Book Review: Why the Church? Self-Optimization or Community of Faith

Bender Courtney . 2010. Heaven’s Kitchen: Spiritual Discernment and Practical Politics. University of Chicago Press.

Berger Peter L. 1999. The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.

Casanova José . 1994. Public Religions in the Modern World. University of Chicago Press.

Davie Grace . 2023. “Revisiting Secularization in Light of Growing Diversity: The European Case.” Religions 14, no. 9 (September): 1119. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14091119.

Durkheim Émile . (1898) 1986. “Individualism and the Intellectuals.” In Emile Durkheim on Morality and Society, edited by Bellah Robert N. , 43–57. University of Chicago Press.

Joas Hans . 2023. Moral Change and the Ambiguity of Religions: Christianity between Racism and the Struggle against It. Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study.

Joas Hans . 2024. Why the Church? Self-Optimization or Community of Faith. Translated by Alex Skinner. Stanford University Press.

Lichterman Paul . 1996. The Search for Political Community: American Activists Reinventing Commitment. Cambridge University Press.

Martin David. 1978. A General Theory of Secularization. Harper & Row.

Smith Christian . 2022. “The Future of American Churches: Is the U.S. Finally Secularizing or Just Morphing Religiously?” McDonald Lecture Series, Emory University, October 6. Accessed March 06, 2026.https://vimeo.com/759110503?fl=pl&fe=sh.

Weber Max. (1919) 1946. “Science as a Vocation.” In From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, edited by Gerth H. H. Wright Mills C. , 129–56. Oxford University Press.