'Religion’ and ‘Secular’ Categories in Sociology PDF Download

Author: Mitsutoshi Horii
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030875164
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

View

Book Description
Informed by ‘critical religion’ perspective in Religious Studies and postcolonial self-reflection in Sociology, this book interrogates the ideas of ‘religion’ and ‘the secular’ in social theory and Sociology. It argues that as long as social theory and sociological discourse embed the religion-secular distinction and locate themselves on the ‘secular’ side of the binary, Sociology will continue to serve the very ideologies it tries to subvert – namely Western modernity/coloniality.

Author: Mitsutoshi Horii
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783030875176
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

View

Book Description
Mitsutoshi Horii is Professor at Shumei University in Japan, and Principal of Chaucer College, UK. Informed by the 'critical religion' perspective in religious studies and postcolonial self-reflection in sociology, this book interrogates the ideas of 'religion' and 'the secular' in social theory and sociology. It argues that as long as social theory and sociological discourse embeds the religion-secular distinction and locates itself on the 'secular' side of the binary, sociology will continue to serve the very ideologies it tries to subvert - namely Western modernity/coloniality. Horii raises fundamental epistemological questions and deep ontological issues in the field of the sociology of religion. Innovative and provoking, the book will inspire the reader to discuss and question established concepts from new perspectives." -Per Pettersson, Professor of Sociology of Religion, Karlstad University, Sweden "This is a superb book that ... calls into question sociology's own understanding of itself as secular and 'rational,' distinguished from the 'non-rational' understandings of those it presents as other." -John Holmwood, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Nottingham, UK. "This book is a valuable contribution to the critical demystification of general categories that sustain the illusions on which the humanities and social sciences are based." -Timothy Fitzgerald, Honorary Research Associate Professor, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Queensland, Australia, and Research Associate, the Center for Critical Research on Religion, USA. "A must-read for any scholar who wants to learn how to think beyond the confinements of modern social theory." -Jayne Svenungsson, Professor of Systematic Theology, Lund University, Sweden. "By decolonizing the secular-religion binary, Horii provides an important challenge to sociology's self-understanding as a secular discipline and he calls into question a number of its conventional scholarly abstractions. This is a fascinating book that furthers crucial debates and thus will definitely be of interest to scholars in a range of disciplines." -Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm, Professor of Religion and the Chair of Science & Technology Studies, Williams College, USA.

Author: Philip Gorski
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814738729
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 381

View

Book Description
"This collection of original essays by leading academics represents an interdisciplinary intervention in the continuing and ever-transforming discussion of the role of religion and secularism in today's world. Foregrounding the most urgent and compelling questions raised by the place of religion in the social sciences, past and present, The Post-Secular in Question restores religion to a more central place in social scientific thinking about the world, helping to move scholarship 'beyond unbelief.'"--book jacket.

Author: George Lundskow
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISBN: 1506319602
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 465

View

Book Description
Using a lively narrative, The Sociology of Religion is an insightful text that investigates the facts of religion in all its great diversity, including its practices and beliefs, and then analyzes actual examples of religious developments using relevant conceptual frameworks. As a result, students actively engage in the discovery, learning, and analytical processes as they progress through the text. Organized around essential topics and real-life issues, this unique text examines religion both as an object of sociological analysis as well as a device for seeking personal meaning in life. The book provides sociological perspectives on religion while introducing students to relevant research from interdisciplinary scholarship. Sidebar features and photographs of religious figures bring the text to life for readers. Key Features Uses substantive and truly contemporary real-life religious issues of current interest to engage the reader in a way few other texts do Combines theory with empirical examples drawn from the United States and around the world, emphasizing a critical and analytical perspective that encourages better understanding of the material presented Features discussions of emergent religions, consumerism, and the link between religion, sports, and other forms of popular culture Draws upon interdisciplinary literature, helping students appreciate the contributions of other disciplines while primarily developing an understanding of the sociology of religion Accompanied by High-Quality Ancillaries! Instructor Resources on CD contain chapter outlines, summaries, multiple-choice questions, essay questions, and short answer questions as well as illustrations from the book. C Intended Audience This core text is designed for upper-level undergraduate students of Sociology of Religion or Religion and Politics.

