A new book, Religion on the Edge: De-centering and Re-centering the Sociology of Religion, edited by TIF contributors Courtney Bender, Wendy Cadge, Peggy Levitt and David Smilde, has been published:
The thirteen essays in this volume challenge conventional scholarly approaches to the sociology of religion. They urge readers to look beyond congregational settings, beyond the United States, and to religions other than Christianity, and encourage critical engagement with religion’s complex social consequences. Religion on the Edge offers groundbreaking new methodologies and models, bringing to light conceptual lacunae, re-centering what is unsettled by their use, and inviting a significant reordering of long-accepted political and economic hierarchies. The book shows how social scientists across the disciplines can engage with the sociology of religion. By challenging many of its long-standing empirical and analytic tendencies, the contributors to this volume show how their work informs and is informed by debates in other fields and the analytical purchase gained by bringing these many conversations together. Religion on the Edge will be a crucial resource for any scholar seeking to understand our post-modern, post-secular world.
The issues raised in this book have also been explored in an SSRC Working Paper, “The Emerging Strong Program in the Sociology of Religion,” by David Smilde and Matthew May, and in The Immanent Frame series, “Toward a new sociology of religion?” which was organized as a response to the Working Paper and includes several contributors to this volume.