Richard K. Fenn is Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Christianity and Society, Princeton Theological Seminary, USA, and editor of the Blackwell Companion to Sociology of Religion (2001).

"Much more than the sum of its parts, this book weaves together the work of the founding fathers of the sociology of religion with selected contemporary thinkers to offer the best descriptive analysis of 'the sacred' to have appeared in decades. Fenn has written not only a reliable textbook but a unified essay on the self approached through the elusive bond between individual and society" - Professor Douglas Davies, Durham University, UK

• Introduction Key Thinkers: Emile DurkheimSigmund FreudMax WeberTalcott ParsonsDavid MartinBrian WilsonPeter BergerNiklas LuhmannClifford GertzMaurice BlochCatherine BellBibliography

Richard K. Fenn is Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Christianity and Society, Princeton Theological Seminary, USA, and editor of the Blackwell Companion to Sociology of Religion (2001).

"Much more than the sum of its parts, this book weaves together the work of the founding fathers of the sociology of religion with selected contemporary thinkers to offer the best descriptive analysis of 'the sacred' to have appeared in decades. Fenn has written not only a reliable textbook but a unified essay on the self approached through the elusive bond between individual and society" - Professor Douglas Davies, Durham University, UK

• Introduction Key Thinkers: Emile DurkheimSigmund FreudMax WeberTalcott ParsonsDavid MartinBrian WilsonPeter BergerNiklas LuhmannClifford GertzMaurice BlochCatherine BellBibliography

Richard K. Fenn is Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Christianity and Society, Princeton Theological Seminary, USA, and editor of the Blackwell Companion to Sociology of Religion (2001).

"Much more than the sum of its parts, this book weaves together the work of the founding fathers of the sociology of religion with selected contemporary thinkers to offer the best descriptive analysis of 'the sacred' to have appeared in decades. Fenn has written not only a reliable textbook but a unified essay on the self approached through the elusive bond between individual and society" - Professor Douglas Davies, Durham University, UK

• Introduction Key Thinkers: Emile DurkheimSigmund FreudMax WeberTalcott ParsonsDavid MartinBrian WilsonPeter BergerNiklas LuhmannClifford GertzMaurice BlochCatherine BellBibliography