History, Time, Meaning, and Memory

by Denison, Barbara Jones

• ISBN13: 9789004210622
• ISBN10: 9004210628
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-08-31
• Publisher: Brill Academic Pub

Summary

It can be said that history is poor sociology that does not account sufficiently for present social circumstances, while sociology is bad history in that it does not go back in time. This volume in the Religion and Social Order series sets out to address these conjoint problems of history and sociology within the disciplinary boundaries of the sociology of religion. History has such a fickle nature that it has seen religion hold varied and different places within the timeline of sociological thought. Religion had a high level of importance among the early founders of sociology. A perceived decline of significance for religion by sociology in the latter half of the twentieth century mirrored the changing social location of religion. The increase in world fundamentalisms, religious movements, private spiritualities and other indicators in the millennial age have brought a renaissance to this longstanding subdiscipline and shown that religion is far from extinction.

Author Biography

Barabara Jones Denison, PhD(1985) in Sociology North western University is department chair and directs the graduate leadership program at Shippensburg University she co authored social problems in Global Perspectives and Assistant Editor of the Encyclopedia of Religion and society. She is past executive officer of the Association for the sociology of Religion and past president of the Pennsylvania sociological Society.

Table of Contents

Preface: Traveling Through Time	p. vii
Introduction: History, Time, Meaning, and Memory in the Sociology of Religion	p. 1
Clio Goes to ChurchùAgain: Places for History in the Sociology of Religion	p. 9
The History of Meaning	p. 47
Historical Observation in the Sociology of Religion: A View from Within the Communicative Networks of Two Scientific Disciplines	p. 65
Past in the Present: Indigenous Leadership and Party Politics Among the Amasiri of Southeastern Nigeria	p. 81
The Development and Major Problems of Religious Legislation in Taiwan	p. 111
Developing a Historical Sociology of Nationalism and State Secularization in Latin America	p. 145
Religion and Deviance: Theocrats vs. Democrats	p. 179
On the Processes and Problematics of Representing Divinity: Dio Chrysostom (ca. 40-120) and the Pragmatist Motif.	p. 205
The Genres of Religious Freedom: Creating Discourses on Religion at the State Department	p. 223
Afterword: What is History?	p. 255
Contributors	p. 265
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