Society, spirituality, and the sacred : a social scientific introduction / Don Swenson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Swenson, Don, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Religion and sociology.

Religious institutions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (433 p.)

Edition:

2nd ed.

Place of Publication:

Toronto, Ontario : University of Toronto Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In Society, Spirituality, and the Sacred, Swenson draws on both Weber's Charisma and Routinization of Charisma and Thomas O'Dea's Dilemmas of the Institutionalization of Religion to reveal how religion has both a positive and negative effect on people. Moving from the individual experience of the sacred to the more institutional religious experience, the book explores the many manifestations of religious life and offers a synthesis of folk religions, new religions, the New Age Movement, and the challenges posed by the secularization of contemporary life. This approach to studying the sociology of religion offers a more challenging and provocative opportunity for students compared to other texts on the market.The second edition has been thoroughly revised and updated to integrate the latest developments in the field and to offer a more global approach to the study of religion. New chapters on women and religion and new religious movements have been added and discussions of Islam, indigenous religions and postmodernism have been significantly expanded.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Table of Contents

Chapter one. The Definitional and Theoretical Bases of the Social Scientific Study of Religion

Chapter two. Religious Experience

Chapter three. Religious Experience and Social Institutions

Chapter four. The Dilemma of Interpretation—Religion as a World View: The Study of Mythologies

Chapter five. The Dilemma of Mixed Motivation: The Study of Sacred Leader ship

Chapter six. The Dilemmas of Interpretation and Mixed Motivation: The Study of Women as Leaders

Chapter seven. The Symbolic Dilemma: The Study of Ritual

Chapter eight. The Dilemma of Administrative Order: The Rise of Sacred Organizations

Chapter nine. The Dilemma of Delimitation: The Study of Ethos

Chapter ten. The Dilemma of Power: The Relationship Between Religion and Politics

Chapter eleven. The Dilemma of Power: The Relationship Between Religion and Politics

Chapter twelve. Religion and the Economy

Chapter thirteen. The Encounter With Culture: Secularization and Postmodernism

Chapter fourteen. Conclusions

Glossary

References

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-4426-0348-8

1-4426-0297-X

0-585-26538-0

OCLC:

191818962