A religion is a system of stories, and there is no better way to engage with the worldÕs religions than through the stories that animate their beliefs and practices. Through the exploration of these ancient stories and contemporary practices, Stephen Prothero, a New York TimesÐbestselling author and gifted storyteller, helps students better grasp the role of religion in our fractured world and to develop greater religious literacy. Videos and an award-winning adaptive learning tool, InQuizitive, further engage students and help them master core objectives and develop their own religious literacy.
The Religion Matters Reader is an innovative (and inexpensive) complement to Stephen Prothero's pathbreaking and enormously teachable introductory text. The readings are accessible, diverse, and tied to the organizing principles of RELIGION MATTERS. Each chapter includes five readings--problem/solution, technique, two exemplar readings, and a controversy. A rich teaching tool created by the same authors who created the text's supporting media resources.
Huston Smith, the author of the classic bestseller The World's Religions, delivers a passionate, timely message: The human spirit is being suffocated by the dominant materialistic worldview of our times. Smith champions a society in which religion is once again treasured and authentically practiced as the vital source of human wisdom.
Religion Matters: What Sociology Teaches Us About Religion in Our World is organized around the biggest questions that arrise in the field of sociology of religion.This is a new text for the sociology of religion course. Instead of surveying this field systematically, the text focuses on the major questions that generate the most discussion and debate in the sociology of religion field.
A thought-provoking, original appraisal of the meaning of religion by the host of public radio's On Being Krista Tippett, widely becoming known as the Bill Moyers of radio, is one of the country's most intelligent and insightful commentators on religion, ethics, and the human spirit. With this book, she draws on her own life story and her intimate conversations with both ordinary and famous figures, including Elie Wiesel, Karen Armstrong, and Thich Nhat Hanh, to explore complex subjects like science, love, virtue, and violence within the context of spirituality and everyday life. Her way of speaking about the mysteries of life-and of listening with care to those who endeavor to understand those mysteries--is nothing short of revolutionary.
In More God, Less Crime renowned criminologist Byron R. Johnson proves that religion can be a powerful antidote to crime. The book describes how faith communities, congregations, and faith-based organizations are essential in forming partnerships necessary to provide the human and spiritual capital to effectively address crime, offender rehabilitation, and the substantial aftercare problems facing former prisoners. There is scattered research literature on religion and crime but until now, there has never been one publication that systematically and rigorously analyzes what we know from this largely overlooked body of research in a lay-friendly format. The data shows that when compared to current strategies, faith-based approaches to crime prevention bring added value in targeting those factors known to cause crime: poverty, lack of education, and unemployment. In an age of limited fiscal resources, Americans can’t afford a criminal justice system that turns its nose up at volunteer efforts that could not only work better than the abysmal status quo, but also save billions of dollars at the same time. This book provides readers with practical insights and recommendations for a faith-based response that could do just that.
A groundbreaking new theory of religion Religion remains an important influence in the world today, yet the social sciences are still not adequately equipped to understand and explain it. This book advances an innovative theory of religion that goes beyond the problematic theoretical paradigms of the past. Drawing on the philosophy of critical realism and personalist social theory, Christian Smith explores why humans are religious in the first place—uniquely so as a species—and offers an account of secularization and religious innovation and persistence that breaks the logjam in which religious scholarship has been stuck for so long. Certain to stimulate debate and inspire promising new avenues of scholarship, Religion features a wealth of illustrations and examples that help to make its concepts accessible to readers. This superbly written book brings sound theoretical thinking to a perennially thorny subject, and a new vitality and focus to its study.
Sacred Matters explores the multi-disciplinary literature about the role of religion in family life and provides new research and a new theory about ways various aspects of the sacred are helpful and harmful. The authors hope that their new conceptual framework will stimulate new research and encourage the creation of new intervention programs designed to help families. Sacred Matters features: a new conceptual framework and theory about how, when, and why sacred matters influence family processes and outcomes new qualitative and quantitative research collected in a variety of ways from people with different religious perspectives in different geographical areas an expansion in theory and research about the role of forgiveness, sacrifice, prayer, and sanctification in family life the integration of studies and issues from psychology, sociology, family studies, anthropology, and religion. This book raises the bar in creating new theories about family processes and in the integration of theory, research, and application. It begins with a review of the previous literature and then expands the research about sanctification to create a new general theory (or model) about ways sacred processes help and hinder families. Next the authors expand the theory and research about the role of forgiveness, sacrifice, and prayer in families. New theory and research are then added about loving, coping with conflict, dealing with undesirable behavior, generational relationships, morality, and the psychosocial aspects of religion. The authors then describe ways sacred theory can be integrated with other theories and ways it provides new explanations about broader social problems. The book concludes with new quantitative research and suggestions for future research. Researchers, practitioners, and advanced students in several disciplines will find this volume valuable. It will expand and enrich the reading in graduate and advanced undergraduate courses in areas such as family studies, human development, marriage and family therapy, the psychology of the family and the psychology of religion, the sociology of the family and the sociology of religion, pastoral counseling, anthropology, and social work.
A reader that seeks to explore the relationship between the structure and culture of religion and various elements of social life in the U.S., Sociology of Religion: A Reader, 2e is ideal as either a standalone reader or supplement to the text written by the same author team, Why Religion Matters. Based on both classic and contemporary research in the sociology of religion, this reader highlights a variety of research methods and theoretical approaches. It explores the ways in which religious values, beliefs and practices shape the world outside of church, synagogue, or mosque walls while simultaneously being shaped by the non-religious forces operating in that world.
The place of religion in society has changed profoundly in the last few centuries, particularly in the West. In what will be a defining book for our time, Taylor takes up the question of what these changes mean, and what, precisely, happens when a society becomes one in which faith is only one human possibility among others.
