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10 January 2011: Collection on religion and socio-cultural change published

Michael Bailey and Guy Redden's edited collection 'Mediating Faiths: Religion and Socio-Cultural Change in the Twenty-First Century' has been published by Ashgate.

The book suggests that religion, as living culture, continues to play a role in shaping political ideologies, institutional practices, communities of interest, ways of life and social identities. By bringing together work from a range of fields the editors have produced a book which paints a vivid picture of recent transformations in religion as part and parcel of ongoing socio-cultural change. In particular the contributors show how religion responds to and is part of contemporary social and cultural developments and in doing so raise crucial questions about religious expression and new media, religious youth cultures as well as the intersection of religion, politics and identity.

Reviews:

"This is a timely and essential study in to a subject so curiously neglected by the social sciences in recent years. To those of us used to dealing with the currency of religion in the public sphere this is fresh and challenging material. To those who are dozing along in the misconception that religion is an irritating irrelevance – here is your wake-up call."

Michael Wakelin, Director of the Cambridge Coexist Project and Former Head of Religion and Ethics at the BBC, UK