Robert Wuthnow
Meaning and Moral Order
Explorations in Cultural Analysis
$26.95, £18.95 paperback
9780520066212
Available Now
450 pages,
April 1989, Available worldwide
April 1989, Available worldwide
Meaning and Moral Order goes beyond classical, neoclassical, and poststructural theories of culture in its attempt to move away from problems of meaning to a more objective concept of culture. Innovative, controversial, challenging, it will compel scholars to rethink many of the assumptions on which the study of ideology, ritual, religion, science, and culture have been based.
"Deserves to be widely read and thoroughly debated, not just by cultural sociologists but by theorists. This discussion will surely make an important contribution to the emerging social scientific study of cultural life."—Jeffrey C. Alexander, Journal of Ritual Studies
"Theoretically inclusive, empirically rich, and pedagogically generous. Both substantive and programmatic works on culture already established in sociology will be better understood for being probed in the light of this book and measured by the remarkable scope and steadiness of its disciplinary vision."—Steven Tipton, The Review of Religious Research
"Mainstream American sociology needs to take culture seriously, sociologist of religion Robert Wuthnow argues. To do so we need a methodological catalogue of approaches to cultural analysis. Wuthnow includes subjective, structural, dramaturgic, and institutional approaches—all understood as kinds of 'interpretive sociology.'"—Ivan Strenski, Religious Studies Review
"Filled with suggestive empirical illustrations and interpretations that will be of great interest to those working in such fields as social movements, historical sociology, sociology of religion, sociology of science, and other substantive areas that overlap with 'cultural sociology.'"—Jonathan H. Turner, American Journal of Sociology
"Theoretically inclusive, empirically rich, and pedagogically generous. Both substantive and programmatic works on culture already established in sociology will be better understood for being probed in the light of this book and measured by the remarkable scope and steadiness of its disciplinary vision."—Steven Tipton, The Review of Religious Research
"Mainstream American sociology needs to take culture seriously, sociologist of religion Robert Wuthnow argues. To do so we need a methodological catalogue of approaches to cultural analysis. Wuthnow includes subjective, structural, dramaturgic, and institutional approaches—all understood as kinds of 'interpretive sociology.'"—Ivan Strenski, Religious Studies Review
"Filled with suggestive empirical illustrations and interpretations that will be of great interest to those working in such fields as social movements, historical sociology, sociology of religion, sociology of science, and other substantive areas that overlap with 'cultural sociology.'"—Jonathan H. Turner, American Journal of Sociology
"Thanks to explorations such as Robert Wuthnow's, it will soon be normal practice to incorporate a cultural dimension into sociological enquiry."—Mary Douglas, co-author of Risk and Culture
List of Tables
Preface
1. A Puzzle: The Question of Religious Vitality
2. Contemporary Spirituality: Seeking the Sacred in an Era of Uncertainty
3. A Blending of Cultures: The Arts and Spirituality
4. Personal Spirituality: Art and the Practice of Spiritual Discipline
5. The Joy of Worship: Expression and Tradition in Congregational Life
6. Redeeming the Imagination: The Arts and Spiritual Virtue
7. The Morality Problem: Why Churches and Artists Disagree
8. The Artist in Everyone: Faithful Living in a Spiritual Democracy
Appendix: Methodology
Notes
Index
Preface
1. A Puzzle: The Question of Religious Vitality
2. Contemporary Spirituality: Seeking the Sacred in an Era of Uncertainty
3. A Blending of Cultures: The Arts and Spirituality
4. Personal Spirituality: Art and the Practice of Spiritual Discipline
5. The Joy of Worship: Expression and Tradition in Congregational Life
6. Redeeming the Imagination: The Arts and Spiritual Virtue
7. The Morality Problem: Why Churches and Artists Disagree
8. The Artist in Everyone: Faithful Living in a Spiritual Democracy
Appendix: Methodology
Notes
Index
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