Sociology of religion 5 vols Critical Concepts in Sociology critical concepts in sociology Series

This new Routledge Major Work is a five-volume collection of seminal and influential articles, chapters, and extracts in the sociology of religion and related disciplines. The collection uniquely brings together material ranging widely from conceptual and theoretical discussions through substantive areas, including historical religious systems, the great world religious traditions, and religion in the contemporary world. No other collection of this kind has this breadth of coverage or historical and comparative dimension. The best work of classic writers and scholars, major contributors to the discipline over its period of development, and of contemporary theorists and specialists in substantive topics has been included to give a comprehensive picture of the subdiscipline.

Volume I: Concepts and Theories

Part 1: Conceptual Discussions

A. The Sociological Stance and the Truth Claims of Religion

1. R. N. Bellah (1970) ‘Christianity and Symbolic Realism’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 9, 89–99

2. W. R. Garrett (1974) ‘Troublesome Transcendence: The Natural in the Scientific Study of Religion’, Sociological Analysis 35, 3: 167–80

3. R. Segal (1980) ‘The Social Sciences and the Truth of Religion Belief’, Journal of the American Academy of Religion 48, 3, 401–13

B. What is Religion? Definitional Issues

4. J. Goody (1961) ‘Religion and Ritual: The Definitional Problem’, British Journal of Sociology 12, 142–64

5. M. E. Spiro (1966) ‘Religion: Problems of Definition and Explanation’, in M. Banton (ed.), Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion (A.S.A. Monograph No. 3, London: Tavistock)

6. R. Horton (1960) ‘A Definition of Religion and its Uses’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 90, 201–26

7. M. Southwold (1978) ‘Buddhism and the Definition of Religion’, Man, 13: 362–79

Part 2: Classical Theoretical Approaches

A: Religion as an Individual Phenomenon

8. E. Tylor (1871) Primitive Culture (London: Murray) pp. 358–361

9. S. E. Guthrie (1996) ‘Religion: What is it?’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 35, 4: 412–19

10. B. Malinowski (1926) ‘Magic, Science and Religion’, in J. A. Needham (ed.), Science, Religion and Reality (London: Sheldon Press) pp. 17–92

B. Religion as a Social Phenomenon

11. K. Marx (1957) ‘Theses on Feuerbach’, in K. Marx and F. Engels, On Religion (Moscow: Progress Publishers) pp. 62–64

12. K. Marx (1957) ‘A Contribution to a Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right’, in K. Marx and F. Engels, On Religion (Moscow: Progress Publishers) pp.  37–38

13. K. Marx (1957) ‘Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy’, in K. Marx and F. Engels, On Religion (Moscow: Progress Publishers) pp. 212–220

14. F. Engels (1957) ‘Anti-Duhring’, in K. Marx and F. Engels, On Religion (Moscow: Progress Publishers) pp. 129–134

15. E. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (extract from W. S. F. Pickering, Durkheim’s Sociology of Religion: Themes and Theories (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984)) pp. 102–166

16. A. R. Radcliffe-Brown (1952) ‘Religion and Society’, in Structure and Function in Primitive Society (London: Cohen and West) pp. 153–177

17. K. Davis (1964) ‘Religious Institutions’, in Human Society (New York: Macmillan), pp. 509–548

C. Early Synthesis

18. M. Weber (1970) ‘The Social Psychology of the World Religions’, in H. Gerth and C. W. Mills (eds.), From Max Weber: Essays in Social Theory (London: Routledge) pp. 267–301

Volume II: The World Religions

Part 1: The Eastern Traditions

A. Hinduism

19. D. Mandelbaum (1966) ‘Transcendental and Pragmatic Aspects of Religion’, American Anthropologist 68: 1174–91

20. G. Obeyesekere (1980) ‘Rebirth Eschatology and its Transformations’, in W. O’Flaherty (ed.), Karma and Rebirth in Classical Indian Traditions (Berkeley: University of California Press) pp. 137–164

21. L. A. Babb (1983), ‘Destiny and Responsibility: Karma in Popular Hinduism’, in C. F. Keyes and E. V. Daniel (eds.), Karma: An Anthropological Inquiry (Berkeley: University of California Press), pp. 163–181

B. Buddhism

22. G. Obeyesekere (1968) ‘Theodicy, Sin and Salvation in a Sociology of Buddhism’, in E. Leach (ed.), Dialectic in Practical Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 19–40

23. S. J. Tambiah (1968) ‘The Ideology of Merit and the Social Correlates of Buddhism in a Thai Village’, in E. Leach (ed.), Dialectic in Practical Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp.  41–45, 49–52, 56–59, 64–67, 101–105, 114–121.

C. China and Japan

24. M. Freedman (1967) ‘Ancestor Worship: Two Facets of the Chinese Case’, in Freedman (ed.), Social Organisation: Essays Presented to Raymond Firth (Chicago: Aldine), pp. 85–103

25. A. P. Wolf (1974), ‘Gods, Ghosts and Ancestors’, in Wolf (ed.), Ritual and Religion in Chinese Society (Stanford: Stanford University Press), pp. 131–182.

