William H. Swatos – författare

The editor has shown clearly the new dimensions in sociology of religion which the classical schools neglected as personal and private concerns and which do not fit into the positivistic approach to the study of religion. This book introduces new pardigms in the study of sociology of religion to be developed in the context of new religious movements.... This book is a valuable addition to the fields of sociology of religion and new social movements. --Economic and Political Weekly From the evangelical and charismatic Christianity to the growth of Islamic fundamentalism, society today is witnessing an explosion of religious activity and revival. Yet, since the 1960s, sociologists have been proclaiming that religion has been in its death throes. Can such dynamic religious forces be at work if religion is dying? What is happening? And what do we expect to happen to religion in the coming decades? In A Future for Religion?, a leading team of scholars responds to these questions and offers a glimpse of where religion is heading. In their analyses, the authors explore several areas traditionally excluded from sociology of religion texts: religious experience, emotional renewal, religion and the body, comparative analyses, the links between religion and politics, social movements, and immigration. Each chapter summarizes a particular direction, provides data from current research, and offers an agenda for future research. Written in an accessible, inviting style, A Future for Religion? is ideally suited to courses in the sociology of religion. "This is a useful and sometimes very interesting handbook....It combines theory and practical sense in good measure." --Seminar

This volume consists of a collection of twelve empirical studies that address theoretical and practical issues relating to pilgrimage and tourism activities in late modernity. As a contribution to the Religion and Social Order series sponsored by the Association for the Sociology of Religion, these studies are particularly directed to assessing both the role of religion in the pilgrimage/tourism nexus and the ways in which religious expressions have changed as a result of the technological and social changes of late modernity that affect human behavior in a more general sense. The chapters address neo-pagan pilgrimage tours to ancient pagan temples, travels to spiritual healers, the development of historical sites by American religious movements of nineteenth-century origin, labyrinths, pilgrimages that emphasize walking a journey rather than visiting buildings, virtual pilgrimage, the Roman Jubilee of 2000, Kyôto’s Gion Festival, and similar topics.