SCM Core Text Sociology of Religion. Andrew Dawson

      

Sociology of Religion ‘Rah Rah the Gregson!’

      SCM CORE TEXT

      Sociology of Religion

      Andrew Dawson

      Published in 2011 by SCM Press

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      © Andrew Dawson 2011

      British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

      A catalogue record for this book is available

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      978-0-334-04336-2

      Typeset by Manila Typesetting Company

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      CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire

      Contents

       Acknowledgements

       Introduction

       1 Settling into the Discipline: Thinking Sociologically

       2 Religion in Sociological Perspective

       3 The Classical Legacy: Marx, Durkheim and Weber

       4 Religion Down and Out? Theories of Secularization

       5 Neither Down nor Out? Ongoing Religiosity in Modern Society

       6 Religion, Ideology and Gender

       7 ‘In with the New’: New Religiosities in Sociological Perspective

       8 Religion for Sale: Market Dynamics and Contemporary Religiosity

       9 Religious Fundamentalisms: Religion Ancient and Modern?

       10 Globalization, Religion and Modernity

       Bibliography

       Index

      Acknowledgements

      I am grateful to Natalie Watson of SCM Press for her kind invitation to write this book. The unstinting support and patience of friends and family is also much appreciated. Friends from the ‘Greggie’ – to whom this book is dedicated – have proved a special source of refreshment and welcome distraction through the course of its writing. As with all of my projects, the unqualified positivity and implacable encouragement of my wife, D­ebbie, leaves me with debts I can never pay. Mention should also be made of the undergraduate and postgraduate students whose engagement with my teaching of the sociology of religion has both informed its development and refined its focus. While the words and responsibility are mine, many of the questions this book addresses are theirs.

      Introduction

      When asked by SCM Press to write this book, my initial thoughts turned to whether the sociology of religion really needed another introductory work to what is an already well-provisioned area of study. Accustomed to teaching both under- and postgraduate modules in this particular sub-discipline of sociology, I have never had difficulty filling introductory reading lists from the many companions, handbooks and introductions currently available. Two issues arising from this current abundance of student-orientated works are worthy of note. First, the upsurge in sociological interest in religion is historically recent. Although at the heart of the discipline when founded in the late 1800s (see Chapter 3), by the second half of the twentieth century sociological interest in religion was regarded as little more than an exotic appendage – if not, for some, a complete irrelevance – to the overarching disciplinary paradigm. While not rectified across all aspects of the discipline, ongoing changes in theoretical focus and concrete developments on the ground have combined to pique, once again, sociological interest in the religious landscape.

      In respect of changes to the theoretical focus of the discipline, sociology’s long-standing preoccupation with overarching structures and large-scale institutional dynamics has steadily been complemented by interest in the everyday interactions, associational contexts and organizational processes through which individuals and communities live their lives and render their experiences meaningful. Accompanied by sundry other developments, this shift in disciplinary focus gradually opened the way for issues relating to religion to progress incrementally, if not haltingly, onto the mainstream sociological agenda. As noted in Chapter 2, academic engagement with the various dimensions of religious belief and practice furnishes insight into a range of issues and themes of direct relevance to the contemporary sociolo­gical community – from meaning-making and identity formation, through associational dynamics and organizational processes, to class, race and sex.

      Regarding concrete events on the ground, sociological interest in religion has been reignited by a number of developments. Exemplified by the Christian right of the USA, the Shi‘ite revolution in Iran and religious nationalism in Asia and Europe, the rise of fundamentalist religiosity has heightened religion’s profile both in popular media coverage and academic policy for­ums (see Chapter 9). At the same time, the growth and internationalization of