This edited collection evaluates the relationship between Marxism and religion in two ways: Marxism's treatment of religion and the religious aspects of Marxism. Its aim is to complicate the superficial understanding of Marxism as a simple rejection of religion both in theory and practice. Divided into two parts (Theory and Praxis), this book brings together the three different themes of Marxism, religion, and emancipation for the first time. The first part explores the more theoretical discussions regarding the relationship between Marxism and various themes (or currents) within religious thought, to highlight points of compatibility as well as incompatibilities/conflicts. The studies in the second part of the collection refer to how Marxist ideas are received in different parts of the world. They show that as soon as Marxism arrives in a new place, the theory interacts and bonds with a pre-existing stock of ideas, each changing the other reciprocally.

Contents:
Part I 1. Christianity and Marxism: Acceptance and Rejection 2. An Excersus on the Possibility of an Aristotelian Marxism Part II Markets and the Virtues 3. MacIntyre's Evaluative History and Polyani's Historical Sociology 4. The Morality of Markets and the `Crisis of Authority': Notes for a Sociology in a World of Virtue 5. Managerialism and the Culture of Bureaucratic Individualism 6. Conclusion, Narrative and Communities

This book is the first full length account of the significance of MacIntyre's work for the social sciences. MacIntyre's moral philosophy is shown to provide the resources for a powerful crititque of liberalism. His dicussion of the managerist and emotivist roots of modern culture is seen as the inspiration for a critical social science of Modernity

This is a carefully edited selection of the seminal articles and papers on positivism which has been an important cornerstone of sociology.Positivism has had an enormous influence on both the theoretical ambitions and empirical research strategies of sociology ever since Comte coined both the terms 'positivism' and 'sociology' over a century ago. This influence was strengthened during the heyday of logical positivism in the early decades of this century, with its rigorous attempt to rid all the sciences, natural and social, of metaphysical speculations. The whole of the history of sociology could be described as a struggle with positivism, its proponents attempting to secure the foundations of a scientific study of society and its critics seeking to identify what it is about the social that frees it from positivist canons. These books gathers together the most influential voices in the struggle over the very nature of the discipline of sociology.