For the last five decades, Rodney Stark has been one of sociology's most prolific and important scholars of religion. The theoretical depth, the scientific rigor, and the clarity of style manifested in Stark's oeuvre-over 30 books and 140 articles-have made his work the standard texts. Stark's research career encompasses a wide spectrum of the necessary topics in sociology of religion. He has applied groundbreaking theory and method to issues of secularization, religion and society, religious movements, social theory, and the history of religion. Sociology of Religion: A Rodney Stark Reader mirrors Stark's influential career by highlighting these very topics. In this anthology, Stark's significant articles are not only, for the first time, collected together but also clearly organized according to the thematic trajectory of Stark's carefully developed theory of religion. This volume is the essential reader for any scholar, teacher, or student encountering the work of one of this century's most compelling sociologists.
Rodney Stark (Ph.D. University of California, Berkley) University Professor of Social Sciences at Baylor University. Co-Director of the Institute of Studies of Religion, Stark is also widely published. His most recent publications include Discovering God: The Origins of the Great Religions and the Evolution of Belief (2007), Cities of God: The Real Story of How Christianity Became an Urban Movement and Conquered Rome (2006), and The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success (2005).
Introduction Section I: THEORY AND METHODOLOGY 1. A Taxonomy of Religious Experience 2. A Theory of Revelations 3. Micro Foundations of Religion 4. Religious Effects 5. Putting an End to Ancestor Worship 6. Discovering Data on Religion Section II: SECULARIZATION 7. Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation 8. Secularization, Revival, and Experimentation 9. A Supply-Side Reinterpretation of the "Secularization" of Europe 10. Secularization, R.I.P. Section III: RELIGION AND SOCIETY 11. Religion and Conformity 12. Religion and the Moral Order 13. Physiology and Faith 14. Upper Class Asceticism 15. Conversion to Latin American Protestantism and the Case for Religious Motivation Section IV: RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT 16. Church and Sect 17. Cult Formation 18. Networks of Faith 19. Rebellion, Repressive Regimes, and Religious Movements 20. Why Religious Movements Succeed or Fail Section V: SOCIAL THEORY AND HISTORY 21. Why "Mainline" Denominations Decline 22. One True God 23. Extracting Social Scientific Models from Mormon History 24. God, Ritual, and Social Science 25. Cities of God 26. Revelation, Cultural Evolution, and Discovering God 27. God's Battalions 28. The Triumph of Christianity
A Rodney Stark Reader is perhaps the definitive collection of sociology's well-known contrarian. Here is a thorough anthology of Stark's most influential and seminal essays, articles, and book chapters. -- Benjamin Crace -- Nova Religio
