This is the first reader to gather primary sources from influential theorists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries in one place, presenting the wide-ranging and nuanced theoretical debates occurring in the field of religious studies. Each chapter focuses on a major theorist and contains: * an introduction contextualizing their key ideas * one or two selections representative of the theorist's innovative methodological approach(es) * discussion questions to extend and deepen reader engagement Divided in three sections, the first part includes foundational comparative debates: * Mary Douglas's articulation of purity and impurity * Phyllis Trible's methods of reading sacred texts * Wendy Doniger's comparative mythology * Catherine Bell's reimagining of religious and secular ritual The second part focuses on methodological particularity: * Alice Walker's use of narrative * Charles Long's critique of Eurocentricism * Caroline Walker Bynum's emphasis on gender and materiality The third section focuses on expanding boundaries: * Gloria Anzaldua's work on borders and languages * Judith Butler's critique of gender and sex norms * Saba Mahmood's expansion on the critique of colonialism's secularizing demands Reflecting the cultural turn and extending the existing canon, this is the anthology instructors have been waiting for. For further detail on the theorists discussed, please consult Cultural Approaches to Studying Religion: An Introduction to Theories and Methods, edited by Sarah J. Bloesch and Meredith Minister.

Exploring religious and spiritual intentional communities active in the world today, Spiritual and Visionary Communities provides a balanced introduction to a diverse range of communities worldwide. Breaking new ground with its focus on communities which have had little previous academic or public attention, the authors explore a part of contemporary society which is rarely understood. Communities studied include: Israeli kibbutzim, Mandarom, the Twelve Tribes, 'The Farm' and the Camphill movement. Written from a range of perspectives, this collection includes contributions from members of the groups themselves, former members, and academic observers, and as such will offer a unique and invaluable discussion of religious and spiritual communities in the U.S., Europe, and beyond.

Ideas influence people. In particular, extremely well-developed sets of ideas shape individuals, groups, and societies in far-reaching ways. This book establishes these "idea systems" as an academic concept. Through three intense episodes of manipulation and mayhem connected to idea systems-Europe's witch hunts, the Mao Zedong-era "revolutions," and the early campaign of the U.S. War on Terror-this book charts the cognitive and informational matrices that seize control of people's mentalities and behaviors across societies. Through these, the author reaches two conclusions. The first, that we are all vulnerable to the dominating influence of our own matrices of ideas and to those woven by others in the social system. The second, that even the most masterful manipulators of idea programs may lose control of the outcomes of programmatic manipulation. Amongst this analysis, sixty-plus central conceptual terminologies are provided for readers to analyze multiform idea systems that exist across space, time, and cultural contexts.This is an open access book.

As Spirituality in Social Work: New Directions shows you, there has been an increase of interest among social workers concerning spiritual matters. In response to this collective interest, Edward Canda and several other members of the Society for Spirituality and Social Work have compiled a thorough and timely compendium of social work research, theory, and practice. Their book will guide you in your efforts to meet the needs of your families and clients while still remaining educated and respectful of the many religous and nonreligious views different people have.In Spirituality in Social Work, you'll get an update on the current state of spirituality, social work scholarship, and education. From there, you'll move on to current appraisals of the many specialized ways social work educators are teaching spirituality in MSW programs, and you'll ultimately come full circle to a fuller understanding of the many ways social work and spirituality complement and inform each other in the classroom as well as in the field of practice. Most importantly, you'll get specific guidance on these topics: how to enhance the intuition of social workers when to apply the Transegoic model to a dying adolescent where to engage in conceptions of spirituality in social work literature what Taoist insights can do to enhance social work practice how social work can prosper in future efforts to link spirituality and social workIn many ways, Spirituality in Social Work is a spiritual awakening in its own right--for social workers, for individuals, and for communities at large. The demand for social work practitioners, educators, and community officials to be cross-trained in spirituality and social work is on the rise. So, if you're struggling to find new ways to deal with the ever-increasing and ever-diversifying demand for spiritual training in your particular social work setting, pick up this insightful edition and find new hope and direction in the many different ways that social work and spirituality can work together for you.

The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer understood Western civilization to be "approaching a completely religionless age" to which Christians must respond and adapt. This book explores Bonhoeffer's own response to this challenge-his concept of a religionless Christianity-and its place in his broader theology. It does this, first, by situating the concept in a present-day Western socio-historical context. It then considers Bonhoeffer's understanding and critique of religion, before examining the religionless Christianity of his final months in the light of his earlier Christ-centred theology. The place of mystery, paradox, and wholeness in Bonhoeffer's thinking is also given careful attention, and non-religious interpretation is taken seriously as an ongoing task. The book aspires to present religionless Christianity as a lucid and persuasive contemporary theology; and does this always in the presence of the question which inspired Bonhoeffer's theological journey from its academic beginnings to its very deliberately lived end-the question "Who is Jesus Christ?"

