Religion and Alienation : A Theological Reading of Sociology

by Baum, Gregory

• ISBN13: 9781570756894
• ISBN10: 1570756899
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-03-01
• Publisher: Orbis Books

Summary

When theologian Gregory Baum took a two-year leave of absence from his university classroom to become a student of sociology, he made discoveries that shaped his subsequent work. In the classic sociological literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (including the works of Hegel, Marx, Toennies, Freud, Durkheim, and Weber) he found insights about the social factors shaping religious consciousness, and about how religion can function in an ideological fashion to reinforce social structures, or as a critical force for social change. Here in this lucid reading of the classics of sociology, Baum offers an essential guide for students of theology, social theory, and anyone interested in the vital, if ambivalent, relation between religion and society. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Gregory Baum is professor emeritus of theology at McGill University

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. 7
Preface to the Second Edition	p. 13
Preface to the First Edition	p. 15
A Short Bibliography	p. 19
Religion as Source of Alienation: The Young Hegel	p. 21
Religion as Product of Alienation: The Young Marx	p. 33
Alienation in Industrial Society: Ferdinand Toennies	p. 49
The Ambiguity of Religion: A Biblical Account	p. 65
The Ambiguity of Religion: A Social Science Account	p. 82
The Discovery of the Symbolic: Freud and Durkheim	p. 105
The Secularization Debate	p. 125
Creative Religion: Max Weber's Perspective	p. 143
Critical Theology	p. 168
The Eschatological Promises	p. 194
After Thirty Years	p. 213
Notes	p. 241
Index	p. 255
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