26. M. Freedman (1974), ‘On the Sociological Study of Chinese Religion’, in A. P. Wolf (ed.), Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society (Stanford: Stanford University Press), pp. 19–41.

27. W. R. Garrett (1992), ‘The Ascetic Conundrum: The Confucian Ethic and Taoism’, in W. H. Swatos (ed.), Twentieth-Century World Religious Movements in Neo-Weberian Perspective (Edwin Mellen Press: New York), pp. 21–30.

Part 2: The Middle Eastern Traditions

A. Judaism

28. P. L. Berger (1963), ‘Charisma and Religious Innovation: The Social Location of Israelite Prophecy’, American Sociological Review 28, 6: 940–50

29. M. Douglas (1966) ‘The abominations of Leviticus’, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Taboo and Pollution (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul), pp. 41–57

30. M. P. Carroll (1978) ‘One More Time: Leviticus Revisited’, Archives européennes de sociologie 19, 339–46

B. Islam

31. B. Aswad (1970) ‘Social and Ecological Aspects in the Formation of Islam’, in L. Sweet (ed.), Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East (Garden City, New York: Natural History Press), pp. 53–73

32. B. S. Turner (1976), ‘Origins and Traditions in Islam and Christianity, Religion 6, 13–30

33. P. Crone (1987) Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam (Princeton: Princeton University Press), pp. 231–250

34. E. Gellner (1981) ‘Flux and Reflux in the Faith of Men’, in Muslim Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 1–85

35. S. Zubaida (1995) ‘Is there a Muslim Society?: Ernest Gellner’s Sociology of Islam’, Economy and Society 24, 2: 151–88

VOLUME III: CHRISTIANITY

Part 1: Origins and Development

36. W. A. Meeks (1982) ‘The Social Context of Pauline Theory’, Interpretation 36, 266–77

37. G. Theissen (1992) ‘Some Ideas about a Sociological Theory of Early Christianity’, in Social Reality and the Early Christians: Theology, Ethics and the World of the New Testament (Minneapolis: Fortress Press)

38. D. A. Nielsen (1990) ‘Max Weber and the Sociology of Early Christianity’, in W. H. Swatos (ed.), Time, Place and Circumstance (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press), pp. 89–102

Part 2: Catholicism and Protestantism

39. M. Weber (1930) The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans. Talcott Parsons (London: George Allen and Unwin)

40. M. Weber (1946) ‘The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism’, in H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (eds.), Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul), pp. 302–322

41. E. Fischoff (1944) ‘The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism’, Social Research 11, 54–77

42. M. Walzer (1963) ‘Puritanism as a Revolutionary Ideology’, History and Theory 3, 59–90

43. H. Luethy (1964) ‘Once Again, Calvinism and Capitalism’, Encounter 22, 26–38

44. B. S. Turner (1977), ‘Confession and Social Structure’, Annual Review of the Social Sciences of Religion 1, 29–58

45. R. Wuthnow (1985), ‘State Structures and Ideological Outcomes’, American Sociological Review 50, 799–821

Part 3: Christianity Today

46. N. Ammerman (1997) ‘Golden Rule Christianity: Lived Religion in the American Mainstream’, in D. G. Hall (ed.), Lived Religion in America: Toward a Theory of Practice (Princeton: Princeton University Press), pp. 196–216

47. A. Walker (1997) ‘Thoroughly Modern: Sociological Reflections on the Charismatic Movement from the End of the Twentieth Century’, in S. Hunt, M. Hamilton and T. Walter (eds.), Charismatic Christianity: Sociological Perspectives (Basingstoke: Macmillan), pp. 17–42

48. K. Dobbelaere (1992) ‘Roman Catholicism: Function Versus Performance, Universalism Versus Particularism’, in B. Wilson (ed.), Religion: Contemporary Issues (London: Bellew Publishing), pp. 111–124

Volume 4: Religion in the Contemporary World

Part 1: Modern Theoretical Syntheses

49. C. Geertz (1966) ‘Religion as a Cultural System’, in M. Banton (ed.), Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion (A.S.A. Monograph No. 3, London: Tavistock), pp. 1–46

50. P. Berger (1973) Social Reality of Religion (Harmondsworth: Penguin), pp. 13–37

51. R. Stark (1999) ‘Microfoundations of religion: a revised theory’ Sociological Theory, 17: 3, 264–89

52. L. R. Iannaccone (1997) ‘Rational Choice: Framework for the Scientific Study of Religion’, in L. A. Young (ed.), Rational Choice Theory and Religion (London: Routledge), pp. 25–45

Part 2: Types of Religious Organization: Church Sect and Cult

53. B. Johnson (1963) ‘On Church and Sect’, American Sociological Review 28, 4: 589–99

54. D. A. Martin (1962) ‘The Denomination’, British Journal of Sociology 12, 1–14

55. C. Campbell (1972) ‘The Cult, the Cultic Milieu and Secularisation’, in M. Hill (ed.), A Sociological Yearbook of Religion in Britain (London: SCM Press), pp. 119–136

