Linda Woodhead

An optimistic and nuanced portrait of a generation that has much to teach us about how to live and collaborate in our digital world. Born since the mid-1990s, members of Generation Z comprise the first generation never to know the world without the internet, and the most diverse generation yet. As Gen Z starts to emerge into adulthood and enter the workforce, what do we really know about them? And what can we learn from them? Gen Z, Explained is the authoritative portrait of this significant generation. It draws on extensive interviews that display this generation’s candor, surveys that explore their views and attitudes, and a vast database of their astonishingly inventive lexicon to build a comprehensive picture of their values, daily lives, and outlook. Gen Z emerges here as an extraordinarily thoughtful, promising, and perceptive generation that is sounding a warning to their elders about the world around them—a warning of a complexity and depth the “OK Boomer” phenomenon can only suggest. ? Much of the existing literature about Gen Z has been highly judgmental. In contrast, this book provides a deep and nuanced understanding of a generation facing a future of enormous challenges, from climate change to civil unrest. What’s more, they are facing this future head-on, relying on themselves and their peers to work collaboratively to solve these problems. As Gen Z, Explained shows, this group of young people is as compassionate and imaginative as any that has come before, and understanding the way they tackle problems may enable us to envision new kinds of solutions. This portrait of Gen Z is ultimately an optimistic one, suggesting they have something to teach all of us about how to live and thrive in this digital world.

Born since the mid-1990s, Generation Z is the first generation never to know the world without the internet, and it is the most diverse generation yet. As Gen Z starts to emerge into adulthood and enter the workforce, what do we really know about them? And what can we learn from them? Gen Z, Explained is the authoritative portrait of this significant generation. It draws on extensive interviews that display this generation’s candor, surveys that explore their views and attitudes, and a vast database of their astonishingly inventive lexicon to build a comprehensive picture of their values, daily lives, and outlook. Gen Z emerges here as an extraordinarily thoughtful, promising, and perceptive generation—one that is sounding a warning to their elders about the world around them of a complexity and depth the “OK, Boomer” phenomenon could only suggest. ? Much of the existing literature about Gen Z has been highly judgmental. In contrast, this book provides a deep and nuanced understanding of a generation facing a future of enormous challenges, from climate change to civil unrest. What’s more, they are facing this future head-on, relying on themselves and their peers to work collaboratively to solve these problems. As Gen Z, Explained shows, this group of young people is as compassionate and imaginative as any that has come before, and understanding the way they tackle issues may enable us to envision new kinds of solutions. This portrait of Gen Z is ultimately an optimistic one, suggesting they have something to teach all of us about how to live and thrive in this digital world.

Peter Berger is the most influential contemporary sociologist of religion. This collection of essays is the first in-depth study of his contribution to the field, providing a comprehensive introduction to his work and to current thought in the study of religion. Themes addressed include: * Berger on religion and theology * Religion, spirituality and the discontents of modernity * Secularization and de-secularization A postscript by Peter Berger, responding to the essays, completes this overview of this major figure's work.

Peter Berger is the most influential contemporary sociologist of religion. This collection of essays is the first in-depth study of his contribution to the field, providing a comprehensive introduction to his work and to current thought in the study of religion. Themes addressed include: * Berger on religion and theology * Religion, spirituality and the discontents of modernity * Secularization and de-secularization A postscript by Peter Berger, responding to the essays, completes this overview of this major figure's work.

In ihren Festreden anlässlich der Verleihung des Dr. Leopold Lucas-Preises des Jahres 2020 stellen Adam B. Seligman und Linda Woodhead ihre unterschiedlichen Ansätze zum Zusammenhang von Religion und Gesellschaft prägnant und anschaulich dar. Seligman zeichnet aus sozialpsychologischer Perspektive nach, wie das Zugehörigkeitsgefühl zu einer Gruppe konstruiert und erlernt wird. Da gesellschaftlich geformte Kategorien die Selbst- und Weltwahrnehmung prägen, fordert die Begegnung mit Angehörigen anderer Gruppen immer auch die eigene Selbstwahrnehmung heraus und kann Unbehagen auslösen. Er problematisiert verschiedene gängige Strategien, dieses durch Differenzerfahrung ausgelöste Unbehagen aufzulösen und plädiert schließlich dafür, dass Angehörige verschiedener Religionsgemeinschaften in einer religiös pluralistischen Gesellschaft dazu bereit sein müssen, dieses Unbehagen auszuhalten und sich eines Urteils über die Weltsicht der anderen zu enthalten. Linda Woodhead befasst sich in ihrer Rede mit dem Bedeutungsverlust christlicher Religion in den liberalen Demokratien des Westens. Dieser Bedeutungsverlust ist nach ihren soziologischen Forschungen nicht gleichzusetzen mit einem Ende der Religion, vielmehr übernehmen moralische Werte Funktionen der Religion. Diese Religion der Werte zeichnet sich durch einen Fokus auf Selbstverwirklichung aus, während altruistische Wertvorstellungen parallel zum Christentum an Bedeutung verlieren. Die historischen Wurzeln für diese Entwicklung sieht Woodhead in einer zunehmenden Moralisierung des Christentums, die Religion stark oder ausschließlich über Werte definiert. In der Folge absorbieren Wertüberzeugungen Funktionen der Religion, prägen das Identitätsgefühl und Wahrnehmungen der Zusammengehörigkeit und Differenz. Dagegen können viele spirituelle Bedürfnisse weder von den moralisierten Religionen noch von der neuen Wertereligion erfüllt werden. Dadurch lässt sich das (Wieder-)Auftauchen vieler spiritueller und magischer Praktiken erklären.

