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Social Science Sociology Of Religion

Society, Spirituality, and the Sacred

A Social Scientific Introduction, Second Edition

by (author) Donald S. Swenson

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Aug 2009
Category
Sociology of Religion, General, Spirituality
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780802096807
    Publish Date
    Aug 2009
    List Price
    $52.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442603486
    Publish Date
    Apr 2013
    List Price
    $39.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442602977
    Publish Date
    Jul 2008
    List Price
    $36.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781551112428
    Publish Date
    Aug 1999
    List Price
    $36.95

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Description

In Society, Spirituality, and the Sacred, Swenson draws on both Weber's Charisma and Routinization of Charisma and Thomas O'Dea's Dilemmas of the Institutionalization of Religion to reveal how religion has both a positive and negative effect on people. Moving from the individual experience of the sacred to the more institutional religious experience, the book explores the many manifestations of religious life and offers a synthesis of folk religions, new religions, the New Age Movement, and the challenges posed by the secularization of contemporary life. This approach to studying the sociology of religion offers a more challenging and provocative opportunity for students compared to other texts on the market.

The second edition has been thoroughly revised and updated to integrate the latest developments in the field and to offer a more global approach to the study of religion. New chapters on women and religion and new religious movements have been added and discussions of Islam, indigenous religions and postmodernism have been significantly expanded.

About the author

Donald S. Swenson is a Professor of Sociology at Mount Royal College, Calgary. He holds a degree in theology from the University of Ottawa and a PhD in sociology from Notre Dame University. He has taught, researched, and written on the sociology of religion for over twenty years.

Donald S. Swenson's profile page