Religion in the Contemporary World: A Sociological Introduction Book

	Acknowledgements
1	Studying Religion Sociologically	1
	Religion - worth our continued attention?	1
	Reductionism: explaining religion away	4
	Sociography: sociology at the service of religion	5
	Phenomenology: apprehending religious meaning	6
	Sociology as a value-neutral science	9
	Carrying the sociological tradition forward	11
2	Defining Religion: Social Conflicts and Sociological Debates	13
	Scientology: authentic religion or imposture?	13
	Baha'is: world faith or apostasy?	16
	Advantages of being recognized as a religion	17
	Disadvantages to status as a religion	20
	Max Weber: on not defining religion	22
	Emile Durkheim: defining religion sociologically	24
	Contemporary sociological definitions of religion	26
	Religion and definition in use	30
3	Varieties of Religious Movement	33
	Max Weber on church and sect	33
	From sect to church?	35
	Beyond church and sect: extending the typology	39
	Varieties of new religious movement	46
	The social location of new religious movements	52
	Classifying religious movements: aims and prospects	54
4	Secularization Triumphant: the Social Insignificance of Religion?	56
	Auguste Comte and the Law of Three Stages	56
	Karl Marx and the opium of the people	60
	Emile Durkheim and the social functions of religion	62
	Max Weber and the disenchantment of the world	66
	Bryan Wilson on rationalization and societalization	73
	Peter Berger on religion and plausibility	77
	American exceptionalism	84
	Contemporary challenges to the secularization thesis	86
5	Secularization in Retreat: the Revival of Religion?	89
	The new voluntarism: an emerging paradigm?	89
	Voluntarism according to Talcott Parsons	91
	Rational choice theory and religion	94
	The supply side: religious firms and resource mobilization	101
	The Mormons: a new world faith?	106
	Jehovah's Witnesses: a model for growth?	116
6	The Resurgence of Fundamentalism	123
	The nature of fundamentalism	123
	Islam in the west	132
	Secularization and religious revival	138
7	Sacralization of Modernity: Civil and Political Religion	140
	Ritual and social integration: the legacy of Durkheim	140
	In God We Trust: civil religion in the United States	142
	Happy and Glorious: the British monarchy	144
	Symbolic division in society: the case of Canada	146
	Symbolic division in society: the case of Northern Ireland	148
	Creating new symbols: the French revolutionary calendar	152
	Political religion: the Soviet Union	153
	Political religion: Nazi Germany	157
	Character and society	159
8	Brainwashing, Consumer Protection and the State	160
	Brainwashing - old and new	160
	The power of the brainwashing metaphor	163
	What new religious movements offer their recruits	165
	Disengaging from new religious movements	167
	Consumer protection and the regulation of abuses	170
	Cult scares and the anti-cult movement	172
	Doomsday cults: five case studies	174
	Apocalypse, charismatic leadership and self-destruction	179
9	Religious Identity and Meaning in the Modern World	185
	Religion and the consumer	186
	Consumerism repudiated: the Prayer Book Society	190
	Consumerism embraced: Soka Gakkai International	192
	Authority and individualism: the Roman Catholic Church	195
	Religion, sex and gender	198
	Religion and New Age spirituality	206
	The future of religion	212
	Bibliography	216
	Index	227