This set collects together in 19 volumes a wealth of texts on Sociology of Religion. An invaluable reference resource, it contains classic books on a wide range of topics, including: religion and violence, religion and family life, religion and society, culture and class.
By Steve Bruce
September 15, 2020
The main concern of this study, first published in 1990, is the part played by Protestantism in the complex of social processes of ‘secularization’. The book deals with the way in which Protestant schism and dissent paved the way for the rise of religious pluralism and toleration; and it also looks...
By Frank Musgrove
September 15, 2020
This book, first published in 1974, argues that the counter culture is not the outcome of alienation, but of opportunity, being the result of a new generational consciousness, an openness which has characterised industrial societies of the West since the 1950s. Its roots lie in economic expansion ...
By Marley Cole
September 15, 2020
This book, first published in 1956, is the first authoritative, comprehensive account of the worldwide activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses. It traces their origins and development, and a special section covers the founding, organization and development of the movement in Great Britain....
By A. Allan MacLaren
September 15, 2020
This book, first published in 1974, shows how social class and origins in mid-nineteenth century Aberdeen were reflected in religious belief and observance, and how in turn this acted as a catalyst for change in society. Through a detailed analysis of this topic, particularly in relation to the ...
By Gary A. Kunkelman
September 15, 2020
The integrative role of religion has been a recurrent theme of sociological and anthropological theory. This role is apparent in the Greek-American community; religion functions as a cement of the social fabric. Indeed, it would be hard to overestimate the role of Greek Orthodoxy in joining people ...
By Thomas H. Davenport
September 15, 2020
This book, first published in 1991, examines the unreligious of America. Most sociologists of religion viewed religious belief and behaviour as having strong positive function for individual well-being – with the implicit assumption that unreligious individuals would lack meaning in life. This book...
By David Christie-Murray
September 15, 2020
Glossolalia (paranormal speaking in tongues) and zenolalia (paranormal speaking in allegedly foreign languages) are features of many sub-cultures and religions. The most obvious example is Pentecostalism, where every believer in many denominations is expected to speak in tongues at least once – the...
By J. Gordon Melton
April 01, 2019
The material in this book, first published in 1990, provides important documentation for the first generation of Rosicrucianism in North America, especially the still vigorous Rosicrucian Fraternity. These chapters reprinted here are so necessary to the understanding of this most occult ...
By John McKelvie Whitworth
April 01, 2019
Viewing the world with abhorrence, members of utopian sects isolate themselves from its influence. As this book, first published in 1975, shows, they seek to establish and promulgate radically distinctive forms of society according to what they claim to be God’s blueprint and which they believe are...
By Steve Bruce
April 01, 2019
In this book, first published in 1990, the significance of televangelism in America is examined in detail. This well-informed, measured analysis includes discussion of the place of televangelism in the history of American Protestantism; the styles of leading TV preachers and the televangelical star...
By James A. Beckford
April 01, 2019
This book, first published in 1989, demonstrates that sociologists have much to gain from a strengthening of the connections between general theories about the changing character of modern western societies and specific studies of religion. It combines an exegesis of sociological classics in the ...
By Geoffrey Hoyland
April 01, 2019
The purpose of this book, first published in 1945, is to consider the problem of religion in its relation to the family. Even in 1945 there had been much talk regarding the break-up of family life and the weakening of parental control, and this book examines the role of religion in the social ...