Researching Religion
Why We Need Social Science
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20006140 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Steve Bruce (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Pages | 256 |
| Publication date | 2018-08-22 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | BOOK |
| Venue | Researching Religion (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/oso/9780198786580.001.0001 |
| OpenAlex | W4249242782 |
| Open Library | OL27369023M |
| ISBN | 9780198786580 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
Basic questions about religion in the modern world (such as whether it is becoming more or less popular and who believes what) can be answered only with the perspectives and methods of social science. While the arts and humanities can help us understand religious beliefs and behaviour, only social science can provide us with the evidence that will allow us to discern and explain the social patterns, causes, and consequences of religious belief. Only through the statistical examination of big data can we be confident of what any case study represents. In a text described by one reviewer as ‘brilliantly accessible’, an internationally renowned sociologist addresses the major problems of theory and methods in the study of religion. Important topics in religious studies such as conversion, the relative durability of different types of religion and spirituality, and the social circumstances that strengthen or undermine shared beliefs are used to demonstrate the importance of social science and to address methodological issues such as bias, partisanship, and research ethics. Bruce presents a robust defence of a conventionally scientific view of value-neutral social science against its partisan and postmodern critics
Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Political science · Postmodernism · Social science · Sociology · Spirituality · The arts · Value (mathematics) · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Society, and Development · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Social Psychology · 11.01 systematic religious studies: general · Religion and sociology · Research · Social sciences
The neglected role of religion in fisheries management
Training for health ministry
Bringing back the social into the sociology of religion
The Church of England
The ivory tower and the public realm
Religious and Spiritual Diversity in Multiple Modernities
Intellectual Hegemony, Conversion Discourse and Early Christian Apologetic Literature
Secularization Vindicated
| Unique citing works | 8 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,14 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2025 (7) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |