging writing style, and a very good supporting bibliography.

Andrew Dawson

Clearly written and comprehensive in scope, this revised edition provides a refreshing update of ongoing empirical developments, conceptual debates, and continuing challenges in understanding the complexity of religion in contemporary society.

Michele Dillon

Previous edition praise: This excellent book may well be the best text on the sociology of religion in print.

Teaching Sociology

I am very impressed with Sociology of Religion: Contemporary Developments. This volume provides a thorough treatment of sociological theories of religion and discusses an array of important conceptual issues in the field.

Dr. John P. Bartkowski

Praise for the first edition:

I welcome the arrival of Sociology of Religion: Contemporary Developments. A new textbook in the sociology of religion is long overdue. This text covers all of the most important contemporary issues in the field, reminds us of some less appreciated topics (material culture, boundary issues), and brings in a host of novel historical materials as well. Undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty alike will find gems of insight into the place of religion in society throughout this textbook.

David A. Yamane

Praise for the first edition:

Finally, a sociology of religion textbook that presents theories and data about contemporary religion, both in the U.S. and globally, in ways that will grip the imaginations and life experiences of students. . . . A long awaited textbook that combines cutting-edge theories with rich descriptions of contemporary changes in religion, both in the U.S. and globally. . . . A textbook that challenges students to use sociological theories to think about some of the cutting edge issues in religion today.

Helen Rose Ebaugh

This book is well-conceived and will make an important contribution to the teaching of sociology of religion. It is timely and interesting, and is substantially different than other currently available texts on the sociology of religion. This book gives much more attention to ethnicity, social class, gender, and social change and I really like the chapter on the media and religion. I will definitely use this in my undergraduate classes.

Penny Edgell

Sociology of Religion offers great coverage of topics, in terms of both breadth and depth. The book offers up to date treatment, an accessible and engaging writing style, and a very good supporting bibliography.

Dr. Andrew Dawson

I am very impressed with Sociology of Religion: Contemporary Developments. This volume provides a thorough treatment of sociological theories of religion and discusses an array of important conceptual issues in the field.

Dr. John Bartkowski

I am very impressed with Sociology of Religion: Contemporary Developments. This volume provides a thorough treatment of sociological theories of religion and discusses an array of important conceptual issues in the field.

John Bartkowski

Sociology of Religion offers great coverage of topics, in terms of both breadth and depth. The book offers up to date treatment, an accessible and engaging writing style, and a very good supporting bibliography.

Andrew Dawson PhD