Key Thinkers in the Sociology of Religion - by Richard K Fenn (Paperback)

About the Book

Key Thinkers in the Sociology of Religion takes a focused look at the foremost figures in the development of the field.

Book Synopsis

Key Thinkers in the Sociology of Religion takes a focused look at the foremost figures in the development of the field. From the groundbreaking work of Max Weber, right up to that of contemporary writers such as Peter Berger and Niklas Luhmann, this volume is an essential companion for the student of sociology of religion.

Charting the development of theory in this area, each chapter looks at the life and work of an individual theorist, building to a picture of the field as it is today. Richard Fenn's book provides a route to a rounded understanding of the field, through the thought that defined it.

Review Quotes

"Reading this book is like attending a lecture course, in which the professor- deeply wise- engaged the thinkers he reviews in ways that stretch them beyond their accustomed bounds... Fern's chapter on Peter Berger is masterful... the book's strength is its sense of intellectual engagement." --Sociology of Religion, volume 72, no. 2

"The book's strength is its sense of intellectual engagement, as Fenn showed me something about each of these thinkers that had not been seen before. In treating each of them seriously, in all their depth and relevance, he showed me both the limits and the possibilities of sociology as a way of engaging with both the sacred and the religious in late-modern life." --Sociology of Religion

About the Author

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).