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| Preface to the Third Edition | |
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| Acknowledgements | |
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| Defining Religion: Social Conflicts and Sociological Debates | |
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| Scientology: authentic religion or imposture? | |
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| Baha'i: world faith or apostasy? | |
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| Religion and the state | |
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| Advantages of being recognized as a religion | |
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| Disadvantages of status as a religion | |
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| Defining people as religious | |
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| Max Weber: on not defining religion | |
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| �mile Durkheim: defining religion sociologically | |
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| Contemporary sociological definitions of religion | |
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| A Wittgensteinian approach | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Secularization: The Social Insignificance of Religion? | |
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| Karl Marx and the projection theory of religion | |
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| �mile Durkheim and the social functions of religion | |
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| Max Weber and the disenchantment of the world | |
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| Defining secularization | |
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| Secularization from within | |
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| Decline of community | |
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| Marginalization of charisma | |
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| Cultural amnesia | |
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| Pluralization, relativism and consumer choice | |
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| Reason, rationality and science | |
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| A consensus on dystopia? | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Secularization Challenged: A New Paradigm? | |
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| A secularization theorist recants | |
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| A new paradigm | |
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| Voluntarism according to Talcott Parsons | |
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| The demand for religion: a rational choice? | |
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| The supply of religion: the benefits of competition? | |
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| Strict churches and free-riders | |
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| The Mormons: a new world faith? | |
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| Jehovah's Witnesses: overcoming the failure of prophecy | |
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| The new paradigm and the rise of the megachurches | |
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| The Pentecostals | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Dangerous Religions? Sects, Cults and Brainwashing | |
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| Classifying Christian movements | |
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| New religious movements | |
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| Dynamics of change | |
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| The rise of 'brainwashing' | |
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| Identifying potentially destructive movements | |
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| The fall of 'brainwashing' | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Dangerous Religions? Fundamentalism | |
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| Bible believers | |
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| Fundamentalism and monotheism | |
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| Features of fundamentalism | |
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| Islamophobia | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Civil Religion and Political Ritual | |
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| Ritual and social integration: the legacy of Durkheim | |
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| 'In God We Trust': civil religion in the United States | |
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| The European Union: symbols of an unfinished project | |
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| Symbolic division in society: the peace process in Northern Ireland | |
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| Political religion in an atheist society: the Soviet Union | |
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| Political religion and charismatic leadership: Nazi Germany | |
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| Character and society | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Gender and Sexuality | |
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| The subordination of women | |
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| Reclaiming the symbols of subordination | |
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| Gender-blind religions? | |
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| Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) identities | |
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| Further reading | |
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| The Spiritual Revolution | |
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| Georg Simmel: an alternative classical view | |
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| Believing without belonging | |
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| From religion to spirituality? | |
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| A new age? | |
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| Pagans | |
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| Religion online and online religion | |
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| Individualism and the crisis of religious authority | |
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| Religion in consumer society | |
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| Lived religion and sociological analysis | |
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| Further reading | |
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| The Challenge of Diversity | |
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| The debate about multiculturalism | |
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| French culture and the veiling of women | |
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| A clash of civilizations? | |
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| The challenge of diversity | |
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| Grassroots responses to diversity | |
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| Afterword: a culture war? | |
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| Further reading | |
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| References | |
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| Index | |