Wolfgang Schluchter

Interpretation und Kritik

Max Webers Sicht des okzidentalen Christentums

Max Weber and Islam is a major effort by Islamic-studies specialists to reexamine and appraise Max Weber's perspectives on Islam and its historical development. Eight specialists on Islam and two sociologists explore many dimensions of Weber's comments on Islam, along with Weber's conceptual framework. The volume's introduction links the discussions to contemporary issues and debates. Wolfgang Schluchter reconstructs Weber's conceptual apparatus as it applies to Islam and its historical development. In subsequent chapters, Islamic specialists consider such major topics as the developmental history of Islam, Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic reform, Islamic law and capitalism, secularization in Islam, as well as the value of attempting to apply Weber's concept of sects to Islam. While some authors find flaws in Weber's factual knowledge of Islam, they also find considerable merit in the kinds of questions Weber raised. Contributors to the volume include highly respected contemporary international scholars of Islam: Ira Lapidus, Nehemia Levtzion, Richard M. Eaton, Peter Hardy, Rudolph Peters, Barbara Metcalf, Francis Robinson, Patricia Crone, Michael Cook, and S.N. Eisenstadt. Toby Huff's introduction not only knits the thematics of the separate essays together but adds its own stresses while engaging the contributors in dialogue and debate about fundamental issues. This acute collective analysis establishes a new benchmark for understanding Weber and Islam. This book also provides an up-to-date overview of the developmental history of many aspects of Islam. A major reappraisal of the entire span of Max Weber's sociological thought on Islam, this book will appeal to a wide range of scholars and laymen interested in the Islamic world. It will be of particular interest to sociologists specializing in religion and Middle East area specialists.

Max Weber and Islam

eine Analyse von Max Webers Gesellschaftsgeschichte

Die Entwicklung des okzidentalen Rationalismus

"Publication of this material in English should be a major event in American Weber studies. Together with Economy and Society, Weber's comparative studies in the sociology of religion represent not only his own central contribution to theoretical sociology, but also one of the most ambitious and fruitful research programs in the history of modern social theory. Schluchter analyzes both of these projects and shows how they are related. There is nothing in the Anglo-American literature on Weber's sociology of religion that can match the rigor and thoroughness of these essays. They should raise the standards of scholarly debate concerning both the general theoretical significance and the details of Weber's sociology of religion."--Guy Oakes, Monmouth University "There is next to nothing in the field of Weber interpretation that reaches the superior grasp and breadth of knowledge displayed in these essays. Exciting and illuminating, they should be essential reading for anyone interested in comparative religion and domination."--Thomas Burger, Southern Illinois University

A Weberian Perspective

Rationalism, Religion, and Domination

English summary: In Volume II, the author deals with the system-theoretical and the linguistic turn in recent sociology, addressing the positions of Talcott Parsons and Niklas Luhmann as well as those of George Herbert Mead and Jurgen Habermas. The relevance of these developments for a Weberian research program is scrutinized. The author regards the system-theoretical approach, especially in its radicalized version, as a dead end, whereas a Weberian research program can benefit from ideas developed in the theory of communicative action. There is however still a pronounced difference between these two approaches. German description: Wolfgang Schluchter geht in Band II seiner Geschichte der soziologischen Theorien sowohl der systemtheoretischen Wende (Talcott Parsons und Niklas Luhmann) als auch der sprachtheoretischen Wende (George Herbert Mead und Jurgen Habermas) nach und pruft, welche Folgerungen daraus fur ein an Max Weber orientiertes Forschungsprogramm gezogen werden sollten. Dabei zeigt er, dass die systemtheoretische Wende ein Irrweg ist. Auch die Ergebnisse der sprachtheoretischen Wende erweisen sich als nur bedingt anschlussfahig. Die Untersuchung schliesst mit der Skizze einer Handlungs- und Strukturtheorie, die den Pramissen eines weberianischen Forschungsprogramms gerecht wird, in Abgrenzung von einer individualistischen Position einerseits und einer strukturalistischen Position andererseits. Schluchters Verteidigungsschrift des weberianischen Programms gegen Parsons, Habermas und Luhmann beruhrt, gerade wegen des hohen Niveaus und der souveranen Beherrschung des Stoffes, dank des klaren Standpunkts und der auch im Detail prazisen Durchfuhrung. Helge Peukert in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 34 (2008), S. 105-118

Eine Theoriegeschichte in Systematischer Absicht. Band II

Grundlegungen Der Soziologie

Jürgen Friedrichs

Karl Ulrich Mayer

Die 'Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie' ist seit fast 50 Jahren eine der führenden Fachzeitschriften der Sozialwissenschaften. In diesem Band wird eine Auswahl bedeutender Aufsätze der vergangenen Jahre vorgelegt. In den Beiträgen zu den Grundlagen der Soziologie, zu den Klassikern des Faches, zu historischen und empirischen Analysen und zur Stellung der Soziologie in der Gesellschaft werden noch einmal die große Themenvielfalt und das Reflexionsniveau dieser Zeitschrift vor Augen geführt.

Soziologische Theorie und Empirie

Western rationalism-nature, of course, and genesis-was Max Weber's dominant historical interest. It was the grand theme of his two world historical studies, Economy and Society and The Economic Ethics of the World Religions. His studies of the relationships among economy, polity, law, and religion are lasting scholarly achievements. In this book Wolfgang Schluchter presents the most systematic analysis and elaboration ever attempted of Weber's sociology as a developmental history of the West.

Wolfgang Schluchter

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