Sociology of Religion A Reader

Preface Although we teach in very different settings--a mid-sized state university, a private Catholic college, and a private university--each of us looks forward to our opportunities to teach Sociology of Religion to undergraduate students. There is something about the study of the social aspects of religion that makes for a good class, a class that teaches itself. Students who take a Sociology of Religion class seem especially motivated to struggle with the material, and they typically have a wide range of personal experiences to draw upon as they apply abstract principles to instances of religion in their own lives. The study of religion in modern society is an exciting enterprise. No matter what you are interested in--the structure and experiences of particular religious groups, the overall state of religion in society, religious belief, ritual and experience, the relation between religion and other social institutions--there is a plethora of resources including books, journals, and research monographs you can draw on. Unfortunately, however, securing copyright permissions for "course packets" has become increasingly complex and difficult. We hope that by constructing a reader that covers a broad range of topics we can meet our own needs as well as those of other instructors who teach in this area. The focus of this reader is on the structure and culture of religion in the United States. Thus, many of the readings are about religion in the Christian tradition. Nonetheless, where it was feasible, we included readings about religion outside the American context (e.g., Poland, England, El Salvador, Nicaragua), and beyond the Christian tradition (e.g., Judaism, alternative religions, Hindu traditions). This reader is not intended to be a survey of religion, but rather an introduction to the social aspects of religion, particularly within the United States. The readings are arranged by topic, and each topic has a brief introductory essay that outlines some key issues and orients students to the readings. Some of the essays focus on defining concepts related to the readings; others provide an overall framework students can use to understand how the readings fit together and what they contribute to our knowledge about the topic. We also include readings from popular sources--newspapers, magazines, and the like--to help students connect more abstract material with things that they see in their day-to-day lives. For instructors, we provide a cross-reference table that provides suggestions for other topics for which an article might be appropriate. Following a brief introduction by Wade Clark Roof about what is most interesting and exciting in religion today, we present classical sociological definitions of religion by theorists including Emil Durkheim, Clifford Geertz, Karl Marx, and Peter Berger. In teaching the Sociology of Religion, we have been amazed at how much discussion these classical statements generate among students. We continue with sections that focus on the "stuff" of religion--belief, ritual, and religious experience. We then present several sections on how religion is related to various aspects of identity: race and ethnicity, gender, social class, and sexual identity. We put this material early in the volume because religious participation has a powerful ability to shape how we see ourselves-and how we interact with others. Next, we move to structural concerns. We introduce students to the secularization debate that has raged recently in the sociology of religion: Is religion declining or is it thriving? We follow with sections on organizational aspects of official religion--authority, organizations, and institutions--and on alternative religions. Because religion does not exist in a vacuum, we also include sections examining the relationship between religion and different social institutions: medMonahan, Susanne C. is the author of 'Sociology of Religion A Reader', published 2000 under ISBN 9780130253804 and ISBN 0130253804.