Sociology of the Sacred

Philip Mellor is Professor of Religion and Social Theory at University of Leeds. Chris Shilling is Professor of Sociology in SSPSSR at the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK. Having completed a BA in Politics and an MA in Social and Political Thought at the University of Sussex, he was awarded his PhD in the Sociology of Education at The Open University. Growing increasingly dissatisfied with cognitive conceptions of agency and disembodied theories of social and cultural processes, his research and writing from the late 1980s has sought to contribute to the embodiment of sociology and sociological theory and to promote the interdisciplinary field of 'body studies.' He has lectured widely in Europe and North America, has written on embodiment in relation to a wide range of substantive issues (from religion, archaeology, sport, music and health and illness, to work, survival, technology and consumer culture) and his publicationshave been translated into a number of different languages. Chris Shilling's major books include Changing Bodies: Habit, Crisis and Creativity (Sage, 2008), Embodying Sociology: Retrospect, Progress and Prospects (editor, Blackwells, 2007), The Body in Culture, Technology and Society (Sage, 2005) and, with Philip A. Mellor, The Sociological Ambition (Sage, 2001) and Re-forming the Body. Religion, Community and Modernity (Sage, 1997). He is currently editor of The Sociological Review Monograph Series and is continuing to research and write on embodiment as a foundational grounding for social thought and social research.

Introduction Modalities of the Sacred Other-Worldly and This-Worldly Intoxication The Bio-Medicalization of Pain The Aestheticization of Charisma The Materialization of Eroticism Instauring the Religious Habitus Conclusion

Mellor and Shilling cement their place at the pinnacle of the contemporary sociological theorisation of religion and the sacred. If sociological work is going to have any future it is to be found in the inspiration and excitement of this sophisticated and intelligent book. -- Professor Keith Tester This book is ambitious, refreshing and rewarding. It offers the best available analysis of the complex interlacing of the sacred, religion, secularization and embodied experience. It should be essential reading for all serious students of the sacred and religion in global modernity. -- James A. Beckford About time! Two key experts in the field remind us of the significance and power of religion as bio-political and bio-economic. By deploying a novel examination of affects of pain, eroticism, charisma and intoxication we are given a vital understanding of how religion shapes our lives and desires. -- Professor Beverley Skeggs This book constitutes a welcome addition to a continuing body of work by two distinguished theorists of religion. As ever Mellor and Shilling's analysis is based on wide reading, careful conceptualization and a very precise delineation of the questions to be addressed. As a result the notion of secularization is interrogated in new ways, which take into account both the continuing vitality of certain forms of religion and, even more importantly, the resurgent significance of imaginatively-constructed notions of the sacred. -- Grace Davie