Religion in Today's World

Melissa M. Wilcox is Associate Professor and Chair of Religion, and Director of Gender Studies at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. She has been teaching courses on the sociology of religion for over ten years, and is the author or co-editor of three other books focusing on religion, sexuality, and gender.

Section 1: What is Religion? Essay: "Tilting at Windmills: Defining and Predicting Religion" 1. Asad, Talal. 1993. "The Construction of Religion as an Anthropological Category." From Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam 2. McGuire, Meredith B. 2008. "Contested Meanings and Definitional Boundaries: Historicizing the Sociology of Religion." From Lived Religion: Faith and Practice in Everyday Life, 3. Berger, Peter L. 1967. Selections from The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion 3. Warner, R. Stephen. 1993. Selections from "Work in Progress Toward a New Paradigm for the Sociological Study of Religion in the United States." 4. Berger, Peter L. 1999. "The Desecularization of the World: A Global Overview." In Peter L. Berger, ed. The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics 5. Bruce, Steve. 2001. "The Curious Case of the Unnecessary Recantation: Berger and Secularization." In Linda Woodhead, ed. 6. Heelas, Paul and Linda Woodhead. 2005. Selections from "Bringing the Sacred to Life: Explaining Sacralization and Secularization." From The Spiritual Revolution: Why Religion is Giving Way to Spirituality Section 2: Religion and Social Institutions Essay: "Religion, State, and Nation" 7. Ashiwa, Yoshiko. 2009. "Positioning Religion in Modernity: State and Buddhism in China." In Yoshiko Ashiwa and David L. Wank, eds. 8. Hann, Chris and Mathijs Pelkmans. 2009. "Realigning Religion and Power in Central Asia: Islam, Nation-State and (Post)Socialism." 9. Bellah, Robert N. 1967. "Civil Religion in America." 10. Long, Charles H. 1995. "Civil Rights-Civil Religion: Visible People and Invisible People." From Significations: Signs, Symbols, and Images in the Interpretation of Religion, 11. Juergensmeyer, Mark. 2008. "The Militant Christian Right in the United States." From Global Rebellion: Religious Challenges to the Secular State, from Christian Militias to al Qaeda 12. Skya, Walter A. 2009. "Conclusion." From Japan’s Holy War: The Ideology of Radical Shinto Ultranationalism Section 3: Religion and Social Power Essay: "Religion, Oppression, and Resistance" 13. Marx, Karl. [1844] 1986. Introduction, Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Law. 14. Du Bois, W.E.B. [1903] 1995. "Of Our Spiritual Strivings" and "Of the Faith of the Fathers." From The Souls of Black Folk, ed. Randal Kenan 15. Medina, Lara. 2006. "Nepantla Spirituality: Negotiating Multiple Religious Identities among U.S. Latinas." In Miguel A. de la Torre and Gastón Espinosa, eds., Rethinking Latino(a) Religion and Identity 16. Brown, Karen McCarthy. 1991. Selections from Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn 17. Mahmood, Saba. 2005. "Agency, Gender, and Embodiment." From Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject 18. Yip, Andrew K.T. 2005. "Queering Religious Texts: An Exploration of British Non-heterosexual Christians’ and Muslims’ Strategy of Constructing Sexuality-affirming Hermeneutics." 19. Dzmura, Noach. 2010. "Intersexed Bodies in Mishnah: A Translation and an Activist’s Reading of Mishnah Androgynos" and "An Ancient Strategy for Managing Gender Ambiguity." In Noach Dzmura, ed. Balancing on the Mechitza: Transgender in the Jewish Community Section 4: Religion and Social Movements Essay: "Changing Religions, Changing Worlds" 20. Jeung, Russell. 2007. "Faith-Based, Multi-Tenant Organizing: The Oak Park Story." In Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, ed. Religion and Social Justice for Immigrants 21. Campbell, David C. and Carin Robinson. 2007. "Religious Coalitions for and Against Gay Marriage: The Culture War Rages On." In Craig A. Rimmerman and Clyde Wilcox, eds. The Politics of Same-Sex Marriage 22. Smith, Lisa Ann and Lori G. Beaman. 2010. "Displacing Religion, Disarming Law: Situating Quaker Spirituality in the ‘Trident Three’ Case." 23. Shaffir, William. 1995. "When Prophecy is Not Validated: Explaining the Unexpected in a Messianic Campaign." The Jewish Journal of Sociology 37(2):119-136. 25. Urban, Hugh B. 2006. "The Age of Satan: Satanic Sex and the Black Mass, from Fantasy to Reality." From Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism Section 5: Religion, Local and Global Essay: "Local and Global: Blurring the Boundaries" 26. Levitt, Peggy. 2007. "A New Religious Architecture." From God Needs No Passport: Immigrants and the Changing American Religious Landscape 27. Akresh, Ilana Redstone. 2011. "Immigrants’ Religious Participation in the United States." 28. Bendixsen, Synnøve. "Islam as a New Urban Identity? Young Female Muslims Creating a Religious Youth Culture in Berlin." In Glenda Tibe Bonifacio and Vivienne S. M. Angeles, eds. Gender, Religion, and Migration: Pathways of Integration 29. Nason-Clark, Nancy. 2009. "Christianity and the Experience of Domestic Violence: What Does Faith Have to Do with It?" Social Work and Christianity 30. Jacobs, Janet. 2011. "The Cross-Generational Transmission of Trauma: Ritual and Emotion among Survivors of the Holocaust." 31. Wessinger, Catherine L. 2000. "How the Millennium Comes Violently." From How the Millennium Comes Violently: From Jonestown to Heaven’s Gate 32. King, Richard. 2007. "The Association of ‘Religion’ with Violence: Reflections on a Modern Trope." In John R. Hinnells and Richard King, eds. Religion and Violence in South Asia: Theory and Practice