Fundamental Concepts in Max Weber''s Sociology of Religion

This book helps explain some of Max Weber's key concepts such as charisma, asceticism, mysticism, pariah-people, prophets, salvation, and theodicy and places them within the context of Weber's sociology of religion.

In this volume, Christopher Adair-Toteff elucidates the meanings and functions of a number of fundamental concepts in Max Weber''s sociology of religion. While Weber is widely recognized as one of the founders of the field of the discipline, there remain many disagreements about the nature of his investigations. Because sociology of religion is still a relatively new discipline, there many questions about its scope and methods linger. For example, it is not sufficiently clear what, exactly, Weber meant when he referred to ''world religions, '' and it is not completely evident how his Protestant ethic study fits into his overall conception of sociology of religion. Whether one believes that Weber was or was not a Neo-Kantian, it is clear that he shared their emphasis on the fundamental importance of concepts. Unfortunately, Weber often did not provide definitions for his concepts, thus there is some confusion by what he means by them. This is especially the case with respect to some of his concepts in his sociology of religion. This volume works to address these ambiguities and omissions.