Gordon Lynch

Progressive, modern societies hold the promise of the triumph of reason and the banishing of primitive, religious impulses to a by-gone age. If this statement is orthodoxy to much of Western liberal thought, then Gordon Lynch's On the Sacred is heresy. Challenging the myth of the idealized rational society, Lynch argues that emotionally-charged forms of the sacred remain an inevitable foundation of social life. Modernity has not rid us of the sacred, but merely presented us with new sacred forms focused around humanity, nature and the nation. Drawing on examples from the changing status of the British monarchy, the growing influence of humanitarian NGOs and moral justifications for the invasion of Iraq, On the Sacred presents a compelling account of what the sacred is and why it still matters for us today. By the end of the book, Lynch calls us to a new understanding of our moments of deep moral certainty, challenging us to think about the harm we do in the name of what we call sacred.

On the Sacred

Explores what leads people to begin to question their faith. Lynch recounts his own experience of the processes and the challenges he encountered in moving away from Evangelical faith. Includes interviews with Dave Tomlinson and Jo Ind.

Moving on from Evangelical Faith

Losing My Religion?

This open access book offers an unprecedented analysis of child welfare schemes, situating them in the wider context of post-war policy debates about the care of children. Between 1945 and 1970, an estimated 3,500 children were sent from Britain to Australia, unaccompanied by their parents, through child migration schemes funded by the Australian and British Governments and delivered by churches, religious orders and charities. Functioning in a wider history of the migration of unaccompanied children to overseas British colonies, the post-war schemes to Australia have become the focus of public attention through a series of public reports in Britain and Australia that have documented the harm they caused to many child migrants. Whilst addressing the wide range of organisations involved, the book focuses particularly on knowledge, assumptions and decisions within UK Government Departments and asks why these schemes continued to operate in the post-war period despite often failing to adhere to standards of child-care set out in the influential 1946 Curtis Report. Some factors such as the tensions between British policy on child-care and assisted migration are unique to these schemes. However, the book also examines other factors such as complex government systems, fragmented lines of departmental responsibility and civil service cultures that may contribute to the failure of vulnerable people across a much wider range of policy contexts.

A Study in Policy Failure

UK Child Migration to Australia, 1945-1970

John (Series ed.) Lees

Pastoral counselling has had a significant role in the development of the wider British counselling movement over the past thirty years. Yet this role has often gone unacknowledged, and little has been written about the implications of its distinctive identity within counselling. Clinical Counselling in Pastoral Settings fills this gap by offering an exploration of clinical issues that are distinctive to the work of pastoral counsellors in a way that is made clearly relevant to practice, whilst exploring wider issues. Contents include: * Pastoral counselling in multi-cultural settings * Pastoral counselling and the therapeutic frame * Transference within the pastoral counselling relationship * Integrated theology and psychology in pastoral counselling * The promise and difficulties of pastoral counselling

Clinical Counselling in Pastoral Settings

Re-interpreting Durkheim's theory of the sacred, this book sets out a theory of the sacred for use across a range of humanities and social science disciplines and draws on contemporary case study material to show how sacred forms - whether in 'religious' or 'secular' guise - continue to shape social life in the modern world.

A Cultural Sociological Approach

The Sacred in the Modern World

Much attention has been given in recent writings about religion to fundamentalism and the 'religious right'. But less attention has been given to their opposite - the emergence of a new generation of progressive religious thinkers and organisations on the 'religious left'. "The New Spirituality" is one of the first books to give a comprehensive and authoritative account of this burgeoning progressive religious movement. It offers a clear and engaging analysis of the cultural roots, key ideas and organisational structures of this new faith, assessing its significance in the changing moral and religious landscape of contemporary western society. Gordon Lynch argues that we are witnessing the rise of a new religious ideology which reveres the natural world, connects religious faith with novel scientific theories, and has a forward-looking agenda for society's transformation. "The New Spirituality" will be essential reading for students attempting to understand the shape of religious belief in the twenty-first century.

An Introduction to Progressive Belief in the Twenty-first Century

The New Spirituality

Anna Strhan

Jolyon Mitchell

This Reader brings together a selection of key writings to explore the relationship between religion, media and cultures of everyday life. It provides an overview of the main debates and developments in this growing field, focusing on four major themes: Religion, spirituality and consumer culture Media and the transformation of religion The sacred senses: visual, material and audio culture Religion, and the ethics of media and culture. This collection is an invaluable resource for students, academics and researchers wanting a deeper understanding of religion and contemporary culture.

Religion, Media and Culture: A Reader

Understanding Theology and Popular Culture is one of the first books to give an overview of the key issues and methods in this field of study. Provides a detailed introduction to key theories and debates in popular cultural studies Presents a reasoned argument about the distinctive contribution that theology can make to the study of popular culture Illustrated through a range of original case studies, from Eminem to The Simpsons Suitable for both beginning students and more advanced researchers. The author has created the Theology and Popular Culture Gateway which is one of the first academic Internet gateways for the study of theology and contemporary culture.

Gordon Lynch

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