All but the final paper in this collection of nine essays was read at a June 1999 conference of the same title as the book, held at the U. of Birmingham, UK. The conference was organized by the Worship in Birmingham Project, bringing together established scholars and research students to discuss the

Taking its cue from Robert A. Segal’s work, Explaining, Interpreting, and Theorizing Religion and Myth: Contributions in Honor of Robert A. Segal offers a set of essays by renowned scholars addressing the persisting question of how to approach religion and myth as academic categories.

After the end of the civil war in 1990, the Charismatic/Pentecostal (C/P) movement in Beirut spread across various Christian denominations. C/P believers narrated how Jesus became real to them via the experience of the Holy Spirit. The author explains this impression of realness through embodiment. Ritual practices like testimony and experience of divine agency are experienced as fullness within a post war society and are extended into the every day sphere. This ethnographic account represents the beginning research of C/P Christianity's emergence in the Middle East and its contribution to social change.

How do you study religion and society? In this fascinating book, some of the most famous names in the field explain how they go about their everyday work of studying religions in the field. They explain how the ideas for their projects and books have come together, how their understanding of religion has changed over the years, and how their own beliefs have affected their work. They also comment on the changing nature of the field, the ideas which they regard as most important, and those which have not stood the test of time. Lastly they offer advice to young scholars, and suggest what needs to be done to enable the field to grow and develop further.

Mormonism and the Emotions: An Analysis of LDS Scriptural Texts is an introductory Latterday Saint (LDS) theology of emotion that is both canonically based and scientifically informed. It highlights three widely accepted characteristics of emotion that emerge from scientific perspectives—namely, the necessity of cognition for its emergence, the personal responsibility attached to its manifestations, and its instrumentality in facilitating various processes of human development and experience. In analyzing the basic theological structure of Mormonism and its unique canonical texts the objective is to determine the extent to which LDS theology is compatible with this three-fold definition of emotion. At this basic level of explanation, the conclusion is that science and Mormon theology undoubtedly share a common perspective. The textual investigation focuses on unique Mormon scriptures and on their descriptions of six common emotions: hope, fear, joy, sorrow, love, and hate. For each of these emotional phenomena the extensive report of textual references consistently confirms an implied presence of the outlined three-fold model of emotion. Thus, the evidence points to the presence of an underlying folk model of emotion in the text that broadly matches scientific definitions. Additionally, the theological examination is enlarged with a particular focus on the Mormon theology of atonement, which is shown to play a significant role in LDS understandings of emotions. A broad exploration of such areas as epistemology, cosmology, soteriology, and the theological anthropology of Mormonism further contextualizes the analysis and roots it in the LDS theological worldview.

Religious violence is on the rise globally. Hardly a day passes without news of a vicious attack being carried out in the name of religion. Religion can, of course, bring security to many but its perversion leads to insecurity for all. Why is this? How and why do so many claim to act on God’s behalf to inflict deliberate human suffering? In Religion and International Security Lee Marsden explores the return of religion as a major cause of insecurity in the contemporary world. He guides readers through the different theoretical perspectives surrounding the study of religion and security, arguing that the secular bias that marginalized the role played by religion in recent times must change to reflect the realities of the emerging post-secular international order. Packed with examples from around the world, the book offers a thoughtful and nuanced exploration of religion and security through key themes such as religiously motivated and inspired terrorism and warfare, the human security of women and gay people in religiously dominated communities, and the capacity for religious communities and leaders to heal conflict through peacebuilding. For those who would rather deny a role for religion when considering security, the genie is truly out of the bottle. This book seeks to understand this phenomenon and how to come to terms with it.

The material symbol has become central to understanding religion in late modernity. Overtly theological approaches use words to express the values and faith of a religion, but leave out the 'incarnation' of religion in the behavioural, performative, or audio-visual form. This book explores the lived experience of religion through its material expressions, demonstrating how religion and spirituality are given form and are thus far from being detached or ethereal. Cutting across cultures, senses, disciplines and faiths, the contributors register the variety in which religions and religious groups express the sacred and numinous. Including chapters on music, architecture, festivals, ritual, artifacts, dance, dress and magic, this book offers an invaluable resource to students of sociology and anthropology of religion, art, culture, history, liturgy, theories of late modern culture, and religious studies.

Reflecting the very latest developments in the field, the NewCompanion provides a comprehensive introduction to thesociology of religion with a clear emphasis on comparative andhistorical approaches. Covers major debates in secularization theory, rational choicetheory, feminism and the body Takes a multidisciplinary approach, covering history,sociology, anthropology, and religious studies International in its scope, covering American exceptionalism,Native American spirituality, and China, Europe, and SoutheastAsia Offers discussions on the latest developments, including"megachurches", spirituality, post-secular society andglobalization

The mysteries of the Church, a materialistic scientist once announced to an astonished world, are child’s play compared with the mysteries of nature. He was completely wrong, of course, yet there was every excuse for his mistake. For, as he himself tells us in effect, he found everywhere in that created nature which he knew so well, anomaly piled on anomaly and paradox on paradox, and he knew no more of theology than its simpler and more explicit statements. Aeterna Press

Religion is more than a matter of worshipping a deity or spirit. For many people, religion pervades every part of their lives and is not separated off into some purely private and personal realm. Religion is integral to many people's relationship with the wider world, an aspect of their dwelling among other beings - both human and other-than-human - and something manifested in the everyday world of eating food, having sex and fearing strangers. "Food, Sex and Strangers" offers alternative ways of thinking about what religion involves and how we might better understand it. Drawing on studies of contemporary religions, especially among indigenous peoples, the book argues that religion serves to maintain and enhance human relationships in and with the larger-than-human world. Fundamentally, religion can be better understood through the ways we negotiate our lives than in affirmations of belief - and it is best seen when people engage in intimate acts with themselves and others.