A Theory of Religion

by Rodney Stark, William Bainbridge

In this unique text, Stark and Bainbridge begin with basic statements about human nature and, employing the principles of logic and philosophy, build toward increasingly complex propositions about societies and their religious institutions. They provide a rigorous yet flexible sociological theory of religion as well as a general sociological model for deriving macrolevel theory from microlevel evidence.

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction, Religion

390 pages, Paperback

First published July 31, 1987

About the author

Rodney Stark grew up in Jamestown, North Dakota, and began his career as a newspaper reporter. Following a tour of duty in the U.S. Army, he received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, where he held appointments as a research sociologist at the Survey Research Center and at the Center for the Study of Law and Society. He left Berkeley to become Professor of Sociology and of Comparative Religion at the University of Washington. In 2004 he joined the faculty of Baylor University. He published 30 books and more than 140 scholarly articles on subjects as diverse as prejudice, crime, suicide, and city life in ancient Rome. However, the greater part of his work has been on religion. He was former president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and of the Association for the Sociology of Religion. He also won a number of national and international awards for distinguished scholarship. Many of his books and articles have been translated and published in foreign languages, including Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Slovene, and Turkish.

Reviews

[Liquidlasagna]

It's really nothing more than

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What is rational choice theory in simple terms?

Rational choice theory can apply to a variety of areas, including economics, psychology and philosophy.

This theory states that individuals use their self-interests to make choices that will provide them with the greatest benefit.

People weigh their options and make the choice they think will serve them best.

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So it's just an explanation that religion has

benefits to like
with
costs to avoid

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basically sociologists wanting something testable like behavior economics to apply and study how rational people are i guess, with religions and cults

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very basically

choices + happiness = big deal