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In an era plagued by religious conflict, the Third Edition of Gods in the Global Village directly responds to issues of social problems prevalent in the world today. Using an engaging, thought-provoking style, author Lester R. Kurtz focuses on the relationship among the major faith traditions that inform the thinking and ethical standards of most people in the emerging global social order.
This book focuses on a central aspect of that common crisis. A major assumption of this book is that all knowledge is shaped by the social context of the knower; therefore, both religious traditions and our studies of them are shaped by the context in which we construct them. The author argues that religious pluralism will be a necessary precondition of the global village for the foreseeable future. The question that faces us as a human community is not “Which religious tradition is true?” or even “Is any religious tradition true?” but rather “How can we enable the various religious and secular traditions to coexist peacefully on the planet?” The text supports the belief that the sociology of religion—itself a pluralistic discipline—can provide invaluable insight into the most pressing problems of our time.
- Sales Rank: #297475 in Books
- Brand: Brand: SAGE Publications, Inc
- Published on: 2011-12-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: .90" h x 6.00" w x 8.90" l, 1.15 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 400 pages
- Used Book in Good Condition
Review
"Kurtz’s book is the only textbook on the sociology of religion to my knowledge that is genuinely interreligious. It transcends the one-sidedness of western / Christian views not only in intent, but in fact… the book introduces the key topics and concerns of the given discipline with clarity and good continuity. It is also quite comprehensive. In one word, it is a textbook that can be used as such without too much of a need for the instructor to reshuffle everything." (Claude A. Perrottet 2001-04-27)
About the Author
Lester R. Kurtz is Professor of Public Sociology at George Mason University, where he teaches the comparative sociology of religion, peace and conflict, social movements, globalization, and both Western and non-Western social theory. He has lectured regularly at the European Peace University and was previously Director of Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Prof. Kurtz holds a Master’s in Religion from Yale Divinity School and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago. He is editor of the three-volume Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, & Conflict (Elsevier), coeditor of the two-volume Women, War and Violence (Praeger), Nonviolent Conflict and Civil Resistance (Emerald), Nonviolent Social Movements: A Geographical Perspective (Blackwell), and The Web of Violence: From Interpersonal to Global (University of Illinois Press). He is also the author of numerous books and articles on religion and conflict peace, including The Nuclear Cage: A Sociology of the Arms Race (Prentice Hall) and The Politics of Heresy: The Modernist Crisis in Roman Catholicism (University of California Press), which received the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion’s Distinguished Book Award. He is currently working on books titled Gods and Bombs: Religion and the Rhetoric of Violence and another on Fighting Violence.
Prof. Kurtz is the past Chair of the Peace and Justice Studies Association as well as the Peace, War, and Social Conflict Section of the American Sociological Association, which awarded him its Robin Williams Distinguished Career Award in 2005. He received the Lester F. Ward Award for Distinguished Contributions to Applied and Clinical Sociology in 2014 and has lectured in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America and has taught at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Delhi University in India, and Tunghai University in Taiwan.
Most helpful customer reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
Finally! My kind of Sociology of Religion!
By by Amanda Evans, Sunflower Press
Exceptional. Unlike most Sociology of Religion texts, this one is not stuck in the mechanics and jargon of the author's pet method for analyzing, nor does it assault one with crude reductionisms. One learns a great deal about the various religions, whose major themes are compared utilizing ample sociological acumen. Thus the book is informative enough for the student of sociology and is readable enough for the non-sociologist. Kurtz discusses the challenges encountered by the world's religions and the responses they make to pluralism, modernism, and social conflict. I especially appreciated the discussion of religion's response to violence and the rise of feminism, both not inconsiderable issues in today's world, but seldom treated in previous texts. I would have liked to have seen something about Sikhism, the dissemination of Native American tradition, and more about newer religions. Any reader may have his or her own favorite. If all were included the book would be a library and probably not yet available. We can only hope for further work on religion from this author. Useful for the students of religion as well as of sociology and likely to provide fertile discussion. This is the kind of book I longed to read for years. This is a book I will assign.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
excellent text on the sociology of religion
By A Customer
Summary:
This is really more of a textbook on the sociology of religion than anything else. As such, it is not particularly conducive to summation (too many topics; too much information).
However, there are two things worth noting about the contents. First, the book goes to great lengths to look at religion from a global perspective, which I found to be invaluable and informative, especially considering how uncommon it is to do so. The second point is similar - the book doesn't focus on just Christianity or U.S. religion. The book compares, contrasts, and examines all of the major world religions- Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. There isn't really more emphasis on one than another; they pretty much receive equal treatment, which is also unusual.
Comments:
The fact that the book looks at all of the major world religions rather than focusing on just Christianity, which is early on outlined as the book's objective (a global perspective), is refreshing and likely very informative for students in the U.S. who typically are somewhat ignorant of life outside of their country.
It is also nice that the author, Lester Kurtz, reveals his personal religious biases to begin with. His wife and kids are Jewish, but as a family they predominantly worship at Quaker worship services. His interest in the Quaker religion is revealed, to a degree, by his treatment of Ghandi. Not only is the treatment quite extensive, but Ghandi is idolized for his peaceful tactics (not that I disagree with this approach, I just found it revealing of the author's biases). Also, the final chapter, though well-written and not particularly overt, is definitely Kurtz's attempt to spread a message of peace. He doesn't necessarily attack religions for their history of justifying violence, but he definitely hopes this history is nearing its end.
Despite being well-written and offering an informative global perspective, there are a couple of problems with the book. First, there is only minimal treatment of secularization. Lacking is a discussion of neo-secularization (Chaves 1994), though admittedly much of this was happening while Kurtz was writing the book. Also, though the debate continues, there is definitely much more evidence for the existence of secularization in the U.S. than is presented in the text.
The book also gives the impression that it isn't possible to have values/morals without religion. I'm guessing this isn't the intention of the author as he tends to be fairly objective, but it is implied in several locations. I also found the author's usage of scripture, the Bible in particular, disturbing. He goes in and out of using the Bible as historical and metaphorical and never specifically states which perspective he is employing at any given point. For instance, Kurtz uses the story of Moses coming to power as the leader of the Children of Israel to make a point about religions generally, but also seems to conclude that the story is historically accurate. Whether he really believes it is or not isn't clear.
Finally, the author has a tendency to drift off onto theoretical tangents that at times are more rambling than coherent. These occurrences are few and far between, but when they do happen you find yourself wondering how you arrived where you are.
Overall, I highly recommend this book as a text for a course on the sociology of religion. The book is for the most part accurate, well-written, and clear (I know he missed one point with Mormons, but I didn't find many other flaws). The book isn't without its problems, but they are truly minimal compared to the synthesis of a global perspective on religions he has produced in writing this book.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Class Textbook
By Lily Pacdoski
I am taking a Sociology class on religion and this book is easy to read. It gets the point across without going too in depth. Great for someone just being introduced to the many religions in the world.
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