Religion: Empirical Studies

’This volume successfully establishes the disciplinary significance of qualitative empirical methodologies in the Study of Religion and makes a significant critical contribution to the modern historiography of the field, both in the UK and in a wider European context.’ Professor Malory Nye, Al-Maktoum Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, UK 'Religion - all around us and within many - remains difficult to define and not always easy to study. Sometimes ecstatic and exotic, frequently officially regulated, and often just a way of life or plain superstition, this realm of human life and action stands as a challenge to scholars. Some of the imaginative attempts made to describe, understand and interpret these expressions of faith, fear, meaning and hope are captured in this fiftieth anniversary volume of the British Association for the Study of Religions. Through a stimulating variety of representative authors this book identifies a group of diverse scholars engaging with the ’big questions’ of humanity, often combining minute detail with vivid description, but always theoretically alert to the interplay between traditional and radically contemporary questions of how best to proceed'. Professor Douglas Davies, University of Durham, UK ' The range of human interest, the theoretical sophistication, and the power of description suggest a thriving intellectual arena.' Bulletin of the British Association for the Study of Religions 'This is a feast of a book, certainly a must for libraries and highly commended for individual purchase. It brings together work by 18 scholars of distinction in the field of religious studies, based in the UK and beyond, and expertly illuminates subjects as diverse as devotion to St Gerard Majella in Newfoundland, the followers of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon and Christian renewal in Ghana. Every chapter is excellent value...' British Journal of Religious Education ’... the informative, insightful and sometimes provocative