Religion in Modern Times An Interpretive Anthology

What has happened to religion in modern times? Why has it happened? And what might happen next? This book offers answers to these questions by bringing together over 300 of the of most important readings in the area, and by offering a new framework and language for making sense of religion today. Drawing on the humanities, social sciences and theology, the book presents theoretical reflections, empirical studies, and vivid examples. It considers the main varieties of religion in modern times, their interactions with different social contexts, and their general trends. Religion in Modern Times develops a distinctive approach to both religion and modernity by paying attention to their variety and complex interrelations. It considers the different types of religion today, and their encounters with the forces of modernization - including nationalism, democracy, capitalism, consumerism, gender and identity politics. This volume offers for the first time a clear picture of a religious world characterized by the coexistence of:- Traditional faiths and new spiritualities.- The God without and the god within.- Secularization and sacralization.- Tolerant universalism and exclusivist difference.- Gendered and genderless religion.- External authority and the authority of the self.- Privatization and political militancy.

Linda Woodhead is Lecturer in Christian Studies at Lancaster University. Until recently she was Editor of Studies in Christian Ethics, and she is currently Review Editor of Modern Believing and a co-editor of Cultural Values (Blackwell Publishers).

Paul Heelas is Professor of Religion and Modernity at Lancaster University. He is the author of The New Age Movement (Blackwell Publishers, 1996) and editor of Religion, Modernity and Postmodernity (Blackwell Publishers, 1998).