Religion in the contemporary world : a sociological introduction /
Alan Aldridge.
- vii, 232 pages ; 24 cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Religion - worth our continued attention? -- Reductionism : explaining religion away -- Sociography : sociology at the service of religion -- Phenomenology : apprehending religious meaning -- Sociology as a value-neutral science -- Carrying the sociological tradition forward -- Scientology : authentic religion or imposture? -- Baha'is : world faith or apostasy? -- Advantages of being recognized as a religion -- Disadvantages of status as a religion -- Max Weber : on not defining religion -- Emile Durkheim : defining religion sociologically -- Contemporary sociological definitions of religion -- Religion and definition in use -- Max Weber on church and sect -- From sect to church? -- Beyond church and sect : extending the typology -- Varieties of new religious movement -- The social location of new religious movements -- Classifying religious movements : aims and prospects -- Auguste Comte and the Law of Three Stages -- Karl Marx and the opium of the people -- Emile Durkheim and the social functions of religion -- Max Weber and the disenchantment of the world -- Bryan Wilson on rationalization and societalization -- Peter Berger on religion and plausibility -- American exceptionalism -- Contemporary challenges to the secularization thesis -- The new voluntarism : an emerging paradigm? -- Voluntarism according to Talcott Parsons -- Rational choice theory and religion -- The supply side : religious firms and resource mobilization -- The Mormons : a new world faith? -- Jehovah's Witnesses : a model for growth? -- The nature of fundamentalism -- Islam in the west -- Secularization and religious revival -- Ritual and social integration : the legacy of Durkheim -- In God we trust : civil religion in the United States -- Happy and glorious : the British monarchy -- Symbolic division in society : the case of Canada -- Symbolic division in society : the case of Northern Ireland -- Creating new symbols : the French revolutionary calendar -- Political religion : the Soviet Union -- Political religion : Nazi Germany -- Character and society -- Brainwashing - old and new -- The power of the brainwashing metaphor -- What new religious movements offer their recruits -- Disengaging from new religious movements -- Consumer protection and the regulation of abuses -- Cult scares and the anti-cult movement -- Doomsday cults : five case studies -- Apocalypse, charismatic leadership and self-destruction -- Religion and the consumer -- Consumerism repudiated : the Prayer Book Society -- Consumerism embraces : Soka Gakkai International -- Authority and individualism : the Roman Catholic Church -- Religion, sex and gender -- Religion and New Age spirituality -- The future of religion.