List of Tables and Figures
Introduction
Chapter 1: Collective Effervescence
Chapter 2: Social Solidarity
Chapter 3: Bodily Copresence
Chapter 4: Intersubjectivity
Chapter 5: Barriers to Outsiders
Conclusion
Appendix A: USCLS Findings
Appendix B: Focus Group Questions and Characteristics
References
Scott Draper is associate professor of sociology at The College of Idaho.
The best books I have read have been generative; they lead me to
new places, ideas, and research projects. These books have
dog-eared pages, lots of underlining, scribbling in the margins
(often in multiple directions), and the blank pages at the back of
the book are filled with hurried notes and page references. Based
on this metric alone, this is probably one of the best books I have
read in the past decade. . . . I would recommend this book be
required reading for all graduate students interested in the social
scientific study of religion, and for anyone interested in IR
theory and religion. The book would work well in any graduate-level
sociology of religion class or as an illustration in a theory
course of the application of a sociological theory to a novel
subfield. Additionally, the book is accessible and well written. I
would recommend it to any congregational leaders interested in the
application of sociological theory to their work.
*Sociology of Religion: A Quarterly Review*
Scott Draper’s book offers a rich theoretically driven study of
religion, specifically the role of ritual. . . . the value of the
book is the case studies as theoretical explorations into ritual
theory. . . The conclusion offers a very good synthesis of a range
of theories about religion with discussions about Durkheim and
Weber, Stark and Rational Choice, as well as cultural analyses of
religion. This would be an excellent book for students studying
ritual and the sociology of religion with its analysis of ritual,
theories of religion, and empirical observations.
*Social Forces*
This is a really forefront piece of research. The comparisons among
congregations break new ground in explaining the relative success
of religious organizations. It pays off in new discoveries about
interactional mechanisms and their effects; and gives as richly
revealing view of the ‘atmosphere’ or local culture of religious
congregations as anything in the literature, while going on to
systematically explain what makes congregations different from each
other.
Religious Interaction Ritual is a great work. This should be a
landmark book in the sociology of religion.
*Randall Collins, Department of Sociology, University of
Pennsylvania*
Draper systematically dissects and compares the rituals of
churches, synagogues, mosques, and meditation centers to uncover
the social sources of divine experience. Engaging, insightful, and
radically new, Religious Interaction Ritual is a step by step
manual of how groups create and sustain collective
effervescence.
*Paul Froese, Baylor University and author of On Purpose: How We
Create the Meaning of Life*
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