Crime and violence soared in twenty-first-century Venezuela even as poverty and inequality decreased, contradicting the conventional wisdom that these are the underlying causes of violence. The Paradox of Violence in Venezuela explains the rise of violence under both Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro - leftist presidents who made considerable investment in social programs and political inclusion. Contributors argue that violence arose not from the frustration of inequality, or the needs created by poverty, but rather from the interrelated factors of a particular type of revolutionary governance, extraordinary oil revenues, a reliance on militarized policing, and the persistence of concentrated disadvantage. These factors led to dramatic but unequal economic growth, massive institutional and social change, and dysfunctional criminal justice policies that destabilized illicit markets and social networks, leading to an increase in violent conflict resolution. The Paradox of Violence in Venezuela reorients thinking about violence and its relationship to poverty, inequality, and the state.

"David Smilde has given us the most sophisticated and rigorous ethnography of Evangelicalism in the Americas, north or south. And he uses that ethnography to generate a persuasive theory of 'cultural agency.' His analysis moves from the particular to the general, and from the concrete to the abstract, with unusual facility."--Jeff Goodwin, New York University
"This book masterfully combines ethnographic description with sophisticated theoretical analysis of the role that religion plays in the lives of men who are struggling with alcohol, drugs, and gambling in Venezuela. Based on three years of in-depth interviewing and observation in Caracas, David Smilde's study beautifully portrays the dynamics of male culture in a violent city and describes why some individuals decide to convert to the Pentecostal faith. Smilde makes a major contribution to our understanding of human agency, cultural empowerment, and the role of conservative religion."--Donald E. Miller, author of "Reinventing American Protestantism: Christianity in the New Millennium"
"This is a significant achievement. Smilde combines fascinating data with a thorough and compelling reworking of theories of cultural change and religion. His emphasis on cultural change as the practice of imaginative rationality opens a valuable path for understanding what conversion means to those in the middle of the process. Coming to believe involves more than the disembodied play of mental abstractions. It arises within daily life and is best understood within the rich context of cross pressures and desires for a more healthful and satisfying existence. Smilde reveals not only that we can convince ourselves to believe, but that we all doit every day."--Daniel H Levine, author of "Popular Voices in Latin American Catholicism"

The thirteen essays in this volume offer a challenge to conventional scholarly approaches to the sociology of religion. They urge readers to look beyond congregational settings, beyond the United States, and to religions other than Christianity, and encourage critical engagement with religion's complex social consequences. By expanding conceptual categories, the essays reveal how aspects of the religious have always been part of allegedly non-religious spaces and show how, by attending to these intellectual blindspots, we can understand aspects of identity, modernity, and institutional life that have long been obscured. Religion on the Edge addresses a number of critical questions: What is revealed about the self, pluralism, or modernity when we look outside the U.S. or outside Christian settings? What do we learn about how and where the religious is actually at work and what its role is when we unpack the assumptions about it embedded in the categories we use? Religion on the Edge offers groundbreaking new methodologies and models, bringing to light conceptual lacunae, re-centering what is unsettled by their use, and inviting a significant reordering of long-accepted political and economic hierarchies. The book shows how social scientists across the disciplines can engage with the sociology of religion. By challenging many of its long-standing empirical and analytic tendencies, the contributors to this volume show how their work informs and is informed by debates in other fields and the analytical purchase gained by bringing these many conversations together. Religion on the Edge will be a crucial resource for any scholar seeking to understand our post-modern, post-secular world.