James V. Spickard
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View article: Learning from the Navajo: Rethinking Religion for a Post-Colonial Era
Learning from the Navajo: Rethinking Religion for a Post-Colonial Era Open
This address explores the importance of generating concepts from non-Euro-American religious spaces to understand religions worldwide. As an example, it shows how the Navajo concept of hózhǭ highlights the socially transformative role of e…
View article: Religion, Power, and Resistance
Religion, Power, and Resistance Open
This volume explores the intersections of religion, power, and resistance in a fast-changing world. The authors herein seek to disrupt the sociology of religion’s dominant paradigms, especially its overemphasis in Europe and the United Sta…
View article: Introduction to the Special Issue: Religion, Power, and Resistance: New Ideas for a Divided World
Introduction to the Special Issue: Religion, Power, and Resistance: New Ideas for a Divided World Open
The world is currently gripped by pressing environmental, social, and economic challenges [...]
View article: Social capital, civic capital: local churches organize for popular democracy
Social capital, civic capital: local churches organize for popular democracy Open
This paper was to written about 2008 for an edited volume on churches engaged in building community -- a volume that never appeared. It uses the lens of social capital to describe the efforts of church groups in two cities to help poor com…
View article: The Sociology of Religion in a Post-Colonial Era: Towards Theoretical Reflexivity
The Sociology of Religion in a Post-Colonial Era: Towards Theoretical Reflexivity Open
This article makes two points. First, it argues that sociology, like all knowledge, is shaped, though not determined, by its historical-cultural origins. Early sociology arose in 19th-century Europe and its core concepts were shaped by tha…
View article: Diversity vs. Pluralism: Reflections on the Current Situation in the United States
Diversity vs. Pluralism: Reflections on the Current Situation in the United States Open
The United States has considerable religious and ethnic diversity; it has not always embraced pluralism. Known as “a nation of immigrants”, religion has often been seen as a way to integrate newcomers into its national project. That may ha…
View article: Understanding Medjugorje: A Khaldunian Approach to a Marian Apparition
Understanding Medjugorje: A Khaldunian Approach to a Marian Apparition Open
Sociologists have generally treated the reports of the Marian apparitions at the Bosnian village of Medjugorje (starting in 1981) as religious phenomena. The later eruption of war in that region, on the other hand, was cast as an ethnic co…