Author: Bryan R. Wilson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191092592
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 279

View

Book Description
Fifty years after its publication, Bryan Wilson's Religion in Secular Society (1966) remains a seminal work. It is one of the clearest articulations of the secularization thesis: the claim that modernizations brings with it fundamental changes in the nature and status of religion. For Wilson, secularization refers to the fact that religion has lost influence at the societal, the institutional, and the individual level. Individual secularization is about the loss of authority of the Churches to define what people should believe, practise and accept as moral principles guiding their lives. In other words, individual piety may still persist, however, if it develops independently of religious authorities, then it is an indication of individual secularization. Wilson stresses that the consequences of the process of societalization in modern societies and on this basis he formulated his thesis that secularization is linked to the decline of community and is a concomitant of societalization. Revised and updated, Steve Bruce builds on Wilson's work by noting the changes in religious culture of the UK and US, in an appendix on major changes since the 1960s. Bruce also provides a critical response to the core ideas of Religion in Secular Society.

Author: Phil Zuckerman
Publisher: Penguin Books
ISBN: 0143127934
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 290

View

Book Description
A sociology professor examines the demographic shift that has led more Americans than ever before to embrace a nonreligious life and highlights the inspirational stories and beliefs that empower modern-day secular culture.

Author: Anna Fedele
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429853181
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 359

View

Book Description
Secular Societies, Spiritual Selves? is the first volume to address the gendered intersections of religion, spirituality and the secular through an ethnographic approach. The book examines how ‘spirituality’ has emerged as a relatively ‘silent’ category with which people often signal that they are looking for a way to navigate between the categories of the religious and the secular, and considers how this is related to gendered ways of being and relating. Using a lived religion approach the contributors analyse the intersections between spirituality, religion and secularism in different geographical areas, ranging from the Netherlands, Portugal and Italy to Canada, the United States and Mexico. The chapters explore the spiritual experiences of women and their struggle for a more gender equal way of approaching the divine, as well as the experience of men and of those who challenge binary sexual identities advocating for a queer spirituality. This volume will be of interest to anthropologists and sociologists as well as scholars in other disciplines who seek to understand the role of spirituality in creating the complex gendered dynamics of modern societies.

Author: Timothy Fitzgerald
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195347153
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 291

View

Book Description
In recent years there has been an intensifying debate within the religious studies community about the validity of religion as an analytical category. In this book Fitzgerald sides with those who argue that the concept of religion itself should be abandoned. On the basis of his own research in India and Japan, and through a detailed analysis of the use of religion in a wide range of scholarly texts, the author maintains that the comparative study of religion is really a form of liberal ecumenical theology. By pretending to be a science, religion significantly distorts socio-cultural analysis. He suggest, however, that religious studies can be re-represented in a way which opens up new and productive theoretical connections with anthropology and cultural and literary studies.

Author: J. M. Barbalet
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Religion and state
Languages : en
Pages : 282

View

Book Description
With a clear statement of the theoretical issues in the debates about secularization and post-secularism,?Religion and the State: A Comparative Sociology? considers a number of major case studies? from China, Europe, Singapore and South Asia? in order to understand the rise of public religions in the modern state. By distinguishing between political secularization? the separation of state and religion? and social secularization? the transformation of the everyday practice of religion? this volume offers an integrating framework within which to analyze these different societies.

Author: Courtney Bender
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199938644
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 312

View

Book Description
The thirteen essays in this volume offer a challenge to conventional scholarly approaches to the sociology of religion. They urge readers to look beyond congregational settings, beyond the United States, and to religions other than Christianity, and encourage critical engagement with religion's complex social consequences. By expanding conceptual categories, the essays reveal how aspects of the religious have always been part of allegedly non-religious spaces and show how, by attending to these intellectual blindspots, we can understand aspects of identity, modernity, and institutional life that have long been obscured. Religion on the Edge addresses a number of critical questions: What is revealed about the self, pluralism, or modernity when we look outside the U.S. or outside Christian settings? What do we learn about how and where the religious is actually at work and what its role is when we unpack the assumptions about it embedded in the categories we use? Religion on the Edge offers groundbreaking new methodologies and models, bringing to light conceptual lacunae, re-centering what is unsettled by their use, and inviting a significant reordering of long-accepted political and economic hierarchies. The book shows how social scientists across the disciplines can engage with the sociology of religion. By challenging many of its long-standing empirical and analytic tendencies, the contributors to this volume show how their work informs and is informed by debates in other fields and the analytical purchase gained by bringing these many conversations together. Religion on the Edge will be a crucial resource for any scholar seeking to understand our post-modern, post-secular world.