Sociology

From the author of Into the Wild and Into Thin Air, this extraordinary work of investigative journalism takes readers inside America’s isolated Mormon Fundamentalist communities....

For the millions of Americans who want spirituality without religion, Sam Harris’s new book is a guide to meditation as a rational spiritual practice informed by neuroscience and psychology....

In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris' recent best-seller, The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion....

Evangelical Christians are perhaps the most polarizing—and least understood—people living in America today.

A belief in free will touches nearly everything that human beings value. It is difficult to think about law, politics, religion, public policy, intimate relationships, morality.....

Why is religion still around in the 21st century? And how do various traditions still shape the way people experience everything from sexuality to politics, whether they are religious or not? In Why Religion? Elaine Pagels looks to her own life to help address these questions....

A clear-sighted revelation, a deep penetration into the world of Scientology by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower, the now-classic study of al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attack....

In this explosive new book, Sam Harris tears down the wall between scientific facts and human values....

Katrina Hazzard-Donald explores African Americans' experience and practice of the herbal, healing folk belief tradition known as Hoodoo. Working against conventional scholarship, the author argues that Hoodoo emerged first in three distinct regions she calls "regional Hoodoo clusters"....

Finding one's calling is not just about finding something we can do - it is about finding what we can't not do....

Using rational argument, Harris offers a measured refutation of the beliefs that form the core of fundamentalist Christianity....

Here is an impassioned plea for reason in a world divided by faith....

Power. Fear. Violence. These three idols of Christian nationalism are corrupting American Christianity. Andrew Whitehead is a leading scholar on Christian nationalism in America and speaks widely on its effects within Christian communities....

The first major history of Mormonism in a decade draws on newly available sources to reveal a profoundly divided faith that has nevertheless shaped the nation....

In a deeply personal follow-up to his #1 bestseller This is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends about Racism, a modern media iconoclast faces a test of faith—and reveals how such tribulations can make us stronger, as individuals and as a nation.

Pulitzer Prize winner Eliza Griswold crafts an intimate portrait of a church, its radical mission, and its riveting crisis.

After Phil Robertson quoted Scripture in an interview with a national magazine, his hit show, Duck Dynasty, put him on “indefinite hiatus.” Phil immediately knew what had happened: he had become a target of cancel culture.

The Kingdom of God Is Within You by Leo Tolstoy is a philosophical treatise first published in Germany in 1894 after being banned in his home country of Russia. The work is the culmination of 30 years of Tolstoy's thinking, and sets out rules for a new organization of society....

At the dawn of the 21st century, for good and for evil, religion remains the single greatest influence in the world....

New Testament scholar McCaulley argues that reading Scripture from the perspective of Black church tradition is invaluable for connecting with a rich faith history and addressing the urgent issues of our times....

The call to make the world a better place is inherent in the Christian belief and practice. But why have efforts to change the world by Christians so often failed or gone tragically awry?

In this powerful and heartbreaking account, former FLDS member Brent Jeffs reveals both the terror and the love he experienced growing up on his prophet's compound....

Using national survey data, in-depth interviews, and focus group results gathered over several years, Emerson and Bracey show how the Religion of Whiteness shapes the practice of Christianity for millions of Americans—and what can be done to confront it.

A sweeping and comprehensive search for the origins of belief in a Satanic figure across the centuries, The Devil’s Best Trick is a keen investigation into the inescapable reality of evil.

2009, the Good News Club came to the public elementary school where journalist Katherine Stewart sent her children....