Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion

by Rodney Stark, Roger Finke

Finally, social scientists have begun to attempt to understand religious behavior rather than to discredit it as irrational, ignorant, or foolish—and Rodney Stark and Roger Finke have played a major role in this new approach. Acknowledging that science cannot assess the supernatural side of religion (and therefore should not claim to do so), Stark and Finke analyze the observable, human side of faith. In clear and engaging prose, the authors combine explicit theorizing with animated discussions as they move from considering the religiousness of individuals to the dynamics of religious groups and then to the religious workings of entire societies as religious groups contend for support. The result is a comprehensive new paradigm for the social-scientific study of religion.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Sociology, Philosophy, History, Academic, School

351 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Rodney Stark grew up in Jamestown, North Dakota, and began his career as a newspaper reporter. Following a tour of duty in the U.S. Army, he received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, where he held appointments as a research sociologist at the Survey Research Center and at the Center for the Study of Law and Society. He left Berkeley to become Professor of Sociology and of Comparative Religion at the University of Washington. In 2004 he joined the faculty of Baylor University. He published 30 books and more than 140 scholarly articles on subjects as diverse as prejudice, crime, suicide, and city life in ancient Rome. However, the greater part of his work has been on religion. He was former president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and of the Association for the Sociology of Religion. He also won a number of national and international awards for distinguished scholarship. Many of his books and articles have been translated and published in foreign languages, including Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Slovene, and Turkish.

Reviews

[Charlie]

Acts of Faith offers the core principles of a "rational choice" approach to the sociology of religion along with topical chapters that show the methodology in action. One could not hope for a clearer presentation of method. Also, many of the conclusions reached are quite surprising, and all the topics are significant. Even someone who still has some reservations, as I do, about Stark and Finke's model should greatly appreciate this work.

[Kristina]

The notion that human beings are rational is not new, nor the concept of religious economy. The book completely misjudges tendencies in Eastern Europe and in most cases has weak arguments. First few chapters are quite solid but at the end language is very unscientific, for a second I though I was at a Conservative party convention.

[Emily]

I started reading this for my Sociology of Religion class on January 26, 2022, but there were two chapters we didn't read so I decided I didn't want to count this toward my reading goal for the year, and then I never finished the last two chapters over the summer sooooo...

[Preston Scott Blakeley]

Cringe.

[Charles Erlandson]

The Single Best Book on the Sociology of Religion

Acts of Faith represents the culmination of more than 30 years of research in the sociology of religion by Rodney Stark (and also Roger Finke). It is Stark’s magnum opus, putting together in one place the distillation of all of his important research, and is the single best book on the sociology of religion that I’ve come across.

To see my complete review, see http://www.giveusthisdaydevotional.co...

[Rachael]

Stark presents a thought provoking theory about what makes certain religions thrive especially when given an open religious market based on rational decision making. The book is also filled with interesting statistics about the behaviors of religious folks.

[Monica Evans]

A great book on the sociology of religion.

[Roxy]

A bit dull in the beginning but a great book on the sociological factors of religion. Gives a clear understanding of the changes we've had throughout the history of religion.

[David Smiley]

As one who wants to go into Christian ministry, it will be impossible for me not to think in the paradigms and categories explained in this book.