Posts Tagged ‘sociology’

A lay spirituality for our times

Monday, June 11th, 2018
lay spirituality

2017 Lay Spirituality: From Traditional to Postmodern may well be regarded as a sequel to Pierre Hegy’s two previous volumes: Wake Up, Lazarus!: On Catholic Renewal (2011) and Wake Up, Lazarus!: Paths to Catholic Renewal (2013). What binds these volumes together and makes them unique is the use of sociological methods to understand church practices Read more

Five ways faith may make marriage more healthy

Friday, December 12th, 2014

“Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way. … Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”  I Corinthians 13 The words of the apostle Paul are a familiar text at Read more

The decline of the family and the death of faith

Friday, August 16th, 2013

Traditional theories of secularization maintain that religious decline led to the deterioration of the family. Not so, argues Mary Eberstadt in her new book How the West Really Lost God: A New Theory of Secularization (Templeton Press, 2013). Eberstadt is a leading cultural critic and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center Read more

Unpacking the slogans about same-sex parenting

Tuesday, August 13th, 2013

As a sociologist my life is all about creating, taking and interpreting surveys of attitudes and opinions. So I sometimes feel a bit depressed at how knuckle-headed the media can be when reporting about research on same-sex marriage. Let’s look at a slogan which is being repeated over and over: Same-sex parents are just as Read more

Rugby really is a religion – so why don’t academics take rugby seriously?

Friday, June 7th, 2013

Sociologist Mike Grimshaw who studies both sport and religion, says rugby is like a religion in its rituals, cultures and behaviour and, like religion, can teach us plenty about ourselves. But he believes he is a rarity as an academic who has played and loves the game (he has a Crusaders season ticket) and also Read more