03819nam 22004575 450 991079264170332120230810001819.01-4798-8290-910.18574/9781479882908(CKB)3710000001025783(MiAaPQ)EBC4717760(DE-B1597)547941(DE-B1597)9781479882908(OCoLC)969740233(EXLCZ)99371000000102578320200608h20172017 fg 0engurcnu||||||||rdacontentrdamediardacarrierAlternative Sociologies of Religion Through Non-Western Eyes /James V. SpickardNew York, NY :New York University Press,[2017]©20171 online resource (259 pages) illustrations1-4798-2663-4 Includes bibliographical references and index.Front matter --Contents --Acknowledgments --Introduction: A sociologist thinks about religion --1. Sociology’s default view of religion --2. The default view’s historical- cultural origins --3. To china: A Confucian alternative --4. China applied: feeding the holy community --5. To north Africa: an Arab judge looks at history --6. Ibn Khaldun applied: Medjugorje and the Islamic state --7. To the American southwest: Navajo ritual and the experience of time --8. Navajo ritual applied: world- healing at the catholic worker --9. Are we stealing the Elgin marbles? --Postscript: living in a global world --Notes --References --Index --About the authorUncovers what the sociology of religion would look like had it emerged in a Confucian, Muslim, or Native American culture rather than in a Christian one Sociology has long used Western Christianity as a model for all religious life. As a result, the field has tended to highlight aspects of religion that Christians find important, such as religious beliefs and formal organizations, while paying less attention to other elements. Rather than simply criticizing such limitations, James V. Spickard imagines what the sociology of religion would look like had it arisen in three non-Western societies. What aspects of religion would scholars see more clearly if they had been raised in Confucian China? What could they learn about religion from Ibn Khaldun, the famed 14th century Arab scholar? What would they better understand, had they been born Navajo, whose traditional religion certainly does not revolve around beliefs and organizations? Through these thought experiments, Spickard shows how non-Western ideas understand some aspects of religions—even of Western religions—better than does standard sociology. The volume shows how non-Western frameworks can shed new light on several different dimensions of religious life, including the question of who maintains religious communities, the relationships between religion and ethnicity as sources of social ties, and the role of embodied experience in religious rituals. These approaches reveal central aspects of contemporary religions that the dominant way of doing sociology fails to notice. Each approach also provides investigators with new theoretical resources to guide them deeper into their subjects. The volume makes a compelling case for adopting a global perspective in the social sciences.Religion and sociologyReligionsReligion and sociology.Religions.306.6Spickard James V.authttp://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut893826DE-B1597DE-B1597BOOK9910792641703321Alternative Sociologies of Religion3780289UNINA