Sociology of Religion for Generations X and Y

by Possamai, Adam

• ISBN13: 9781845533045
• ISBN10: 1845533046
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-10-26
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Summary

Readers and students from generations X and Y are involved in consumer culture, get part of their knowledge through popular culture and/or the internet, and are more practical than theoretical. This book on the sociology of religion straddles the intersection between consumer culture, cyber-culture and popular culture, and focuses on the need of these generations.

Author Biography

Adam Possamai is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Western Sydney. He is the author of Religion and Popular Culture: A Hyper-Real Testament (2005), In Search of New Age Spiritualities (2005) and Perles Noires (2005), a collection of short stories in French. He is a former President of the Australian Association for the Study of Religions and was the 2002-2007 co-editor of the Australian Religion Studies Review. He is currently the Secretary of the Executive Board of RC22 on the sociology of religion from the International Sociological Association and was the programme coordinator for the Sociology of Religion section at the last World Congress of Sociology in South Africa.

Table of Contents

Tables	p. vii
Figures	p. viii
Acknowledgements	p. ix
Note	p. x
Introduction: Xers and Yers as Cohorts of the Post-1970s Generation	p. 1
Religious Diversity and the Politics of Definition	p. 9
Religion and Popular Culture	p. 25
Religion and Modernity: Marx, Durkheim and Weber	p. 39
Religion, Spirituality and the Post-Secularisation Approach	p. 52
Religion and Postmodernity (Part A): Consumer Religions	p. 67
Religion and Postmodernity (Part B): Hyper-reality and the Internet	p. 82
Esotericism, Its McDonaldisation, and Its Re-enchantment Process	p. 95
Monotheistic Fundamentalism(s) as an Outcome of Consumer Culture	p. 110
Buddhism, Its Westernisation and the Easternisation of the West	p. 125
Christianity: Churches and Sects in a Post-Christian World	p. 139
The Multiple-Modernities of Islam?	p. 153
New Religious Movements and the Death of the New Age	p. 167
Witchcraft, the Internet, and Consumerism	p. 182
Conclusion What Do Sociologists of Religion in Academia Do Apart from Teaching and Marking? Their Work as Intellectuals	p. 196
References	p. 206
Index	p. 219
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