Religious Interaction Ritual: The Microsociology of the Spirit

by Scott Draper

Religious Interaction Ritual is microsociological study of religious practice, based on fieldwork with Conservative Jews, Bible Belt Muslims, white Baptists, black Baptists, Buddhist meditators, and Latino Catholics. In each case, Scott Draper scrutinizes how a congregation's ritual strategies help or hinder their efforts to achieve a transformative spiritual encounter, an intense feeling that becomes the basis of their most fundamental understandings of reality.

This book shows how these transformative spiritual encounters routinely depend on issues that can seem rather mundane by comparison, such as where the sanctuary's entrance is located, how many misprints end up in the church bulletin, or how long the preacher continues to preach beyond lunchtime. The spirit responds to other dynamics, as well, such as how congregations collectively imagine outsiders, or how they talk about ideas like individualism and patriarchy.

Building on provocative theories from sociologists such as Émile Durkheim, Erving Goffman, Randall Collins, and Anne Warfield Rawls, this book shows how "interaction ritual theory" opens compelling new pathways for sociological scholarship on religion. Micro-level specifics from fieldwork in Texas are supplemented with large-scale survey analysis of a wide array of religious organizations from across the United States.

Scott Draper is associate professor of sociology at The College of Idaho.

203 pages, Paperback

Published October 28, 2021

Reviews

[tessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dr Draper is a great professor and his book was actually very interesting and brought up great discussion points in the context of sociology and religion.

Probably wont re-read though, so 2 stars (sorry)