Informed by ‘critical religion’ perspective in Religious Studies and postcolonial self-reflection in Sociology, this book interrogates the ideas of ‘religion’ and ‘the secular’ in social theory and Sociology. It argues that as long as social theory and sociological discourse embed the religion-secular distinction and locate themselves on the ‘secular’ side of the binary, Sociology will continue to serve the very ideologies it tries to subvert – namely Western modernity/coloniality.

Mitsutoshi Horii is Professor at Shumei University in Japan, and Principal of Chaucer College, UK. Informed by the 'critical religion' perspective in religious studies and postcolonial self-reflection in sociology, this book interrogates the ideas of 'religion' and 'the secular' in social theory and sociology. It argues that as long as social theory and sociological discourse embeds the religion-secular distinction and locates itself on the 'secular' side of the binary, sociology will continue to serve the very ideologies it tries to subvert - namely Western modernity/coloniality. Horii raises fundamental epistemological questions and deep ontological issues in the field of the sociology of religion. Innovative and provoking, the book will inspire the reader to discuss and question established concepts from new perspectives." -Per Pettersson, Professor of Sociology of Religion, Karlstad University, Sweden "This is a superb book that ... calls into question sociology's own understanding of itself as secular and 'rational,' distinguished from the 'non-rational' understandings of those it presents as other." -John Holmwood, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Nottingham, UK. "This book is a valuable contribution to the critical demystification of general categories that sustain the illusions on which the humanities and social sciences are based." -Timothy Fitzgerald, Honorary Research Associate Professor, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Queensland, Australia, and Research Associate, the Center for Critical Research on Religion, USA. "A must-read for any scholar who wants to learn how to think beyond the confinements of modern social theory." -Jayne Svenungsson, Professor of Systematic Theology, Lund University, Sweden. "By decolonizing the secular-religion binary, Horii provides an important challenge to sociology's self-understanding as a secular discipline and he calls into question a number of its conventional scholarly abstractions. This is a fascinating book that furthers crucial debates and thus will definitely be of interest to scholars in a range of disciplines." -Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm, Professor of Religion and the Chair of Science & Technology Studies, Williams College, USA.

This is a new edition of 'Religion in Secular Society' by Bryan Wilson (1926-2004), a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford for thirty years and one of the leading sociologists of religion of the twentieth century.

The thirteen essays in this volume offer a challenge to conventional scholarly approaches to the sociology of religion. They urge readers to look beyond congregational settings, beyond the United States, and to religions other than Christianity, and encourage critical engagement with religion's complex social consequences. By expanding conceptual categories, the essays reveal how aspects of the religious have always been part of allegedly non-religious spaces and show how, by attending to these intellectual blindspots, we can understand aspects of identity, modernity, and institutional life that have long been obscured. Religion on the Edge addresses a number of critical questions: What is revealed about the self, pluralism, or modernity when we look outside the U.S. or outside Christian settings? What do we learn about how and where the religious is actually at work and what its role is when we unpack the assumptions about it embedded in the categories we use? Religion on the Edge offers groundbreaking new methodologies and models, bringing to light conceptual lacunae, re-centering what is unsettled by their use, and inviting a significant reordering of long-accepted political and economic hierarchies. The book shows how social scientists across the disciplines can engage with the sociology of religion. By challenging many of its long-standing empirical and analytic tendencies, the contributors to this volume show how their work informs and is informed by debates in other fields and the analytical purchase gained by bringing these many conversations together. Religion on the Edge will be a crucial resource for any scholar seeking to understand our post-modern, post-secular world.

Sociology of Religion in America tells the story of the controversies involved in the development of a scientific specialty that often makes news in America. The evidence it presents runs contrary to the many myths about the field. Sometimes viewed by scholars as a backwater, actual evidence from the 1890s to the 1980s shows that sociology of religion had a steady presence in sociology all along. Seen as a force alien to religion by some, it was actually in a mutually supportive relationship with religious organizations. Examining dissertations dating from 1895 to 1959 and scientific articles from the 1960s to the 1980s, Anthony J. Blasi discovers who the major sociologists of religion were and what they did. He traces the field’s previously unknown tradition in community studies, the exigencies of the research institutes, and dramatic changes in the professional associations.

The first sociology of religion textbook to begin the task of diversifying and decolonizing the study of religion, Sociology of Religion develops a sociological frame that draws together the personal, political and public, showing how religion – its origins, development and changes – is understood as a social institution, influenced by and influencing wider social structures. Organized along sociological structures and themes, the book works with examples from a variety of religious traditions and regions rather than focusing in depth on a selection, and foregrounds cultural practice-based understandings of religion. It is therefore a book about ‘religion’, not ‘religions’, that explores the relationship of religion with gender and sexuality, crime and violence, generations, politics and media, ‘race’, ethnicity and social class, disease and disability – highlighting the position of religion in social justice and equality. Each chapter of this book is framed around concrete case studies from a variety of Western and non-Western religious traditions. Students will benefit from thinking about the discipline across a range of geographical and religious contexts. The book includes features designed to engage and inspire students: Up-to-date and comprehensive analysis of engaging and accessible material ‘Case Examples’: short summaries of empirical examples relating to the chapter themes Visually distinct boxes with bullet points, key words and phrases focusing on the context Questions suitable for private or seminar study Suggested class exercises for instructors to use Suggested readings and further readings/online resources at the end of each chapter Following a review and critique of early sociology of religion, the book engages with more contemporary issues, such as dissolving the secular/sacred binary and paying close attention to issues of epistemology, negotiations, marginalities, feminisms, identities, power, nuances, globalization, (post) (multiple) modernity (ies), emotion, structuration, reflexivity, intersectionality and urbanization. This book is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students exploring the sociology of religion, religion and society, religious studies, theology, globalization and human geography.

This book conceives of "religion-making" broadly as the multiple ways in which social and cultural phenomena are configured and reconfigured within the matrix of a world-religion discourse that is historically and semantically rooted in particular Western and predominantly Christian experiences, knowledges, and institutions. It investigates how religion is universalized and certain ideas, social formations, and practices rendered "religious" are thus integrated in and subordinated to very particular - mostly liberal-secular - assumptions about the relationship between history, politics, and religion. The individual contributions, written by a new generation of scholars with decisively interdisciplinary approaches, examine the processes of translation and globalization of historically specific concepts and practices of religion - and its dialectical counterpart, the secular - into new contexts. This volume contributes to the relatively new field of thought that aspires to unravel the thoroughly intertwined relationships between religion and secularism as modern concepts.