The primary aim of this book is to explore the contradiction between widely shared beliefs in the USA about racial inclusiveness and equal opportunity for all and the fact that most churches are racially homogeneous and do not include people with disabilities. To address the problem Mary McClintock Fulkerson explores the practices of an interracial church (United Methodist) that includes people with disabilities. The analysis focuses on those activities which create opportunities for people to experience those who are different' as equal in ways that diminish both obliviousness to the other and fear of the other. In contrast with theology's typical focus on the beliefs of Christians, this project offers a theory of practices and place that foregrounds the instinctual reactions and communications that shape all groups. The effect is to broaden the academic field of theology through the benefits of ethnographic research and postmodern place theory.

Ancrene Wisse introduced through a variety of cultural and critical approaches which establish the originality and interest of the treatise. The thirteenth-century Ancrene Wisse is a guide for female recluses. Addressed to three young sisters of gentle birth, it teaches what truly good anchoresses should and should not do, offering in its examples a glimpse of the real life women had in England in the middle ages. It is also important for its evidence for the continuation of the Anglo-Saxon tradition of prose writing, being produced in the West Midlands where Old English writing conventions continued to develop even after the Norman conquest. The Companion addresses the cultural and historical background, the affiliations of the versions, genre, authorship and language; the various approaches also includea feminist reading of the text. Contributors: ROGER DAHOOD, RICHARD DANCE, A.S.G. EDWARDS, CATHERINE INNES-PARKER, BELLA MILLETT, CHRISTINA VON NOLCKEN, ELIZABETH ROBERTSON, ANNE SAVAGE, D.A. TROTTER, YOKO WADA, NICHOLAS WATSON.

Religion is a racialized category, even when race is not explicitly mentioned. In Modern Religion, Modern Race Theodore Vial argues that because the categories of religion and race are rooted in the post-Enlightenment project of reimagining what it means to be human, we cannot simply will ourselves to stop using them. Only by acknowledging that religion is already racialized can we begin to understand how the two concepts are intertwined and how they operate in our modern world. It has become common to argue that the category religion is not universal, or even very old, but is a product of Europe's Enlightenment modernization. Equally common is the argument that religion is not an innocent category of analysis, but is implicated in colonial regimes of control and as such plays a role in Europe's process of identity construction of itself and of non-European "others." Current debates about race follow an eerily similar trajectory: race is not an ancient but a modern construction. It is part of the project of colonialism, and race discourse forms one of the cornerstones of modern European identity-making. Why can't we stop using them, or re-construct them in less toxic ways? By examining the theories of Kant, Herder, and Schleiermacher, among others, Vial uncovers co-constitutive nature of race and religion, describes how they became building blocks of the modern world, and shows how the two concepts continue to be used today to form identity and to make sense of the world. He shows that while we disdain the racist language of some of the founders of religious studies, the continued influence of the modern worldview they helped create leads us, often unwittingly, to reiterate many of the same distinctions and hierarchies. Although it may not be time to abandon the very category of religion, with all its attendant baggage, Modern Religion, Modern Race calls for us to examine that baggage critically, and to be fully conscious of ways in which religion always carries with it dangerous ideas of race.

Those who anticipated the demise of religion and the advent of a peaceful, secularized global village have seen the last two decades confound their predictions. Rene Girard's mimetic theory is a key to understanding the new challenges posed by our world of resurgent violence and pluralistic cultures and traditions. Girard sought to explain how the Judeo-Christian narrative exposes a founding murder at the origin of human civilization and demystifies the bloody sacrifices of archaic religions. Meanwhile, his book Sacrifice, a reading of conflict and sacrificial resolution in the Vedic Brahmanas, suggests that mimetic theory's insights also resonate with several non-Western religious and spiritual traditions. This volume collects engagements with Girard by scholars of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism and situates them within contemporary theology, philosophy, and religious studies.

This book questions whether the best way to deal with religious diversity is to equalise upwards or downwards, what the obstacles to a more egalitarian religious pluralism are, and what we can learn from policies and practices in the Middle East and Asia where religious plurality and the integration of religion in the public space is the norm rather than the exception. The first part of the book discusses the type and degree of secularism that is fit for addressing the challenges of religious diversity that contemporary western societies face at a theoretical or normative level, The second part engages with the experiences of countries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Oceania in their governance and accommodation of diverse religious communities within a single state.

Parishes are the missing middle in studies of American Catholicism. Between individual Catholics and a global institution, the thousands of local parishes are where Catholicism gets remade. American Parishes showcases what social forces shape parishes, what parishes do, how they do it, and what this says about the future of Catholicism in the United States. Expounding an embedded field approach, this book displays the numerous forces currently reshaping American parishes. It draws from sociology of religion, culture, organizations, and race to illuminate basic parish processes, like leadership and education, and ongoing parish struggles like conflict and multiculturalism. American Parishes brings together contemporary data, methods, and questions to establish a sociological re-engagement with Catholic parishes and a Catholic re-engagement with sociological analysis. Contributions by leading social scientists highlight how community, geography, and authority intersect within parishes. It illuminates and analyzes how growing racial diversity, an aging religious population, and neighborhood change affect the inner workings of parishes. Contributors: Gary J. Adler Jr., Nancy Ammerman, Mary Jo Bane, Tricia C. Bruce, John A. Coleman, S.J., Kathleen Garces-Foley, Mary Gray, Brett Hoover, Courtney Ann Irby, Tia Noelle Pratt, and Brian Starks

