Meaning and Modernity: Religion, Polity, and Self [Paperback]

Richard Madsen (Editor), William M. Sullivan (Editor), Ann Swidler (Editor), Steven M. Tipton (Editor), Swidler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 3, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0520226577 | ISBN-13: 978-0520226579 | Edition: 1

Deepening and developing the seminal vision of Habits of the Heart (California, 1985), this volume presents original essays by leading thinkers in the social sciences, philosophy, and religion.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[This book] not only serves as a testimony to the intellectual influence of Robert Bellah, it establishes a new school of comparative religious and social thought." - Mark Juergensmeyer, author of Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence; "[A] highly readable collection of original, thought-provoking essays.... Readers will learn much about such issues as how Calvinism contributed to political revolution, why democracies require an enlarged sense of political community, how the religious foundations of Japan and the United States differ, and what it means to be a Christian and an American." - Benton Johnson, author of Functionalism in Modern Sociology: Understanding Talcott Parsons

From the Inside Flap

"This interesting volume of essays on contemporary religion and its ambivalent relationship to modernity not only serves as a testimony to the intellectual influence of Robert Bellah, it establishes a new school of comparative religious and social thought. This Bellahian school--at the intersection of sociological, theological, and contemporary philosophical thinking--has roots in Durkheim and Weber, borrows insights from Marx, Foucault, and Bourdieu, and finds its clearest voice in the writings of Bellah himself. The essays by some of Bellah's colleagues and former students that have been gathered in this volume address some of the most sagacious of these Bellahian themes: the religious dimension of contemporary civil societies, the relationship between religious and capitalist values, the cultural critique of modernity, and the moral visions that hold a promise of civic renewal."--Mark Juergensmeyer, author of Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence (California, 2000).

"This highly readable collection of original, thought-provoking essays by leading scholars provides fresh insights into the issues that Robert Bellah has addressed so fruitfully in his long career. Readers will learn much about such issues as how Calvinism contributed to political revolution, why democracies require an enlarged sense of political community, how the religious foundations of Japan and the United States differ, and what it means to be a Christian and an American."--Benton Johnson, coauthor of Vanishing Boundaries: The Religion of Protestant Baby Boomers (1994) and author of Functionalism in Modern Sociology: Understanding Talcott Parsons (1975)

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Product Details

• Paperback: 406 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (December 3, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520226577
• ISBN-13: 978-0520226579
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,116,337 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)