Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Towards a more organized understanding of religion within a global framework / Peter B. Clarke -- Reappraising Durkheim for the study and teaching of religion / William E. Paden -- The uses of Max Weber : legitimation and amnesia in Buddhology, South Asian history, and anthropological practice theory / David N. Gellner -- Max Weber : religion and modernization / Hans G. Kippenberg -- Max Weber on Islam and Confucianism : the Kantian theory of secularization / Bryan S. Turner -- Religion in the works of Habermas, Bourdieu, and Foucault / Inger Furseth -- Rational choice theory : a critique / Malcolm Hamilton -- Religion and gender / S�ian Hawthorne -- Religion and modernity worldwide / Robert W. Hefner -- Postmodernism and religion / Nikolai G. Wenzel -- Religion and power / Meerten ter Borg -- Culture and religion / Matt Waggoner -- Methodology in the sociology of religion / Ole Preben Riis -- Conceptual models in the study of religion / Jeppe Sinding Jensen -- Defining religion : a social science approach / Andr�e Droogers -- A critical view of cognitive science's attempt to explain religion and its development / K. Helmut Reich -- Science and religion / William Sims Bainbridge -- Atheism / William Sims Bainbridge -- Religion and morality / John Reeder -- The contemporary convergence of art and religion / Robert Wuthnow -- The social roots and meaning of trance and possession / Ioan M. Lewis -- Religion and the state / Phillip E. Hammond and David W. Machacek -- Religion and nationalism / Christophe Jaffrelot -- Religion and the law : an interactionist view / James T. Richardson -- The socio-cultural and socio-religious origins of human rights / Enzo Pace -- Globalization, theocratization, and politicized civil religion / Roland Robertson -- Religious fundamentalism / Anson Shupe -- Migration and the globalization of religion / Caroline Pl�uss -- Religious diversity / Gary D. Bouma and Rod Ling --

Church-sect-cult : constructing typologies of religious groups / Lorne L. Dawson -- Sects in Islam / Sami Zubaida -- Congregations : local, social, and religious / Nancy T. Ammerman -- The sociology of the clergy / Dean R. Hoge -- The meaning and scope of secularization / Karel Dobbelaere -- Generations and religion / Wade Clark Roof -- Religion and family / Penny Edgell -- The reproduction and transmission of religion / Mathew Guest -- Religion and ritual : a multi-perspectival approach / Peter Collins -- Religion and the media / Stewart M. Hoover -- Religion and the Internet / Gary R. Bunt -- New religions as a specialist field of study / David G. Bromley -- Unchurched spirituality / Eva M. Hamberg -- Spiritualities of life / Paul Heelas -- The sociology of esotericism / Kennet Granholm -- Implicit religion / Edward Bailey -- Religion and ecology / Mary Evelyn Tucker -- Religion, spirituality, and health : an institutional approach / Wendy Cadge -- The role of religious institutions in responding to crime and delinquency / Byron R. Johnson -- Religion and altruism / Keishin Inaba and Kate Loewenthal -- Religious violence / Mark Juergensmeyer -- Girard, religion, violence, and modern martyrdom / Michael Kirwan -- Religion and social problems : a new theoretical perspective / Titus Hjelm -- Religion and social problems : individual and institutional responses / Anne Birgitta Pessi -- The teacher of religion as ethnographer / Eleanor Nesbitt -- Ethnography/religion : explorations in field and classroom / James V. Spickard.