Religion’s Power: What Makes It Work (Review)

This article originally appeared at ‘Reading Religion,’ a publication of the American Academy of Religion.

In Religion’s Power: What Makes It Work, Robert Wuthnow investigates the power dynamics of religion by studying the mechanisms by which it is practiced. Drawing on his ethnographic and historical experience in sociology and religion, he proposes that religion’s power to shape the rituals, discourse, institutions, identities, and politics of religious leaders and participants creates relationships of dominance and subordination.

Continue reading at ‘Reading Religion.’