Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: A Sociologist Thinks about Religion

1. Sociology’s Default View of Religion

2. The Default View’s Historical-Cultural Origins

3. To China: A Confucian Alternative

4. China Applied: Feeding the Holy Community

5. To North Africa: An Arab Judge Looks at History

6. Ibn Khaldūn Applied: Medjugorje and the Islamic State

7. To the American Southwest: Navajo Ritual and the Experience of Time

8. Navajo Ritual Applied: World-Healing at the Catholic Worker

9. Are We Stealing the Elgin Marbles?

Postscript: Living in a Global World

Notes

References

Index

About the Author