Death, Life and Laughter

Introduction: Transgressing Boundaries Martha Middlemiss Le Mon and Mathew Guest Part I: Cultures of Meaning and Religious Identity 1. The Book of Mormon: The American Gospel? Seth Kunin 2. Death, Sometimes, Has its Price? How Douglas Davies and Sergio Leone Cope with Capitalism and Change James Crossley 3. Mormonism and the Fourth-Century Search for a Christian Doctrine of God Grant Underwood 4. Words and Deeds against Exclusion: Deprivation, Activism and Religiosity in Inner-city Birmingham Christian Karner and David Parker Part II: Ritual, Symbolism and Identity 5. Religion and Ritual Markers between the Public and the Private: Funerary Rites in Sweden Anders Backstrom 6. Facing existential meaning challenges through a post-secular clinical model: Swedish case illustrations following abortion Valerie DeMarinis 7. The Cedar of Lebanon in England: the Introduction and Reception of a Sacred Tree Charles Watkins Part III: Disciplinary Identity and the Boundaries of Understanding 8. Hope and creativity: the shifting nexus between religion and development James Beckford 9. Theology, Social Science, and the 'Power' of Religion and of the Spirit David Martin 10. Called to Speak: Language, Meaning and the Status of Research Data Matthew Wood 11. Where does Islamic Studies Fit? Hugh Goddard 12. From Jevons to Collini (via Douglas Davies): Reflections on Higher Education and Religious Identity Mathew Guest 13. A Break from Prose: Defying the Boundaries of Genre Eleanor Nesbitt 14. An Inquisitive Presence: Thinking with Douglas Davies on the Study of Religion Michael Thate Epilogue: A Response Douglas Davies