Table of Contents

PART ONE Introduction to the Sociology of Religion Chapter 1. What Do We Mean by the Term Religion? Chapter 2. A Scientific Perspective on Religion PART TWO The Complexity of Religious Systems: Integration and Conflict Chapter 3. The Role of Religion in Society: Macro Perspectives Chapter 4. Religious Experience, Symbol Systems, and World Views PART THREE Religion in the Lives of Individuals Chapter 5. Becoming and Being Religious Chapter 6. Conversion and Switching PART FOUR Formation and Maintenance of Religious Organizations Chapter 7. Organized Religion: Churches, Sects, and "Cults" Chapter 8. The Denominational Society PART FIVE Religion and Social Inequality Chapter 10. Religion and Racism Chapter 11. Religion, Gender, and Sexuality Chapter 12. Religion, Inequality, and Social Activism PART SIX Social Change and Religious Adaptation Chapter 13. Secularization: Religion in Decline or in Transformation? Chapter 14. Religion Outside the (God) Box Chapter 15. Religion and Globalization EPILOGUE The Sociological Perspective on Religion: A Concluding Comment

About the Author

Keith A. Roberts is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Hanover College, a private liberal arts college of about 1,100 students in Indiana. He has been teaching introductory sociology for more than 30 years with a passion for active learning strategies and a focus on "deep learning" by students that transforms the way they see the world. Prior to teaching at Hanover, he taught at a 2-year regional campus of a large university. He has been active in the teaching movement, writing on teaching and serving as a consultant to sociology departments across the country in his capacity as a member of the American Sociological Association Departmental Resources Group. He has written a very popular textbook in the sociology of religion, has coauthored a book on writing in the undergraduate curriculum, and for 22 years ran an annual workshop for high school sociology teachers. He has chaired the Selection Committee for the SAGE Innovations and Professional Development Awards since the program's inception. He has been honored for his teaching and teaching-related work at local, state, regional, and national levels. The American Sociological Association's Section on Teaching and Learning awarded him the Hans O. Mauksch Award for Distinguished Contributions to Teaching of Sociology in 2000. He was honored with the American Sociological Association's Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award in 2010. In 2012, the North Central Sociological Association awarded Keith the J. Milton Yinger Award for Distinguished Career in Sociology. David Yamane is professor of sociology at Wake Forest University. He has published in the sociology of religion and in the scholarship of teaching and learning. He is completing a 4-year term as Associate Editor of a leading journal in the field, the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. In 2007, he was chosen by Wake Forest students to receive the Kulynych Family Omicron Delta Kappa Award for Contribution to Student Life.

Reviews

"Roberts and Yamane have written a book which has the clearest presentation of sociological concepts of any sociology of relgion text I've read. It is comprehensive in scope, has a clear, lively, and interesting writing style, and is sensitively presented in a "non-preachy" way." -- Matthew Vos "I have looked at a number of other texts for an introduction to the sociology of religion. Roberts continues to be the best one out there." -- Samuel Inuwa Zalanga