Religion in the Contemporary World: A Sociological Introduction

by Alan Aldridge

In the new edition of this widely praised text, Alan Aldridge examines the complex realities of religious belief, practice and institutions. Religion is a powerful and controversial force in the contemporary world, even in supposedly secular societies. Almost all societies seek to cultivate religions and faith communities as sources of social stability and engines of social progress. They also try to combat real and imagined abuses and excess, regulating cults that brainwash vulnerable people, containing fundamentalism that threatens democracy and the progress of science, and identifying terrorists who threaten atrocities in the name of religion.

The third edition has been carefully revised to make sure it is fully up to date with recent developments and debates. Major themes in the revised edition include the recently erupted 'culture war' between progressive secularists and conservative believers, the diverse manifestations of 'fundamentalism' and their impact on the wider society, new individual forms of religious expression in opposition to traditional structures of authority, and the backlash against 'multiculturalism' with its controversial implications for the social integration of ethnic and religious minority communities.Impressive in its scholarly analysis of a vibrant and challenging aspect of human societies, the third edition will appeal strongly to students taking courses in the sociology of religion and religious studies, as well as to everyone interested in the place of religion in the contemporary world.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Sociology, Theology

256 pages, Hardcover

First published February 28, 2000

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Alan^^Aldridge

Reviews

[Me me Do]

Key takeaways:
- The secularisation thesis is a lie because America
- Durkheim said ‘Religion is society worshipping itself’ while twirling his beard
- Feminism and New Ageism are harbingers of a new religiosity removed from its fundamentalism
- A very vivid dream where Ms Neave was converting people to Mormonism (traumatising)

What’s Religion you ask? I still couldn’t tell you

[Monica]

Very interesting and relevant sociological commentary on new religious movements, sects and why they attract people in democratic societies.

[Tosca Wijns-Van Eeden]

So I started reading this due to a course I was following, but I had to drop the course but continued reading this book because it is so really interesting!
I think it touches a lot of todays problems with the world and religion without being offensive to any kind of religion. It explains a lot about how people view a diversion of religions, both in the Christian spectrum, but also Islam, Judaïsm, and smaller non-Christian sects. It doesn't focus a lot on the Eastern religions because this book mainly focusses on the Western world, meaning America and Europe.
I highly enjoyed this book and I recommend it to many who is interested in religion in a general sense.

Update: Read it again due to following the course again (this time finishing it), still very much enjoy the book! It tries not to judge other faiths, yet it is written from a very Western perspective.

[Titus Hjelm]

Finally read the 1st edition that has been resting on my shelves for 10 years, so whatever I say here might not apply to the second edition, although in most cases editions stay pretty much the same beyond minor updates. Aldridge does a good job covering the very basic sociology of religion stuff, with an emphasis on secularisation and its critics, and new religious movements. Interestingly, although the author is British, the book seems to be targeted at the US market. Many of the examples and the overall approach is much conditioned by US interests. I would not use this as a coursebook on a European course on sociology of religion, but that doesn't make it a bad book.

[Peter]

The Senior Lecturer of Sociology Alan Aldridge taught at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. Aldridge wrote the book, Religion in the Contemporary World: A Sociological Introduction. The book fulfills the meaning of the title. I read the 3rd edition was published in 2013. I read the book on my Kindle. This book can be used as a textbook. The book has different chapters on introductory aspects of the sociology of religion. Many of the examples in Aldridge’s book are from Great Britain, France, and the United States. The first chapter has different sociological definitions of religion. The second chapter is on sociological concepts of secularization. The concept of secularization is a lot easier to define than the concept of religion. The third chapter is about contemporary theories about the relationship between secularization and religion. The fourth chapter is on sects and cults in sociology. The fifth chapter is on religious fundamentalism. The sixth chapter is entitled “Civil Religion and Political Religion” (Aldridge 148). The seventh chapter is on “Gender and Sexuality” (Aldridge 165). The eighth chapter is on modern spirituality. The last chapter is on religious and cultural diversity. Alan Aldridge’s book Religion in the Contemporary World is an excellent introduction to the field of the sociology of religions.

[Marc Chéhab]

Anybody interested in the role of religion in society (the sociology of religion), this is probably the best book to start of with. It familiarises the reader with the classic theories of religion (Durkheim, Marx, Weber, etc.) and has two wonderful chapters on the secularisation thesis! I especially recommend it for 'new Atheists' to question what is sometimes a very simplistic view of religion...

[Kerry]

Alan Aldridge proves himself as good an author as he is a lecturer! This book is an easy to read, fascinating exploration of the different ways in which religion affects our contemporary world. He provides many interesting examples throughout and successfully explores a variety of ways in which the term 'religion' is a contestable notion, open to flexibility.