Distinguished contributors focus on the relationship between politics and religion, and on ordinary people’s religious life. These topics are approached through empirical studies and theoretical discussions, and editor Pål Repstad demonstrates the need for a closer relationship between the two topics.

Attempting to let 'everyday religion' raise critical questions about how we understand the role of religion in society, this book examines the social circumstances of religion's presence and absence.

Written in an engaging and accessible tone, Religion in America probes the dynamics of recent American religious beliefs and behaviors. Charting trends over time using demographic data, this book examines how patterns of religious affiliation, service attendance, and prayer vary by race and ethnicity, social class, and gender. The authors identify demographic processes such as birth, death, and migration, as well as changes in education, employment, and families, as central to why some individuals and congregations experience change in religious practices and beliefs while others hold steady. Religion in America challenges students to examine the demographic data alongside everyday accounts of how religion is experienced differently across social groups to better understand the role that religion plays in the lives of Americans today and how that is changing.

What are religion and nonreligion? How do fundamentalism and religious radicalization emerge and grow? How do social class, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and other factors affect religious beliefs, practices, and organizations? Is religion a fundamental driving force or do political leaders use religion for their own purposes? In exploring these pertinent questions, An Introduction to the Sociology of Religion provides an overview of sociological theories of contemporary religious life. Theoretical discussion is accompanied by presentations of empirical research from several religious traditions in many parts of the world. The sociology of religion is linked closely to developments in general sociology. Some chapters are organized according to topic, while others offer brief presentations of classical and contemporary sociologists from Karl Marx to Patricia Hill Collins and their perspectives on social life, including on religion. This second edition has been thoroughly updated throughout with new chapters on religion and social inequalities, social and religious movements, and extremism. Covering classical sociology of religion as well as contemporary debates and topics, this book is ideal reading for students approaching the sociology of religion for the first time.

Modern Sociologists on Society and Religion provides an introduction to some of the most influential figures in contemporary social theory with an emphasis on their analyses of society and religion. The figures profiled include Erving Goffman, Zygmunt Bauman, Michel Foucault, Peter L. Berger, Thomas Luckmann, Jürgen Habermas, Pierre Bourdieu, Anthony Giddens, Arlie Hochschild, Richard Sennett, and Patricia Hill Collins. The introduction places these sociologists in contemporary social discourse. Each chapter begins with an introduction to the main work and social analyses of the sociologist in question. After a brief critical assessment, it outlines their view on religion, followed by examples of how other sociologists have used their theories to study religion. Each chapter ends with the authors’ suggestions for how their perspectives can be used to analyze the role of religion in contemporary society. The book provides a general introduction and overview of social analyses in modern sociology. It is a rich resource for scholars and students on all levels who are interested in social theory and the complexity of religion in contemporary society.

"Religion and politics are two fundamental dimensions of human society, and yet they are often at loggerheads. Religion appears to belong to a different realm, signifying matters that are permanent and enduring, residing beyond the everyday. Politics appears to involve the secular struggle for power and influence, being driven by interest"--

With a clear statement of the theoretical issues in the debates about secularization and post-secularism, 'Religion and the State: A Comparative Sociology' considers a number of major case studies - from China, Europe, Singapore and South Asia - in order to understand the rise of public religions in the modern state. By distinguishing between political secularization - the separation of state and religion - and social secularization - the transformation of the everyday practice of religion - this volume offers an integrating framework within which to analyze these different societies.