Linda Woodhead zeigt, wie der Feminismus und der Wandel der Geschlechter- und Machtverhaltnisse Religion in der modernen Welt beeinflusst hat. Sie beschreibt, wie der Feminismus die Art und Weise verandert hat, wie wir Religion analysieren und was wir uberhaupt als 'religios' ansehen, inwieweit wir etwa Alltagsreligion, 'Magie', 'Aberglaube' oder auch religiose Praktiken von Frauen und Kindern ernst nehmen. Daraufhin untersucht die Autorin, wie und warum Veranderungen in den Geschlechterverhaltnissen zum Bedeutungsruckgang der Kirchen beitrugen, und widmet sich dem Aufstieg der 'Spiritualitat' als einem Phanomen, das hauptsachlich von Frauen befordert und getragen wird, teilweise in der Absicht, das kirchliche Christentum zu ersetzen. Schliesslich bietet das Buch eine allgemeine Theorie des Verhaltnisses von Religion, Macht und Geschlecht, die die Legitimation und Umgestaltung von Macht- und Geschlechterverhaltnissen als einen zentralen Faktor des religiosen Wandels darstellt.

Although Religious Education (RE) is a legal requirement in UK schools, it is an oft-neglected and misunderstood subject. It is important to seriously re-think this key subject at this time of low religious literacy and rising extremism, to protect communities from the consequences of hatred and misunderstanding. This book promotes a public discussion of what exactly is needed from a new model of RE within our education system to benefit wider society. In this edited collection, the chapters are diverse and future-facing, informed by theory and practice and written by a variety of key leading practitioners and emerging national leaders in RE. It covers the most pressing and urgent issues for RE such as hate speech, educational reform, and the weakening of moderate religious institutions. Linking the chapters together with recurring themes and joining passages, the editors create a flowing and coherent discussion about the state of RE and offer choices and routes for readers to consider in terms of its future course.

The unexpectedly entertaining story of how the Church of England lost its place at the centre of English public life - now updated with new material by the authors including comments on the book's controversial first publication. The Church of England still seemed an essential part of Englishness, and even of the British state, when Mrs Thatcher was elected in 1979. The decades which followed saw a seismic shift in the foundations of the C of E, leading to the loss of more than half its members and much of its influence. In England today ‘religion’ has become a toxic brand, and Anglicanism something done by other people. How did this happen? Is there any way back? This ‘relentlessly honest’ and surprisingly entertaining book tells the dramatic and contentious story of the disappearance of the Church of England from the centre of public life. The authors – religious correspondent Andrew Brown and academic Linda Woodhead – watched this closely, one from the inside and one from the outside. That Was the Church, That Was shows what happened and explains why.

This book offers a new direction for the study of contemporary Islam by focusing on what being Muslim means in people’s everyday lives. It complements existing studies by focusing not on mosque-going, activist Muslims, but on how people live out their faith in schools, workplaces and homes, and in dealing with problems of health, wellbeing and relationships. As well as offering fresh empirical studies of everyday lived Islam, the book offers a new approach which calls for the study of ’official’ religion and everyday ’tactical’ religion in relation to one another. It discusses what this involves, the methods it requires, and how it relates to existing work in Islamic Studies.

This book offers a new direction for the study of contemporary Islam by focusing on what being Muslim means in people’s everyday lives. It complements existing studies by focusing not on mosque-going, activist Muslims, but on how people live out their faith in schools, workplaces and homes, and in dealing with problems of health, wellbeing and relationships. As well as offering fresh empirical studies of everyday lived Islam, the book offers a new approach which calls for the study of ’official’ religion and everyday ’tactical’ religion in relation to one another. It discusses what this involves, the methods it requires, and how it relates to existing work in Islamic Studies.

