Religions in Practice, 4th Edition

This widely used textbook offers a unique perspective on how people engage in everyday religious practices--such as prayer, sacrifice, initiation, and healing--by investigating broad-scale issues, such as transnationalism, gender, and religious laws.

 

No other text examines the full spectrum of religions, from small-scale societies to full-blown “world religious movements.” The in-depth treatment of Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity is of particular interest to students, and is easily expanded to include field projects directly related to material covered in the text. As one reviewer writes, “In our post 9/11 era, it is great to have a book whose author has done fieldwork in Indonesia and is so knowledgeable about Islam.”

Preface.


1. Studying Religion Through Practice.

What is “Religion”?

An Anthropological Approach to Religion.

Practices, Contexts, Diversity.

2. Social Theory in the Anthropology of Religion.

Religion as Intellectual Activity.

Religions in Social Life.

The Psychology of Religion.

3. Ideas and Practices of “Religion” in Europe and Elsewhere.

Western Ideas of Religion.

Other Religions, Other Models.

Combining Religious Practices in Japan.

4. Ritual and the Shaping of Emotions.

Rites of Passage.

Initiation, Secrecy, and Fear.

Death Ritual and the Social Order.

Grief and Ritual Form.

5. Transforming Selves.

Gender and Anthropology

Creating Gender through Ritual.

Producing a Pious Female Self

Converting to a New Faith

6. Extending our Powers: Magic and Healing.

Magic, Patterns, and Causes.

Explaining Misfortune.

The New Age.

Wicca or Modern Witchcraft.

7. Science and Religion.

Does Prayer Heal?

Narrative and Pain Relief.

Does Evolution Explain Religion

Can Creationists Teach Evolution?

8. Sorcery, Witchcraft and Modernity.

La Sorcellerie in Cameroon.

Azande Oracles.

Sorcery and Modernity.

Witchcraft as Satan versus God.

9. Worship and Hierarchy.

Sacrafice, Offerings, and Deities

Bathing at Benareas

Muslim-Hindu Violence

10. Images and Faith: Focus on Worldwide Catholicism.

Relics and Images in Catholicism

Mary and Marys in European Societies

11. Sacred Speech and Divine Power.

The Qur'ân as Recitation of God's Speech.

The Creative Power of Navajo Speech and Song.

Speech and Grace in Protestant Churches.

12. Transnational Diaspora Religions.

Transnational and Diasporic Religions

The Jewish Diaspora: History and Ritual

Transnational Religion: Africa and Brazil across the Atlantic

Mary in Mesoamerica

South Asians Overseas

13. Focus on Muslims in Europe.

Migration and Transnational Ties

Transnational Islam in Three Senses

Can European Societies be Muslim?

14. Religion, Radicalism, and Violence.

Cults, Sects, and Violence.

Explaining Where Violence Occurred: The Hindu-Muslim Case

Struggle and Authority in Islam

Recruitment to Terrorism

15. Secularism and Religions in Modern States.

How to Think about “Secular States”

Three Meanings of “Secularism”

Secularism and Pluralism in the United States

Secularism and Public Religion: Three European Variants

When Religion Underlies Law

Secularism, Faith, and Toleration