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Sociology of religion is the study of the beliefs, practices and organizational forms of religion using the tools and methods of the discipline of sociology.This objective investigation may include the use both of quantitative methods (surveys, polls, demographic and census analysis) and of qualitative approaches (such as participant observation, interviewing, and analysis of archival ...
Beckford has called for sociologists of religion to end their isolation from other sociological disciplines, arguing in Religion and Advanced Industrial Society (1989) that this might return religious studies to their former position of prominence, and has explored various adjacent sociological fields himself in his writings.
The sociology of religion also deals with how religion impacts society regarding the positive and negatives of what happens when religion is mixed with society. Theorist such as Marx states that "religion is the opium of the people" - the idea that religion has become a way for people to deal with their problems.
Prime candidates for religious conversion are those with an openness to religion, but who do not belong or fit well in any existing religious group. Those with no religion or no interest in religion are difficult to convert, especially since the cult and sect beliefs are so extreme by the standards of the surrounding society.
The Limits of Social Cohesion: Conflict and Mediation in Pluralist Societies: A Report of the Bertelsmann Foundation to the Club of Rome (1998) The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics (editor, et al., 1999) Peter Berger and the Study of Religion (edited by Linda Woodhead et al., 2001; includes a Postscript by ...
Christian Stephen Smith (born 1960) is an American sociologist, currently the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame.Smith's research focuses primarily on religion in modernity, adolescents and emerging adults, sociological theory, philosophy of science, the science of generosity, American evangelicalism, and culture. [2]
Sociology overlaps with a variety of disciplines that study society, in particular social anthropology, political science, economics, social work and social philosophy. Many comparatively new fields such as communication studies , cultural studies , demography and literary theory , draw upon methods that originated in sociology.
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (French: Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse), published by the French sociologist Émile Durkheim in 1912, is a book that analyzes religion as a social phenomenon. Durkheim attributes the development of religion to the emotional security attained through communal living.