Prayer is a central aspect of religion. Even amongst those who have abandoned organized religion levels of prayer remain high. Yet the most basic questions remain unaddressed: What exactly is prayer? How does it vary? Why do people pray and in what situations and settings? Does prayer imply a god, and if so, what sort? A Sociology of Prayer addresses these fundamental questions and opens up important new debates. Drawing from religion, sociology of religion, anthropology, and historical perspectives, the contributors focus on prayer as a social as well as a personal matter and situate prayer in the conditions of complex late modern societies worldwide. Presenting fresh empirical data in relation to original theorising, the volume also examines the material aspects of prayer, including the objects, bodies, symbols, and spaces with which it may be integrally connected.

Prayer is a central aspect of religion. Even amongst those who have abandoned organized religion levels of prayer remain high. Yet the most basic questions remain unaddressed: What exactly is prayer? How does it vary? Why do people pray and in what situations and settings? Does prayer imply a god, and if so, what sort? A Sociology of Prayer addresses these fundamental questions and opens up important new debates. Drawing from religion, sociology of religion, anthropology, and historical perspectives, the contributors focus on prayer as a social as well as a personal matter and situate prayer in the conditions of complex late modern societies worldwide. Presenting fresh empirical data in relation to original theorising, the volume also examines the material aspects of prayer, including the objects, bodies, symbols, and spaces with which it may be integrally connected.

At a time when Christianity is flourishing in the Southern hemisphere but declining in much of the West, this Very Short Introduction offers an important overview of the world's largest religion. Exploring the cultural and institutional dimensions of Christianity, and tracing its course over two millennia, Linda Woodhead provides a fresh, lively, and candid portrait of Christianity's past and present. Addressing topics including the competition for power between different forms of Christianity, the churches' use of power, and its struggles with modernity, this new edition includes up to date information on the growth and geographical spread of Eastern Christianity, reflecting the global nature of Christianity in our ever-shifting contemporary culture. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Is the Church of England in terminal decline, as some have forecast, or does it have a vigorous future? Reports of dwindling congregations, and waning influence, contrast with stories of motivated leadership, and solid growth. The Church Times decided it was time to give the C of E a thorough medical. Thirty-five specialists, including academics, researchers, parish priests, missioners and commentators, were asked to take the Church’s temperature. They looked at its congregations, leadership, governance and social influence. And then they were invited to prescribe some remedies. Not everyone agreed, either about what is wrong or what needs to be done, but a serious, and alarming consensus has emerged – the patient does needs treatment, and it needs it urgently.

This timely book aims to change the way we think about religion by putting emotion back onto the agenda. It challenges a tendency to over-emphasise rational aspects of religion, and rehabilitates its embodied, visceral and affective dimensions. Against the view that religious emotion is a purely private matter, it offers a new framework which shows how religious emotions arise in the varied interactions between human agents and religious communities, human agents and objects of devotion, and communities and sacred symbols. It presents parallels and contrasts between religious emotions in European and American history, in other cultures, and in contemporary western societies. By taking emotions seriously, A Sociology of Religious Emotion sheds new light on the power of religion to shape fundamental human orientations and motivations: hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, loves and hatreds.

This timely book aims to change the way we think about religion by putting emotion back onto the agenda. It challenges a tendency to over-emphasise rational aspects of religion, and rehabilitates its embodied, visceral and affective dimensions. Against the view that religious emotion is a purely private matter, it offers a new framework which shows how religious emotions arise in the varied interactions between human agents and religious communities, human agents and objects of devotion, and communities and sacred symbols. It presents parallels and contrasts between religious emotions in European and American history, in other cultures, and in contemporary western societies. By taking emotions seriously, A Sociology of Religious Emotion sheds new light on the power of religion to shape fundamental human orientations and motivations: hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, loves and hatreds.

Comparing existing evidence from the USA and Europe, with a UK-based study of religion and spirituality, this fascinating book addresses the most pressing question in the study of religion today: are new forms of spirituality overtaking traditional forms of religion? Based on the detailed study of religion and spirituality in Kendal, UK Compares pioneering findings from Kendal with existing evidence from the USA and Europe Provides a theoretical perspective which explains both secularization and sacralization Offers some startling predictions about the future of religion and spirituality in the west Is written in an accessible and lively style, and will appeal to a broad range of readers interested in the future direction of belief in the western world.

Comparing existing evidence from the USA and Europe, with a UK-based study of religion and spirituality, this fascinating book addresses the most pressing question in the study of religion today: are new forms of spirituality overtaking traditional forms of religion? Based on the detailed study of religion and spirituality in Kendal, UK Compares pioneering findings from Kendal with existing evidence from the USA and Europe Provides a theoretical perspective which explains both secularization and sacralization Offers some startling predictions about the future of religion and spirituality in the west Is written in an accessible and lively style, and will appeal to a broad range of readers interested in the future direction of belief in the western world.