particularly those having been trained or being trained in methods of social science investigation of religious phenomena. This will include (of course) sociologists and anthropologists of religion. It will be a suitable adoption text for upper-level undergraduate classes and graduate methods seminars"-- e of those acts and utterances when they practice religion. In a related salutary shift, religion scholars have by and large quit thinking about religion as if it were unlike everything else that people do. Having ceased to treat religion as something sui generis, religion scholars are thereby freed to make full use of the tools at their disposal in the human sciences. (Trained in a positivistic tradition of social science that aims at producing generalizations about human behavior that are both theoretically parsimonious and sweepingly ambitious, Wuthnow now concludes that this basic approach is unsuitable for grasping as diverse and multifarious a phenomenon as religious practice. He favors the use of a broad range of analytic tools drawn from multiple disciplines and approaches to the study of religion.) The five chapters of this book describe the central concepts and arguments now advancing the study of religious practice. Chapter 1, entitled "Theories", discusses the theoretical c ontributions associated with the aforementioned shift in religious studies to the investigation of religious practice. Chapter 2, "Situations", discusses how religious activities and experiences are shaped by the physical and temporal spaces in which social action occurs. Chapter 3, "Intentions", takes on an important topic that has proven difficult to study from a social science perspective. "Feelings" are the focus of Chapter 4, and the role of "Bodies" is addressed in Chapter 5. In all chapters Wuthnow draws the reader's attention in particular to the work of anthropologists, historians, social and cognitive psychologists, and sociologists who have studied a wide range of topics that illuminate significant aspects of religious practice such as its role in the construction of sacred space, in gendered social relationships, in educational /learning settings, in the visual and performing arts, in meditation, and in ritual. This is a book for scholars and students in religious studies particularly those having been trained or being trained in methods of social science investigation of religious phenomena. This will include (of course) sociologists and anthropologists of religion. It will be a suitable adoption text for upper-level undergraduate classes and graduate methods seminars"-- Provided by publisher.
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