The Rise of Victimhood Culture offers a framework for understanding recent moral conflicts at U.S. universities, which have bled into society at large. These are not the familiar clashes between liberals and conservatives or the religious and the secular: instead, they are clashes between a new moral culture-victimhood culture-and a more traditional culture of dignity. Even as students increasingly demand trigger warnings and "safe spaces," many young people are quick to police the words and deeds of others, who in turn claim that political correctness has run amok. Interestingly, members of both camps often consider themselves victims of the other. In tracking the rise of victimhood culture, Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning help to decode an often dizzying cultural milieu, from campus riots over conservative speakers and debates around free speech to the election of Donald Trump.

This book offers the first, full academic analysis of the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup. Adopting an international relations perspective, the authors critically interrogate the politics and controversy that has surrounded arguably the most controversial sports event ever. In doing so, this text offers up an imperative examination of Qatar's desired objectives through their investment in global sport and sports events, as well as provides readers with an academic explanation on why major event hosts - such as Qatar - receive so much international scrutiny in the pre-event stage of the event hosting process. On the back of this international scrutiny, this text also provides the first full analysis on how such negative scrutiny has forced Qatar to implement various social-political changes at home.

Albert Salomon (1891-1966), deutsch-judischer Soziologie und Herausgeber der Zeitschrift "Die Gesellschaft", war nach seiner Emigration 1935 Professor an der New School for Social Research in New York, wo er in alteuropaischer Tradition eine humanistische Soziologie begrundete. Diese funfbandige textkritische Edition ist die erste Ausgabe seiner gesammelten Werke.

After World War II, America's religious denominations spent billions on church architecture as they spread into the suburbs. In this richly illustrated history of midcentury modern churches in the Midwest, Gretchen Buggeln shows how architects and suburban congregations joined forces to work out a vision of how modernist churches might help reinvigorate Protestant worship and community. The result is a fascinating new perspective on postwar architecture, religion, and society. Drawing on the architectural record, church archives, and oral histories, The Suburban Church focuses on collaborations between architects Edward D. Dart, Edward A. Soevik, Charles E. Stade, and seventy-five congregations. By telling the stories behind their modernist churches, the book describes how the buildings both reflected and shaped developments in postwar religion-its ecumenism, optimism, and liturgical innovation, as well as its fears about staying relevant during a time of vast cultural, social, and demographic change. While many scholars have characterized these congregations as "country club" churches, The Suburban Church argues that most were earnest, well-intentioned religious communities caught between the desire to serve God and the demands of a suburban milieu in which serving middle-class families required most of their material and spiritual resources.

Demonstrates how race and power help to explain American religion in the twenty-first century When White people of faith act in a particular way, their motivations are almost always attributed to their religious orientation. Yet when religious people of color act in a particular way, their motivations are usually attributed to their racial positioning. Religion Is Raced makes the case that religion in America has generally been understood in ways that center White Christian experiences of religion, and argues that all religion must be acknowledged as a raced phenomenon. When we overlook the role race plays in religious belief and action, and how religion in turn spurs public and political action, we lose sight of a key way in which race influences religiously-based claims-making in the public sphere. With contributions exploring a variety of religious traditions, from Buddhism and Islam to Judaism and Protestantism, as well as pieces on atheists and humanists, Religion Is Raced brings discussions about the racialized nature of religion from the margins of scholarly and religious debate to the center. The volume offers a new model for thinking about religion that emphasizes how racial dynamics interact with religious identity, and how we can in turn better understand the roles religion-and Whiteness-play in politics and public life, especially in the United States. It includes clear recommendations for researchers, including pollsters, on how to better recognize moving forward that religion is a raced phenomenon. With contributions by Joseph O. Baker, Kelsy Burke, James Clark Davidson, Janine Giordano Drake, Ashley Garner, Edward Orozco Flores, Sikivu Hutchinson, Sarah Imhoff, Russell Jeung, John Jimenez, Jaime Kucinskas, Eric Mar, Gerardo Marti, Omar M. McRoberts, Besheer Mohamed, Dawne Moon, Jerry Z. Park, Z. Fareen Parvez, Theresa W. Tobin, and Rhys H. Williams.

In recent years, ideas of post- and transhumanism have been popularized by novels, TV series, and Hollywood movies. According to this radical perspective, humankind and all biological life have become obsolete. Traditional forms of life are inefficient at processing information and inept at crossing the high frontier: outer space. While humankind can expect to be replaced by their own artificial progeny, posthumanists assume that they will become an immortal part of a transcendent superintelligence. Kruger's award-winning study examines the historical and philosophical context of these futuristic promises by Ray Kurzweil, Nick Bostrom, Frank Tipler, and other posthumanist thinkers.