---
title: Sociology of Religion
description: This discipline studies the practices, historical backgrounds, developments, and roles of religion in human society. Learners will understand how religious beliefs influence social behavior, institutional structures, and cultural identities.
category: humanities
subcategory: religious-studies
difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced
url: /subject/sociology-of-religion
---

# Sociology of Religion

This discipline studies the practices, historical backgrounds, developments, and roles of religion in human society. Learners will understand how religious beliefs influence social behavior, institutional structures, and cultural identities.

## Available Resources

2 Books • 3 Websites

## Websites

### 1. The Immanent Frame

Online forum published by the Social Science Research Council featuring essays and exchanges by scholars on secularism, religion and public life. Readers follow current academic debates on secularization, religious pluralism, law and politics, and see how sociologists, historians and theorists frame them.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://tif.ssrc.org/

**Tags:** sociology-of-religion, secularism, religion-and-politics, public-religion

### 2. berkleycenter.georgetown.edu

Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs investigates how religion intersects with politics and global public life. The site features research projects, events, fellowships, and multimedia resources—articles, policy briefs, interviews, and videos—onReligion’s role in current affairs.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu

**Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, religious-studies

### 3. socrel.org.uk

SocRel is the UK-based Society for the Study of Religion, a professional community for scholars of the sociology of religion. It offers information on conferences, events, newsletters, and teaching/research resources related to the study of religion in society.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://socrel.org.uk

**Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, religious-studies

## Podcasts

### 1. The Religious Studies Project

**Author:** The Religious Studies Project

Weekly interview podcast in which scholars of religion discuss theory, method, and specific traditions. Listening gives you a working map of the field's debates and the researchers currently shaping how religion is studied academically.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en-US | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/

**Tags:** religious-studies, theory-and-method, scholarly-interviews, sociology-of-religion, comparative-religion

## Books

### 1. The Sacred Canopy

**Author:** Peter L. Berger

Peter Berger's 1967 theoretical treatise on religion as a socially constructed system of meaning that legitimates social order. Readers learn his concepts of nomos, plausibility structures and theodicy, and his argument that secularization erodes religion's shared cosmic canopy.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385073054?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, religious-studies

### 2. Religion in Society

**Author:** Ronald L. Johnstone

Undergraduate textbook treating religion as a social institution that interacts with family, politics, economy and stratification. Covers church-sect typology, religious organization, conversion, secularization and American denominations, with comparative material on Islam and other non-Western traditions, giving readers the sociological vocabulary for analyzing religious groups.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0137723857?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, religious-studies

---

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