The Blackwell Companion to Sociology of Religion

Copyright © 2001, 2003 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd

The Blackwell Companion to Sociology of Religion

Editor(s): Richard K. Fenn

Published Online: 10 DEC 2007

Print ISBN: 9780631212409

Online ISBN: 9780470998571

DOI: 10.1002/9780470998571

About this Book

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The Blackwell Companion to Sociology of Religion is presented in three comprehensive parts. Written by a range of outstanding academics, the volume explores the current status of the sociology of religion, and how it might look in future.


  • Explores the current status of the sociology of religion, and how it might look at the beginning of the next millennium.
  • Traces the boundaries between sociology and other closely related disciplines, such as theology and social anthropology.
  • Edited by one of the best known and most widely respected sociologists of religion
  • Accessibly presented in three comprehensive parts.

Table of contents

    1. You have free access to this content
      Frontmatter (pages i–xx)

  2. Part I: Classical and Contemporary Theory - Recycling, Continuity, Progress, or New Departures?

    1. You have free access to this content
      Editorial Commentary: Religion and the Secular; the Sacred and the Profane: The Scope of the Argument (pages 1–22)

      Richard K. Fenn

    2. Chapter 1

      Personal Reflections in the Mirror of Halévy and Weber (pages 23–38)

      David Martin

    3. Chapter 2

      Salvation, Secularization, and De-moralization (pages 39–51)

      Bryan Wilson

    4. Chapter 3

      The Pentecostal Gender Paradox: A Cautionary Tale for the Sociology of Religion (pages 52–66)

      Bernice Martin

    5. Chapter 4

      Feminism and the Sociology of Religion: From Gender-blindness to Gendered Difference (pages 67–84)

      Linda Woodhead

    6. Chapter 5

      Melancholia, Utopia, and the Psychoanalysis of Dreams (pages 85–104)

      Donald Capps

    7. Chapter 6

      Georg Simmel: American Sociology Chooses the Stone the Builders Refused (pages 105–119)

      Victoria Lee Erickson

    8. Chapter 7

      Transformations of Society and the Sacred in Durkheim's Religious Sociology (pages 120–132)

      Donald A. Nielsen

    9. Chapter 8

      Classics in the Sociology of Religion: An Ambiguous Legacy (pages 133–160)

      Roger O'Toole

    10. Chapter 9

      Individualism, the Validation of Faith, and the Social Nature of Religion in Modernity (pages 161–175)

      Danièle Hervieu-Léger

    11. Chapter 10

      The Origins of Religion (pages 176–195)

      Richard K. Fenn

  3. Part II: Contemporary Trends in the Relation of Religion to Society

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      Editorial Commentary: Whose Problem is it? The Question of Prediction versus Projection (pages 195–210)

      Richard K. Fenn

    2. Chapter 11

      Secularization Extended: From Religious “Myth” to Cultural Commonplace (pages 211–228)

      Nicholas J. Demerath

    3. Chapter 12

      Social Movements as Free-floating Religious Phenomena (pages 229–248)

      James A. Beckford

    4. Chapter 13

      The Social Process of Secularization (pages 249–263)

      Steve Bruce

    5. Chapter 14

      Patterns of Religion in Western Europe: An Exceptional Case (pages 264–278)

      Grace Davie

    6. Chapter 15

      The Future of Religious Participation and Belief in Britain and Beyond (pages 279–291)

      Robin Gill

    7. Chapter 16

      Religion as Diffusion of Values. “Diffused Religion” in the Context of a Dominant Religious Institution: The Italian Case (pages 292–305)

      Roberto Cipriani

    8. Chapter 17

      Spirituality and Spiritual Practice (pages 306–320)

      Robert Wuthnow

    9. Chapter 18

      The Renaissance of Community Economic Development among African-American Churches in the 1990s (pages 321–335)

      Katherine Day

    10. Chapter 19

      Hell as a Residual Category: Possibilities Excluded from the Social System (pages 336–360)

      Richard K. Fenn and Marianne Delaporte

  4. Part III: The Sociology of Religion and Related Areas of Inquiry

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      Editorial Commentary: Looking for the Boundaries of the Field: Social Anthropology, Theology, and Ethnography (pages 363–370)

      Richard K. Fenn

    2. Chapter 20

      Acting Ritually: Evidence from the Social Life of Chinese Rites (pages 371–387)

      Catherine Bell

    3. Chapter 21

      Moralizing Sermons, Then and Now (pages 388–403)

      Thomas Luckmann

    4. Chapter 22

      Health, Morality, and Sacrifice: The Sociology of Disasters (pages 404–417)

      Douglas J. Davies

    5. Chapter 23

      Contemporary Social Theory as it Applies to the Understanding of Religion in Cross-cultural Perspective (pages 418–431)

      Peter Beyer

    6. Chapter 24

      The Return of Theology: Sociology's Distant Relative (pages 432–444)

      Kieran Flanagan

    7. Chapter 25

      Epilogue: Toward a Secular View of the Individual (pages 445–468)

      Kieran Flanagan

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      Index (pages 469–485)

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