Religion and Social Theory

If you are a theologian in need of a new textbook for courses in sociology of religion, comparative religion, and philosophy, this is the perfect text for you. Leading social theorists are gathered together in one comprehensive volume (Engels, Durkheim, Weber, Nietzsche, Freud, Foucault). The author skillfully assesses the different theoretical approaches established by these leading social theorists to the social function of religion. In doing so, he develops his own distinctive perspective on the role of religion as an institutional link between economic and human reproduction. Turner explores the social theories of religion through a resolutely comparative and historical analysis of the Abrahamic faiths--Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. His approach makes a substantial contribution to the analysis of religion as a global culture force in the tensions between consensus and conflict, tradition and modernity. This second edition incorporates an influential new introduction to the social analysis of religion. It will be essential reading for professors, undergraduate and graduate students of sociology of religion, social theory, and comparative religion. "This perceptive and wide-ranging book embraces a number of distinctive themes. . . . One of the most stimulating books in the field for a long time." --British Journal of Sociology "Turner writes . . . with much more analytical penetration and sensitivity to historical variation and conjuncture than is to be found in the vast majority of sociological writings of our time on the theme of religion." --Theory, Culture & Society "The most important theoretical contribution to the sociology of religion in the last two decades. It presents a challenge to many of the prevailing assumptions in that field and suggests ways in which it could regain the position of centrality that it occupied in the work of classical sociologists such as Weber and Durkheim." --Kenneth Thompson, The Open University