Sociology

From the author of Into the Wild and Into Thin Air, this extraordinary work of investigative journalism takes readers inside America’s isolated Mormon Fundamentalist communities....

For the millions of Americans who want spirituality without religion, Sam Harris’s new book is a guide to meditation as a rational spiritual practice informed by neuroscience and psychology....

Why is religion still around in the 21st century? And how do various traditions still shape the way people experience everything from sexuality to politics, whether they are religious or not? In Why Religion? Elaine Pagels looks to her own life to help address these questions....

Evangelical Christians are perhaps the most polarizing—and least understood—people living in America today.

In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris' recent best-seller, The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion....

Katrina Hazzard-Donald explores African Americans' experience and practice of the herbal, healing folk belief tradition known as Hoodoo. Working against conventional scholarship, the author argues that Hoodoo emerged first in three distinct regions she calls "regional Hoodoo clusters"....

In 2007, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett filmed a landmark discussion about modern atheism. Now, the transcript of their conversation is illuminated by new essays from three of the original participants and an introduction by Stephen Fry....

Art memoir, part investigative journalism, The Exvangelicals is the first definitive book that names the massive social movement of people leaving the church....

In this explosive new book, Sam Harris tears down the wall between scientific facts and human values....

Here is an impassioned plea for reason in a world divided by faith....

In this clear-eyed, hard-hitting chronicle of American religion and politics, Anthea Butler answers that racism is at the core of conservative evangelical activism and power....

The Kingdom of God Is Within You by Leo Tolstoy is a philosophical treatise first published in Germany in 1894 after being banned in his home country of Russia. The work is the culmination of 30 years of Tolstoy's thinking, and sets out rules for a new organization of society....

Combining a substantial body of evidence with sophisticated analysis and interpretation, the authors throw sharp light on the oldest American dilemma....

The call to make the world a better place is inherent in the Christian belief and practice. But why have efforts to change the world by Christians so often failed or gone tragically awry?

Power. Fear. Violence. These three idols of Christian nationalism are corrupting American Christianity. Andrew Whitehead is a leading scholar on Christian nationalism in America and speaks widely on its effects within Christian communities....

In TechGnosis, Erik Davis argues that while the realms of the digital and the spiritual may seem worlds apart, esoteric and religious impulses have in fact always permeated (and sometimes inspired) technological communication....

Using rational argument, Harris offers a measured refutation of the beliefs that form the core of fundamentalist Christianity....

The author of the multiple award-winning Grounded and leading trend spotter in contemporary Christianity explores why gratitude is missing as a modern spiritual practice....

At the dawn of the 21st century, for good and for evil, religion remains the single greatest influence in the world....

New Testament scholar McCaulley argues that reading Scripture from the perspective of Black church tradition is invaluable for connecting with a rich faith history and addressing the urgent issues of our times....

The Theft of America’s Soul is a prophetic wake-up call for all who desire to see our nation thrive, challenging listeners to exchange these 10 lies for truths that will bring peace of mind, harmony, and prosperity back to our country....

In this provocative book one of the most brilliant scholars of religion today dismantles distorted religious "histories" offered up by contemporary critics of religion and advocates of atheism....

Using national survey data, in-depth interviews, and focus group results gathered over several years, Emerson and Bracey show how the Religion of Whiteness shapes the practice of Christianity for millions of Americans—and what can be done to confront it.

The first major history of Mormonism in a decade draws on newly available sources to reveal a profoundly divided faith that has nevertheless shaped the nation....

Why You Think the Way You Do traces the development of the worldviews that underpin the Western world.