An Introduction to the Sociology of Religion

An Introduction to the Sociology of Religion grew out of the lectures the author delivered in a course in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Swaziland, where he was from 2005 to 2009. Examined in this book are different aspects of the phenomenon of religion, its different conceptions, different ways of looking at it, different perspectives from which it is studied as a phenomenon of human and social experience, It is an examination of the functions of religion in society, in the lives of individuals, its influence in social structures, in social institutions, social organisations, in morals, in politics, in economy, in education, in the growth and development of Western culture and civilisation, Western Science, etc. Religion is thus discussed as a human and social phenomenon, a phenomenon which is an integral part of human nature and human society, inseparable from human nature and human society, and which manifests itself in different forms in human life and human society. Finally, also covered are some of the futile attempts of some anti-religion revolutionary forces to replace religion with secular alternatives, attempts which ended in futility. Religion Is irreplaceable; it has no alternative in human life or human society.