Religion and Social Theory
- Bryan S Turner - City University of New York, USA
Social theories of religion are explored through a resolutely comparative and historical analysis of the Abrahamic faiths - Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Relating comparative religion to the social context of individualism, civil religions and political legitimacy, the book makes a major contribution to the analysis of conflict and consensus in social systems.
`This perceptive and wide-ranging book embraces a number of distinctive themes... one of the most stimulating books in the field for a long time' - British Journal of Sociology
`Turner writes... with much more analytical penetration and sensitivity to historical variation and conjuncture than is to be found in the vast majority of sociological writings of our time on the theme of religion' - Theory, Culture & Society
`The most important theoretical contribution to the sociology of religion in the last two decades. It presents a challenge to many of the prevailing assumptions in that field and suggests ways in which it could regain the position of centrality that it occupied in the work of classical sociologists such as Weber and Durkheim' - Professor Kenneth Thompson
