British Sociological Association

Sociology of Religion Study Group

Wednesday 29th March

2.00 - 5.00: Registration in Baring Court, St Luke's Campus (The precise location will be clearly signposted from the Porter's Lodge and from the car park; we will also be looking out for you; maps of Exeter will be sent to all who Register, together with receipts.)

6.00 - 7.00: Welcome and Reception (welcome by Grace Davie and Kieran Flanagan on behalf of the BSA Study Group)

7.00 - 8.00: Dinner

8.00 - 9.30: Plenary: Steve Bruce, 'Mainstream churches RIP'; Jose Casanova 'Beyond Europe and American exceptionalisms: towards global civil society';

Chair, Grace Davie

Bar

Thursday 30th March

8.00 - 9.00: Breakfast

9.00 - 10.30: Astrology and the Paranormal: Nick Campion, 'The future of astrology'; Ulf Sjodin, 'The paranormal and religiosity in Sweden'; Wayne Spencer, 'Are the stars going out? The future of astrology as religion in the west'

9.00 - 10.30: Reflections: Richard Fenn, 'Infinite possibility and its reduction to the sacred:another approach to secularization?'; Roger O'Toole, 'Matters of life and death: reflections on art and religion'

10.30 - 11.00: Coffee

11.00 - 1.00: Quakerism and Monasticism: Ben Pink Dandelion, 'The complexities of disaffiliation: a Quaker case-study'; Gay Pilgrim, 'Towards an alternate ordering ·'; Will Keenan, Monasticism and religious life: just another new millennium'; James Sweeney, 'Prophets & parables. A future for Religious Orders'

11.00 - 1.00: Rational Choice?: James Beckford, 'Choosing rationality'; Douglas Davies; 'Global Mormonism'; Philip Richter, 'Do moving ministers move congregations? Rational choice theory and the philosophy and practice of Methodist ministerial itinerancy'; Greg Smith, 'Sociological readings (of the future) of religious diversity in inner city London: social cohesion, ideology, rational choice in the supermarket, or the complex ecology of faith'

1.00 - 2.00: Lunch

2.00 - 4.00: Visit to Exeter Cathedral

4.00 - 5.30: AGM of the Study Group

5.30 - 7.00: Unfashionable Theses: Grace Davie, 'The persistence of institutional religion in modern Europe'; Paul Heelas, 'An aging New Age?'; Linda Woodhead, 'Why the death of liberal Christianity may have been exaggerated'

5.30 - 7.00: South Korea, Central Asia, and South Africa: Sungho Kim,'Modernization and the future of religion in South Korea'; Will Myer, 'Chingiz Aitmatov: A Soviet prophet'; Dawid Ventur, 'The political-economy of racially-mixed congregations in South Africa, 1665-1998'

7.00 - 8.00: Dinner

8.00 - 9.30: Plenary: David Martin, 'Is there a leading edge to religious change?'; Bryan Wilson, 'Prediction and prophecy in the future of religion'; Chair, Linda Woodhead

Bar

Friday 31st March

8.00 - 9.00: Breakfast

9.00 - 10.30: Catholicism: John Fulton, 'Young adults and the future of Catholicism in England'; Mike Hornsby-Smith, 'The changing Catholic Diocese: reactive or pro-active?'

9.00 - 10.30: Embodiment and Cultural Life Forms: Klaus-Peter Koepping,'Empowerment through Embodiment in liturgy and ideology: an apocalyptic religious movement in modern Japan'; Ursula Rao, 'Social empowerment through prophetic embodiment: the belief in divine guidance in an Indian urban environment'; Bill Swatos, 'Icelandic normalcy: revisiting an elemental religio-cultural life form'

10.30 - 11.00: Coffee

11.00 - 1.00: New Religious Movements: Elisabeth Arweck, 'Sociologists as prophets? The case of new religious movements'; Anastasia Karaflogka, 'Religion on/in cyberspace'; John Walliss, 'When prophecy fails: The Brahma Kumaris and the pursuit of the millennium/s'

11.00 - 1.00: Practical Theologies: Frederic Gandus, 'The XXIst Century between prophetic discourses, political depletion and economic globalizations: a multi-hypothesis reading about the crucial importance of the coming religious issues and what can be predicted form concerns and opportunities caused by contemporary extensive changes'; John Kennedy, 'Machiavelli and Mandeville: Prophets of post-Christianity'; Ulrich Nembach, Changes in traditional preaching: prophecy?; Martyn Percy, 'A new kind of practical theology?'

1.00 - 2.00: Lunch

2.00 - 3.30: Paganism and Occultism: David Green, 'Nomad and War Machine:

Paganism in the 21st century; Jo Pearson, '"Witchcraft will not soon vanish from this earth": Wicca and Paganism in the 21st century; Justin Woodman, 'Lovecrafting the Art of Magick: secularism, modernity, and emergent Stellar Spiritualities with contemporary occult discourses'

2.00 - 3.30: Transnational Pentecostalism: David Lehmann, 'Charisma and possession in Africa and Brazil'; David Maxwell,"African Gifts of the Spirit": Fundamentalism and the rise of the born-again movement in Africa';Birgit Meyer, 'Modernity and religion in Ghana'

3.30 - 4.00: Tea

4.00 - 6.00: Christianity in the UK: Helen Cameron, 'The decline of the church in England as a local membership organization: Predicting the nature of civil society in 2050'; Mathew Guest, '"Alternative"worship and the liberalisation of Protestant Evangelicalism in the UK'; Matthew Wood, 'Capital possession: spirits and society in 21st century Britain'

4.00 - 6.00: Secularization?: Malcolm Brown, 'Islam and the concept of the secular';Rob Hirst, 'Contemporary social networks and implications for the future of personal religious beliefs'; Olivier Tschannen, TBA; David Voas, 'The secular transition: a borrowed model of religious change'

6.00 - 7.00: Bar

7.00 - 8.30: Anniversary Dinner. 25 years of the Study Group, toast by Kieran Flanagan, reflections by Jim Beckford

Saturday 1st April

8.00 - 9.00: Breakfast

9.00 - 11.00: Beyond Institutionalized Religion: S. J. D. Green, 'Tocqueville, pantheism and religion in an age of democracy'; Malcolm Hamilton, 'The Easternization thesis: critical reflections'; Kate Hunt, 'Understanding the spirituality of people who do not go to church'; Andrew Yip: 'The Self as the basis of religious faith: spirituality of gay, lesbian, and bisexual Christians'

9.00 - 11.00: Religion and Politics: David Herbert, 'Secularization in the global village, rationalization and the postmodern mind'; Sarah Potter, 'Secularization, social capital and prediction'; John Simpson, 'Religion and politics in post-industrial democratic societies'; Jenny Taylor, 'After secularism: governance and the inner cities'

11.00 - 11.15: Coffee

11.15 - 12.45: Author Meets Critics: Tim Jenkins, Religion in English Everyday Life

11.15 - 12.45: Congregational Studies: Arthur Farnsley, Congregations as the focal point of American religious life'; Gordon Lynch and Martin Stringer, 'Trends, theories and trajectories: devising a methodology for religious prediction'

11.15 - 12.45: Wales: Paul Chambers, '"A Very Religious People"? Contemporary processes of religious decline in Wales and their implications for the maintenance of a distinctive Welsh cultural identity'; Diana Gregory, '"·thank the Lord I'm Welsh!": The future of membership of the Presbyterian Church of Wales'; Chris Harris, 'Belonging without believing'

12.45 - 1.00: Summing Up

1.00 - 2.00: Lunch and Depart


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