The Handbook of Religion and Society is the most comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of a vital force in the world today. It is an indispensable resource for scholars, students, policy makers, and other professionals seeking to understand the role of religion in society. This includes both the social forces that shape religion and the social consequences of religion.
This handbook captures the breadth and depth of contemporary work in the field, and shows readers important future directions for scholarship. Among the emerging topics covered in the handbook are biological functioning, organizational innovation, digital religion, spirituality, atheism, and transnationalism. The relationship of religion to other significant social institutions like work and entrepreneurship, science, and sport is also analyzed. Specific attention is paid, where appropriate, to international issues as well as to race, class, sexuality, and gender differences.
This handbook includes 27 chapters by a distinguished, diverse, and international collection of experts, organized into 6 major sections: religion and social institutions; religious organization; family, life course, and individual change; difference and inequality; political and legal processes; and globalization and transnationalism.
David Yamane is a Professor of Sociology at Wake Forest University. Yamanes primary scholarly interest has been in sociologically understanding organized religion, particularly Roman Catholicism in the postwar United States. His books in this area include The Catholic Church in State Politics: Negotiating Prophetic Demands and Political Realities (Rowman& Littlefield, 2005), a study of the role of conferences of Catholic bishops in state legislative politics; Real Stories of Christian Initiation: Lessons for and from the RCIA (The Liturgical Press, 2006), five case studies of the process by which individuals are initiated into the Roman Catholic church; and Becoming Catholic: Finding Rome in the American Religious Landscape (Oxford University Press, 2014).
Yamane has previously served as Editor of as of Sociology of Religion: A Quarterly Review (2006-2010) and Associate Editor of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (2012-2015). He also edited Richard Schoenherrsposthumous book, Goodbye Father: The Celibate Male Priesthood and the Future of the Catholic Church (Oxford University Press, 2002), and co-authored with Keith Roberts the 6th edition of the best-selling sociology of religion textbook Religion in Sociological Perspective (Sage Publications, 2015).
Chapter 1. Introduction; David Yamane.- Part I. Religion and Social Institutions.- Chapter 2. Health and Biological Functioning; Terrence Hill, Matt Bradshaw and Amy Burdette.- Chapter 3. Work, Occupations, and Entrepreneurship; Jerry Z. Park, Kevin D. Dougherty and Mitchell J. Neubert.- Chapter 4. Science; Kathleen Oberlin.- Chapter 5. Sport; David Yamane.- Chapter 6. Education; David Sikkink and Jonathan Hill.- Chapter 7. Media; Stewart Hoover and Seung Soo Kim.- Part II. Religious Organization.- Chapter 8. Denominations, Congregations, and Special Purpose Groups; Nancy T. Ammerman.- Chapter 9. Organizational Innovation; Tricia Bruce and Josh Packard.- Chapter 10. Digital Religion; Christopher Helland.- Chapter 11. Spirituality; Giuseppe Giordan.- Part III. Family, Life Course, and Individual Change.- Chapter 12. Family; Kathleen Jenkins.- Chapter 13. Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood; Richard J. Petts and Scott A. Desmond.- Chapter 14. Aging; Neal Krause.- Chapter 15. Identity; Matthew T. Loveland.- Chapter 16. Nonreligion and Atheism; Ryan Cragun.- Chapter 17. Delinquency and Deviance; John P. Hoffmann, Stephen J. Bahr, and Michaela Huber.- Part IV. Difference and Inequality.- Chapter 18. Social Class; Philip Schwadel.- Chapter 19. Gender; Orit Avishai.- Chapter 20. Sexuality; Sarah-Jane Page and Heather Shipley.- Chapter 21. Race and Ethnicity; Todd Matthews, John P. Bartkowski and Tyrone Chase.- Part V. Political and Legal Processes.- Chapter 22. Comparative Politics; Jonathan Fox.- Chapter 23. Conflict and Peace; Isak Svensson.- Chapter 24. Law and Social Control; James T. Richardson.- Part V. Globalization and Transnationalism.- Chapter 25. Globalization; Victor Roudometof.- Chapter 26. Transnationalism; Stephen Offutt and Grant Miller.- Chapter 27. International Migration; Peter Kivisto, Augustana College.
