Philip Mellor's ambition is to save sociology from itself...or to save society from the sociologists. He has written a brilliant polemic and theoretically rich argument against the many fashionable contemporary social theories that provide acquiescent 'post-societal' endorsements of the economic and technological forces that are 'hollowing out' the religious, moral and human dimensions of societies. I am tremendously impressed' - Kenneth Thompson, Professor of Sociology at the Open University

Religion, Realism and Social Theory challenges those...

'It is difficult to qualify excitement and enthusiasm for this book... For those studying and teaching on the body... the book is an essential text...' - Sociology of Health and Illness '...enriches the conceptual arsenal for interdisciplinary analysis of political, social and cultural change...' - The American Journal of Sociology

An account of how the creation and evolution of different patterns of human community are related to the bodily experience of the sacred. The book makes a seminal contribution to understanding the world of religious and moral sentiment, the world of the bo

"About time Two key experts in the field remind us of the significance and power of religion as bio-political and bio-economic."
- Beverley Skeggs, Goldsmiths, University of London

"A welcome addition to a continuing body of work by two distinguished theorists of religion."
- Grace Davie, University of Exeter

"Mellor and Shilling cement their place at the pinnacle of the contemporary sociological theorisation of religion and the sacred. If sociological work is going to have any future it is to be found in the...