Sociology of Religion

This book illustrates the variety of religious, spiritual and other beliefs held by older people, including British Christians, Muslims, Humanists and witnesses of the Soviet persecution of religion.

This timely and unique contribution brings together leading scholars from criminology and theology to challenge criminal justice orthodoxy. They question the dominance of retributive punishment, and consider alternatives which draw on Christian ideas of hope, mercy and restoration.

Moral order is disturbed by criminal events, however traditionally, issues around morality have been neglected by criminologists. Using the moral perspective Boutellier bridges the gap between people’s emotional opinions on crime, and criminologists rationalised answers to questions of crime and security.

Written by academics from different disciplines and backgrounds, this book offers an international practical guide to doing diversity in the social sciences.

"Faith in the public realm" takes an explicitly multi-faith perspective, exploring the controversies, policies and practices of 'public faith'. It questions perceptions of a fixed divide between religious and secular participants in public life and challenges prevailing concepts of a monolithic 'neutral' public realm.

This timely book explores the role played by faith-based organisations (FBOs), which are growing in importance in the provision of social services in the European context.

Exploring why food aid exists and the deeper causes of food poverty, this book addresses neglected dimensions of traditional debates. It challenges neoliberal governmentality and shows how food charity maintains inequalities of class, race, religion and gender.

Why do the UK and US disproportionately incarcerate the mentally ill? Via multiple re-framings of the question—theological, socioeconomic, and psychological— Andrew Skotnicki diagnoses a "persecution of the prophetic" at the heart of the contemporary penal system and society more broadly.

This overview of Islam and prison provides a thorough understanding of Muslim prisoners’ experiences in Britain and Europe. It explores issues including conversion to Islam, rehabilitation and the extent to which prisons foster extremism, and gives practitioners and policy-makers ideas for better engagement and achieving positive outcomes.

In this thought-provoking collection, Muslim and non-Muslim academics take a multi-disciplinary approach to humour in Islam. They draw on examples of comedy practices and styles to scope sociological, cultural, theological and political themes, consider humour’s role in fundamentalism, and correct misconceptions about laughter in the religion.

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. This book offers a comprehensive overview of how efforts to achieve SDGs can be enhanced by paying greater attention to freedom of religion and belief.

With growing diversity of religion and belief in every sector comes the potential for new dialogues across previously impermeable policy and disciplinary silos. This volume critically challenges policy makers to re-imagine religion and belief as an integral part of public life that contains resources, practices, forms of knowledge and experience.