Everyday Religion: Observing Modern Religious Lives

摘要: Social scientists sometimes seem not to know what do with religion. In the first century of sociologys history as a discipline, reigning concern was explaining emergence modern world, and that brought it an expectation religion would simply fade from scene societies became diverse, complex, enlightened. As approached its end, however, variety global phenomena remained dramatically unexplained by these theories. Among leading contenders for explanatory power emerge at this time were rational choice theories religious behavior. Researchers who have spent in field, observing groups interviewing practitioners, questioned sufficiency market models. Studies abound describe thriving fit neither old secularization paradigm nor equations predicting vitality only among organizational entrepreneurs strict orthodoxies. collection previously unpublished essays, scholars been immersed field research wide settings draw on those observations begin develop more helpful ways study lives. The authors examine how functions ground pluralistic society, is experienced individuals, expressed social institutions. Taken whole, essays point new approach religion, one emphasizes individual experience context over categorization data collection.