Annual Review Of The Sociology Of Religion Volume 5 2014

In contrast with the growing belief in society that traditional religious institutions are losing credibility, there has been renewed interest in monasteries going beyond what is strictly defined as religious. There are, for example, increasingly numerous requests for cooking and gardening courses as well as guided tours in monasteries, the appeal of monastic products and media interest in the subject. In parallel with a strong crisis in its recruitment, monasticism in the Western world is experiencing a period of innovation and experiments accompanied by unexpected popularity, as is evidenced by numerous films and publications. We hope that this book will deepen the understanding of the specificity of monastic life in the in the contemporary world, in a religious area, and from a sociological point of view.

Interreligious Dialogue: From Religion to Geopolitics discusses how interreligious dialogue takes place within, and is influenced by, important sociological categories. Starting from the study of interreligious sacred spaces, the book explores the patterns of interreligious governance and forms of interreligious social action.

The interest of the book lies in the diversity of the geographical areas, religions, and online religious presence which nevertheless have a lot of points in common. Non-interactive websites, social networks, chat lines, and so on come together to provide a good panorama of the online opportunities to religions nowadays.

This volume explores some of the strategies employed by the Catholic Church as a whole to address problems of the global era, in particular the responses and resistance efforts undertaken in a bid to counteract the secularization crisis in both Europe and the Americas, through spiritual writers, World Youth Days and Catholic education.

This volume of the Annual Review for the Sociology of Religion adresses the challenges of the diversity and complexity of sociological approaches to Asian forms and dynamics of Asian or Asian-inpired ascetic ideas and practices. Eleven papers, written by scholars conducting researches in different geographic and cultural contexts, all contribute to enrich discussion on the relevance of sociological studies of Yoga, meditation and other ascetic techniques and traditions. Contributors are: Zuzana Bártová, Loïc Bawidamann, Jørn Borup, Sally SJ Brown, Ugo Dessì, Marianne Qvortrup Fibiger, Marc Lebranchu, Patrick S.D. McCartney, Lionel Obadia, Matteo Di Placido, Alexandros Sakellariou, João Paulo P. Silveira, and Rafael Walthert.

Atheism is increasing, but as a phenomenon continues to be at the fringe of current research. Atheist groups and ideologies represent a wide range of attitudes, behaviour and ways of acting towards religion. The lack of a clear definition of what being atheist (or an unbeliever) means today invites us to study the issue in greater depth. This volume represents a first attempt at understanding and scrutinizing atheism, offering both a global perspective as well as specific case studies.

Religion is changing in present society, and social research is more attentive to its complexity. Simultaneously, new methods are developed in social research. This volume points to the potentials of methodological innovation in the social scientific study of religion, as a source of inspiration for future research.

The Oxford Handbook of Christian Monasticism addresses, for the first time in one volume, multiple strands of Christian monastic practice. Forty-four essays consider historical and thematic aspects of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Protestant, and Anglican traditions, as well as contemporary 'new monasticism'.