Contemporary American Religion: An Ethnographic Reader
Stock No: WW991960
Contemporary American Religion: An Ethnographic Reader  -     Edited By: Penny E. Becker, Robert Wuthnow
    By: Penny Edgell

Contemporary American Religion: An Ethnographic Reader

AltaMira Press / 1997 / Paperback

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Stock No: WW991960

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Product Information

Title: Contemporary American Religion: An Ethnographic Reader
By: Penny Edgell
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 272
Vendor: AltaMira Press
Publication Date: 1997
Dimensions: 5.98 X 9.01 X 0.61 (inches)
Weight: 14 ounces
ISBN: 0761991964
ISBN-13: 9780761991960
Stock No: WW991960

Publisher's Description

No single narrative or theory can describe the varieties of religious experience in North America today. The tidy dichotomies of liberal/ conservative, public/private, local/global, and renewal/secularization make little sense once specific congregations are examined closely. To understand the shifting boundaries of contemporary religious expressions, new tools are needed. Contemporary American Religion collects qualitative, on-the-ground studies of local congregations by up-and-coming religious scholars. Ethnography combined with more traditional sociological methods, help make sense of complex religious communities from Messianic Jews to evangelical feminists, from Gospel Hour at a gay bar to exurban megachurches. This collection covers a wide span of the religious landscape, always trying to uncover new theoretical insights. Essential reading for classes in sociology of religion, contemporary American religion, and anthropology of religion.

Author Bio

Penny Edgell: Cornell University
Nancy L. Eiesland: Emory University

Editorial Reviews

Contemporary American Religion is an ambitious anthology that, among its other aims, makes a compelling case for the importance of ethnographic research in the study of religious communities....This volume exhibits a keen sensitivity to religious transformation in America complemented by an awareness of changing scholarly conceptions of theory, ethnography, and cultural analysis. -- Review of Religious Research

Although many readers may finish this collection by agreeing with R. Wuthnow that 'ethnography is itself a highly diverse set of techniques and practices,' all will have been treated to an interesting, indeed fascinating 'read.' This is a book that could well be used as a discussion resource in college-level classes on American religion. -- Religious Studies Review

These essays...demonstrate the range of approaches—qualitative and quantitative, interview and archival—that characterize ethnographic research. The result is an anthology with all the descriptive richness and multiplicity of postmodern scholarship. But these essays successfully avoid the postmodern pitfall of neglecting theory building. With the help of the editors' useful introduction and Wuthnow's challenging conclusion, they work well together to question existing models of American religious life, suggest new ones and further the restructuring of the field. -- Nova Religio: The Journal Of Alternative And Emergent Religions

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