With God on Our Side

Religion, Social Movements, and Social Change
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-3-11-123536-3
Verlag: De Gruyter

Buch, Englisch, 229 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 230 mm, Gewicht: 478 g

Reihe: De Gruyter contemporary social sciences

Religion plays a central role in a variety of social movements, including many that are not explicitly faith-based. This book provides the first systematic analysis of the ways religion contributes to diverse movements for social change. It draws on a variety of case studies, from the US and globally, to build an argument about religion’s distinctive capacity to provide logistical support, to inspire and legitimize activist practices, to connect different spatial scales, and to link big ideas to everyday experiences. The book’s analysis rests on three foundational arguments. First and most fundamentally, it is impossible to understand movements for social change without analyzing the multiple ways that religion shapes their ideas, communities, and practices. Second, religion is always in mutually transformative interaction with social and political forces and can never be entirely separated from them. In social movements and in the public sphere more generally, people interpret politics with values and concepts drawn from religion and understand their activism as spiritually meaningful. This challenges the assumption that religion is a largely a private matter. Third, scholars must treat religion as a relatively independent variable, which actively shapes social processes just as it is shaped by them. We cannot make sense of religion’s role in social movements without acknowledging that religious institutions and traditions have, to some extent, a life of their own.

Zielgruppe

Scholars and students of Religious Studies, Sociology, Political

Autoren/Hrsg.

Peterson, Anna

Peterson, Anna Lisa

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Politik & Religion, Religionsfreiheit
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Demographie, Demoskopie
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religion & Politik, Religionsfreiheit
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Religionssoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Abtreibung, Geburtenkontrolle: Soziale & Ethische Themen

Über Autor(innen)

Anna Peterson is Professor in the Department of Religion at the University of Florida. Her research and teaching focus on social and environmental ethics, religion and social movements, and animal studies. She has published widely in these areas. Her most recent book is Works Righteousness: Material Practice in Ethical Theory (Oxford, 2021).

Anna Peterson is Professor in the Department of Religion at the University of Florida. Her research and teaching focus on social and environmental ethics, religion and social movements, and animal studies. She has published widely in these areas. Her most recent book is Works Righteousness: Material Practice in Ethical Theory (Oxford, 2021).