Book: Sociology of religion for generations X and Y

Sociology of Religion for Generations X and Y
Adam Possamai

Readers and students from generations X and Y are involved in consumer culture, get part of their knowledge through popular culture and/or the internet, and are more practical than theoretical. This book on the sociology of religion straddles the intersection between consumer culture, cyber-culture and popular culture, and focuses on the need of these generations.
This book makes specific relevance to generations X and Y from the very first page.
To draw the reader into a topic, each chapter begins with a case study from popular culture or the internet. This narrative device is a key approach to bringing readers and students to the heart of the problem. Sociology of Religion for Generations X and Y explores sociological concepts such as secularisation and the multiple modernisation thesis, re-enchantment, the ‘McDonaldisation’ of society and the easternisation of the west, while addressing contemporary phenomenon within, for example, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, New Age, Scientology, and Witchcraft groups, both online and offline. It also addresses new religious phenomena such as the mixing of religion and popular culture on the internet as found in new groups such as Jediism and Matrixism.
While covering classical works in the field, Sociology of Religion for Generations X and Y uses the writing of cutting edge theorists to understand where religion and spirituality are coming from, where they are right now, and where they might be going. It also highlights the practical relevance of this sub-discipline to readers and students by exploring what
sociologists of religion do outside of the academy.

Adam Possamai is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Western Sydney. He is the author of Religion and Popular Culture: A Hyper-Real Testament (2005), In Search of New Age Spiritualities (2005) and Perles Noires (2005), a collection of short stories in French. He is a former President of the Australian Association for the Study of Religions and was the 2002-2007 co-editor of the Australian Religion Studies Review.