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Theology and Religion in Interdisciplinary Perspective Series in Association with the BSA Sociology of Religion Study Group

About the Book Series

The British Sociological Association Sociology of Religion Study Group began in 1975 and provides the primary forum in Britain for scholarship in the sociology of religion. The nature of religion remains of key academic interest and this series draws on the latest worldwide scholarship in compelling and coherent collections on critical themes. Secularisation and the future of religion; gender; the negotiation and presentation of religious identities, beliefs and values; and the interplay between group and individual in religious settings are some of the areas addressed. Ultimately, these books reflect not just on religious life but on how wider society is affected by the enduring religious framing of human relationships, morality and the nature of society itself. This series is part of the broader Theology and Religion in Interdisciplinary Perspective Series edited by Douglas Davies and Richard Fenn.

15 Series Titles


Reading Religion in Text and Context Reflections of Faith and Practice in Religious Materials

Reading Religion in Text and Context: Reflections of Faith and Practice in Religious Materials

1st Edition

By Peter Collins, Elisabeth Arweck
December 13, 2021

To what extent is religion inherently textual? What might the term 'textual' mean in relation to religious faith and practice? These are the two key questions addressed by the eleven thought-provoking essays collected in this volume. Accounts of the content and structure of sacred texts are ...

Religion and the Individual Belief, Practice, Identity

Religion and the Individual: Belief, Practice, Identity

1st Edition

Edited By Abby Day
December 13, 2021

What does religion mean to the individual? How are people religious and what do their beliefs, practices and identities mean to them? The individual's place within studies of religion has tended to be overlooked recently in favour of macro analyses. Religion and the Individual draws together ...

Materializing Religion Expression, Performance and Ritual

Materializing Religion: Expression, Performance and Ritual

1st Edition

Edited By Elisabeth Arweck, William Keenan
June 30, 2021

The material symbol has become central to understanding religion in late modernity. Overtly theological approaches use words to express the values and faith of a religion, but leave out the 'incarnation' of religion in the behavioural, performative, or audio-visual form. This book explores the ...

Foundations and Futures in the Sociology of Religion

Foundations and Futures in the Sociology of Religion

1st Edition

Edited By Luke Doggett, Alp Arat
December 12, 2019

Since the sociology of religion became recognised as a distinct sub-discipline over the last century, the dominance of approaches taking their inspiration from the sociological classics has increasingly been challenged. Empirical findings have brought the notion of secularisation into question; and...

Religion, Equalities, and Inequalities

Religion, Equalities, and Inequalities

1st Edition

Edited By Dawn Llewellyn, Sonya Sharma
September 18, 2018

Presenting cutting edge research on how religion can confront and obscure social inequalities in everyday life, Religion, Equalities and Inequalities argues that when religion is left out of social scientific analyses, it can result in incomplete analyses that conceal pathways to social inclusion ...

Materiality and the Study of Religion The Stuff of the Sacred

Materiality and the Study of Religion: The Stuff of the Sacred

1st Edition

Edited By Tim Hutchings, Joanne McKenzie
June 08, 2018

Material culture has emerged in recent decades as a significant theoretical concern for the study of religion. This book contributes to and evaluates this material turn, presenting thirteen chapters of new empirical research and theoretical reflection from some of the leading international scholars...

Christianity in the Modern World Changes and Controversies

Christianity in the Modern World: Changes and Controversies

1st Edition

Edited By Elijah Obinna, Giselle Vincett, Afe Adogame, Elizabeth Olson
February 12, 2018

What is the state of Christianity today, and what might it look like in the future? In the West, the story for a long time has revolved around decline and the loss of monopoly status, but how are these shifts changing the practice of Christianity or individual belief? Similarly, the rapid growth of...

Sociological Theory and the Question of Religion

Sociological Theory and the Question of Religion

1st Edition

Edited By Andrew McKinnon, Marta Trzebiatowska
February 12, 2018

Religion lies near the heart of the classical sociological tradition, yet it no longer occupies the same place within the contemporary sociological enterprise. This relative absence has left sociology under-prepared for thinking about religion’s continuing importance in new issues, movements, and ...

Women and Religion in the West Challenging Secularization

Women and Religion in the West: Challenging Secularization

1st Edition

Edited By Kristin Aune, Sonya Sharma
February 27, 2017

What is the relationship between women and secularization? In the West, women are abandoning traditional religion. Yet they continue to make up the majority of religious adherents. Accounting for this seeming paradox is the focus of this volume. If women undergird the foundations of religion but ...

Religion, Identity and Change Perspectives on Global Transformations

Religion, Identity and Change: Perspectives on Global Transformations

1st Edition

By Simon Coleman, Peter Collins
November 28, 2016

Religion is of enduring importance in the lives of many people, yet the religious landscape has been dramatically transformed in recent decades. Established churches have been challenged by eastern faiths, revivals of Christian and Islamic fundamentalism, and the eclectic spiritualities of the New ...

Exploring Religion and the Sacred in a Media Age

Exploring Religion and the Sacred in a Media Age

1st Edition

By Elisabeth Arweck, Christopher Deacy
November 10, 2016

In recent years, there has been growing awareness across a range of academic disciplines of the value of exploring issues of religion and the sacred in relation to cultures of everyday life. Exploring Religion and the Sacred in a Media Age offers inter-disciplinary perspectives drawing from ...

Religion and Knowledge Sociological Perspectives

Religion and Knowledge: Sociological Perspectives

1st Edition

By Elisabeth Arweck, Mathew Guest
October 27, 2016

Religions have always been associated with particular forms of knowledge, often knowledge accorded special significance and sometimes knowledge at odds with prevailing understandings of truth and authority in wider society. New religious movements emerge on the basis of reformulated, often ...

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