Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion. By Rodney Stark and Roger Finke. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. 343 pp. $48.00 (cloth); $18.95 (paper). At a recent American Academy of Religion meeting, after a brilliant paper was presented on God and religious experience, the speaker was asked this question by an academic: "But how can you say these things in our postmodem, anti-enlightenment, pluralistic age?" Acts of Faith secures the thesis that not just talk about, but devout belief in, God is rational, widespread, and shows no sign of abating. For a vast number of well-educated, articulate human beings talk of God is not very difficult at all. Acts of Faith is an important treatment of the sociology of religious belief and should be considered required reading by anyone interested in the social standing and assessment of religion. It overturns the conventions of a great deal of earlier sociological inquiry into religion and stands as a model of clarity and rigor. Rodney Stark and Roger Finke begin by documenting the social and intellectual history of atheism, noting how history, sociology, and psychoanalysis have been employed to exhibit the irrationality of religious belief. They underscore how many of these projects have done little more than presup- pose the credulous nature of religion. There is something darkly humorous about the many techniques employed by "intellectuals" and social scientists to explain why religion persists and even grows amidst "modernity." Stark and Finke's analysis is devastating. From the outset through to the last chapter the writing is crisp and at times quite amusing. Here is a passage from the introduction, lamenting the fact that many sociologists focus their work on fringe religious groups: A coven of nine witches in Lund, Sweden, is far more apt to be the object of a case study than is, say, the Episcopal Church, with more than two million members. Some of this merely reflects that it is rather easier to get one's work published if the details are sufficiently lurid or if the group is previously undocumented. A recitation of Episcopalian theology and excerpts from the Book of Common Prayer will not arouse nearly the interest (prurient or otherwise) than can be generated by tales of blondes upon the altar and sexual contacts with animals (p. 19). Stark and Finke have written a text that abounds in technical case studies, while at the same time giving us a book that is a pleasure to read. The introduction and first three chapters alone are a tour de force. They expose the blatant inadequacy of sociological work that reads religious belief as pathology or flagrant irrationality. They challenge the thesis of impending, virtually inevitable secularization, for instance, in part by refuting the claim that in the distant past almost everyone was religious. …

Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion

List of Illustrations and Maps - Introduction - PART 1: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND - Dark Age Christianity: Miracles in the Missionary Epoch -The Holy Dead and their Relics - Pilgrims' Progress and Wonder Tales - PART 2: ENGLISH SHRINES AND PILGRIMS - Faith-Healing: Medicine and Miracle - Saintly Therapy in Action: Shrine-cures and Home-cures - Recording and Sorting Posthumous Miracles - Murders and Miracle-cults in Twelfth-century England - Saints, Sickness and Snobbery: Shrines and their Clientele - Maps and Miracles: The Geography of Pilgrimage -The Changing Fortunes of a Curative Shrine: St. Thomas Cantilupe - PART 3: THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES AND THE REFORMATION - Shifting Loyalties: New Shrines and Old Saints at the end of the Middle Ages - The Destruction of the Shrines - Conclusion - Abbreviations - Notes - Select Bibliography - Index

Miracles and Pilgrims: Popular Beliefs in Medieval England

The Merchant Class of Medieval London (1300-1500)

The Sociology of Religious Movements

The victualling crafts the textile industry the clothing industry the leather industry metal workers the building crafts minor crafts artisans and the civic authorities industrial investment wealth and social status.

Medieval Artisans: An Urban Class in Late Medieval England

In late-medieval England, craft guilds simultaneously pursued piety and profit. Why did guilds pursue those seemingly unrelated goals? What were the consequences of that combination? Theories of organizational behavior answer those questions. Craft guilds combined spiritual and occupational endeavors because the former facilitated the success of the latter and vice versa. The reciprocal nature of this relationship linked the ability of guilds to attain spiritual and occupational goals. This link between religion and economics at the local level connected religious and economic trends in the wider world.

/pdf/rational-choice-analysis-craft-guilds-and-christianity-in-25r51x50de.pdf

Rational-Choice Analysis Craft Guilds and Christianity in Late-Medieval England: A

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Rational-Choice Analysis Craft Guilds and Christianity in Late-Medieval England: A