56. R. Wallis (ed.) (1975) ‘The Cult and its Transformation’, in Sectarianism: Analyses of Religious and Non-religious Sects (London: Peter Owen), pp. 35–49

Part 3: Secularization

57. R. Wallis and S. Bruce (1992) ‘Secularisation Theory: The Orthodox Model’, in S. Bruce (ed.), Religion and Modernisation: Sociologists and Historians Debate the Secularization Thesis (Oxford: Clarendon Press), pp. 35–49

58. D. A. Martin (1991) ‘The Secularisation Issue: Prospect and Retrospect’, British Journal of Sociology 42, 465–74

59. B. R. Wilson (1998) ‘The Secularisation Thesis: Criticisms and Rebuttals’, in R. Learmans, B. Wilson and J. Billiet (eds), Secularisation and Social Integration: Papers in Honour of Karel Dobbelaere (Leuven: Leuven University Press), pp. 45–65

60. R. Stark (1999) ‘Secularisation: RIP’, Sociology of Religion, 60, 3, 249–73

61. S. Hanson (1977) ‘The Secularisation Thesis: Talking at Cross Purposes’, Journal of Contemporary Religion, 12, 159–79

62. R. M. Goodridge (1975) ‘The Ages of Faith: Romance or Reality?’ Sociological Review 23, 381–96

63. S. Bruce (1992) ‘Pluralism and Religious Vitality’, in S. Bruce (ed.), Religion and Modernization: Sociologists and Historian Debate the Secularization Thesis (Oxford: Clarendon Press), pp. 170–194

64. K. Dobbelaere (1999) ‘Towards an Integrated Perspective of the Processes Related to the Descriptive Concept of Secularization’, Sociology of Religion 60, 3: 229–47

VOLUME 5: RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS

Part 1: General Approaches

65. D. Aberle (1962) ‘A Note on Relative Deprivation Theory as Applied to Millenarian and other Cult Movements’, in S. Thrupp (ed.), Millennial Dreams in Action: Comparative Studies in Society and History Supplements, No. 2 (The Hague: Mouton), pp. 209–214

66. Y. Talmon (1966) ‘Millennial Movements’, Archives européennes de sociologie, pp. 159–200

67. R. Stark and W. S. Bainbridge (1979) ‘Of Churches, Sects and Cults: Preliminary Concepts for a Theory of Religious Movements’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 18, 2: 117–33

68. R. Stark (1996) ‘Why Religious Movements Succeed or Fail: A Revised General Model’, Journal of Contemporary Religion 11: 133–46

Part 2: Sectarianism

69. D. A. Snow and R. Machalek (1982), ‘On the Presumed Fragility of Unconventional Beliefs’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 21, 1: 15–26

70. L. R. Iannaccone (1994), 'Why Strict Churches are Strong', American Journal of Sociology, 99, 5: 1180–1211

Part 3: New Religious Movements

71. R. Wallis (1984) The Elementary Forms of the New Religious Life (London: Routledge), pp. 9–39

72. E. Barker (1986) ‘Religious Movements: Cult and Anti-Cult Since Jonestown’, American Review of Sociology, 12, 329–46

73. J. G. Melton (1987) ‘How New is New? The Flowering of the "New" Religious Consciousness Since 1965’, in D. G. Bromley and P. Hammond (eds.), The Future of the New Religious Movements (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press), pp. 46–56

Part 4: Conversion

74. J. Lofland and R. Stark (1965), ‘Becoming a World-Saver: A Theory of Conversion to a Deviant Perspective’, American Sociological Review 30, 862–75

75. D.G. Bromley and A.D. Shupe, ‘Just a Few Years Seems Like a Lifetime: a Role Theory Approach to Participation in Religious Movements, in L. Kriesberg (ed.), Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Changes 2 (Greenwich, Conn: JAI Press, 1979), pp. 159–85

76. A. L. Greil and D. R. Rudy (1984), ‘What have We Learned from Process Models of Conversion: An Examination of Ten Studies’, Sociological Focus 17, 4: 305–23

77. D. A. Snow and R. Machalek (1984) ‘The Sociology of Conversion’, Annual Review of Sociology 10, 167–90

Part 5: Civil, Quasi and Implicit Religion

78. R. N. Bellah (1967) ‘Civil Religion in America’, Daedalus 96. 1: 1–21

79. R. Wallis (1985) ‘The Dynamics of Change in the Human Potential Movement’, in R. Stark (ed.), Religious Movements: Genesis, Exodus and Numbers (New York: Paragon House), pp. 129–156

80. A. L. Greil (1993) ‘Explorations Along the Sacred Frontier: Notes on Para-Religions, Quasi-Religion and Other Boundary Phenomena’, in D. G. Bromley and J. K. Hadden (eds.), Religion in the Social Order, Vol. 3, Pt. A, pp. 153–172

Malcolm Hamilton is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Reading. His research and publications are now predominantly in the area of the sociology of religion and some have become essential reading for relevant courses world wide.