The Catholic Church faces the challenge of maintaining its relevance in an increasingly secularized society. On issues ranging from sexuality and gender equality to economic policy and social welfare, the church hierarchy is frequently out-of-step with Catholics and non-Catholics alike. In Postsecular Catholicism, Michele Dillon argues that the Church's relevance is increasingly contingent on its ability to incorporate secular experiences and expectations into the articulation of the Church's teachings. Informed by the postsecular notion that religious and secular actors should recognize their mutual relevance in contemporary society, Dillon examines how secular realities and church doctrine intersect in American Catholicism. She shows that the Church's 21st-century commitment to institutional renewal has been amplified by Pope Francis's vision of public Catholicism and his accessible language and intellectual humility. Combining wide-ranging survey data with a rigorous examination of Francis's statements on economic inequality, climate change, LGBT rights, and women's ordination, the highly consequential Vatican Synod on the Family, and the US Bishops' religious freedom campaign, Postsecular Catholicism assesses the initiatives and strategies impacting the Church's relevance in the contemporary world.

Postsecular Catholicism: Relevance and Renewal

Politics & Social Sciences

Dillon, Michele

Sociology

Oxford University Press

In the Course of a Lifetime provides an unprecedented portrait of the dynamic role religion plays in the everyday experiences of Americans over the course of their lives. The book draws from a unique sixty-year-long study of close to two hundred mostly Protestant and Catholic men and women who were born in the 1920s and interviewed in adolescence, and again in the 1950s, 1970s, 1980s, and late 1990s. Woven throughout with rich, intimate life stories, the book presents and analyzes a wide range of data from this study on the participants' religious and spiritual journeys. A testament to the vibrancy of religion in the United States, In the Course of a Lifetime provides an illuminating and sometimes surprising perspective on how individual lives have intersected with cultural change throughout the decades of the twentieth century.

In the Course of a Lifetime: Tracing Religious Belief, Practice, and Change

Wink, Paul

Social Sciences

University of California Press

In the Course of a Lifetime provides an unprecedented portrait of the dynamic role religion plays in the everyday experiences of Americans over the course of their lives. The book draws from a unique sixty-year-long study of close to two hundred mostly Protestant and Catholic men and women who were born in the 1920s and interviewed in adolescence, and again in the 1950s, 1970s, 1980s, and late 1990s. Woven throughout with rich, intimate life stories, the book presents and analyzes a wide range of data from this study on the participants' religious and spiritual journeys. A testament to the vibrancy of religion in the United States, In the Course of a Lifetime provides an illuminating and sometimes surprising perspective on how individual lives have intersected with cultural change throughout the decades of the twentieth century.

Catholic Identity: Balancing Reason, Faith, and Power

It has been well documented that American Catholics tend to be Catholics on their own terms, or choose to remain Catholic while selectively embracing official Church doctrine. But why do Catholics who disagree with official Church teachings on major issues such as homosexuality, women's ordination, or abortion, and are thus institutionally marginalized, choose to remain Catholic? Why do they stay, when the cost of staying and being stigmatized would seem to be greater than the benefits they might gain from switching to religious groups whose doctrines would validate their beliefs on these issues? Michele Dillon, drawing upon in-depth interviews with Catholics who are openly gay or lesbian, advocates of women's ordination, and pro-choice, investigates why and how pro-change Catholics continue to remain actively involved with the Church, despite their rejection of the Vatican's teaching on sexuality and gender.

Cambridge University Press

In 1986 a national opinion poll indicated that over half of Irish voters favored an upcoming referendum to remove the constitutional ban on divorce. Yet, after nine weeks of vigorous debate during which forces on both sides of the issue presented their cases to the public, the amendment was defeated.In Debating Divorce, Michele Dillon uses the divorce referendum debate in Ireland as a base from which to explore the long-standing sociological preoccupation with how societies decide questions of values. Focusing on culture and moral conflict, she examines the stances adopted by the major players in the debate: the government and the political parties, the Catholic church, women, the print and broadcast media, and activists,on both sides.Although the issues of moral conflict that Dillon discusses have special relevance in demarcating Irish cultural values, they also apply to how people in general reason about morals and values. The author highlights the nature of moral discourse, the use of contradictory arguments in moral reasoning, the difficulty of trying to shift moral paradigms during non-revolutionary times, and the impossibility of keeping facts and values distinct as people grapple with conflicting moral claims.Examining the divorce question within historical themes of economic insecurity and Catholic identity, Dillon argues that the discourses articulated during the debate illustrate a universal tension between the forces of tradition and those of modernity. She dissects Irish opposition to divorce in terms of current challenges to rationality and its association with progress and goodness.Debating Divorce will appeal to sociologists and scholars of Irish studies, communication, culture, and religion, as well as to general readers with an interest in Ireland or moral discourse.

Debating Divorce: Moral Conflict in Ireland

History

Europe

University Press of Kentucky

The extensively revised and updated second edition combines carefully chosen primary quotes with wide-ranging discussion and everyday illustrative examples to provide an in-depth introduction to classical and contemporary sociological theory. 
<ul>
<li>Combines classical and contemporary theory in a single, integrated text</li> <li>Short biographies and historical timelines of significant events provide context to theorists' ideas</li> <li>Innovatively builds on excerpts from original theoretical writings with detailed discussion of the concepts and ideas under review</li> <li>Includes new examples of current social processes in China, South Korea, India, Latin America, the Middle East, and other non-Western societies</li> <li>Additional resources, available at www.wiley.com/go/dillon, include multiple choice and essay questions, PowerPoint slides with multimedia links to content illustrative of sociological processes, a list of complementary primary readings, a quotation bank, and other background materials</li> </ul>

Introduction to Sociological Theory: Theorists, Concepts, and Their Applicability to the Twenty-First Century

Blackwell Pub.

The revised third edition of the text that combines classical and contemporary theories of sociological theory Thoroughly revised and updated, the third edition of an Introduction to Sociological Theory offers an in-depth introduction to classical and contemporary theories, and demonstrates their relevance to offer a clear understanding of a broad range of contemporary issues and topics. As with the previous editions, the text continues to combine carefully selected primary quotations from a broad range of theorists with extensive discussion and illustrative examples from a diverse range of countries, helpful timelines of important and thematically relevant events, biographical notes, contemporary topic boxes, analytical photos, and chapter glossaries. The text addresses topics such as the persistence of economic and social inequality, Brexit, post-truth society, same-sex marriage, digital surveillance and the on-demand gig economy. Written in an engaging style, Introduction to Sociological Theory offers a comprehensive introduction to the pluralistic breadth and wide-ranging applicability of sociological theory. This updated edition of the authoritative text: <ul>
<li>Contains both classical and contemporary theories in a single text</li> <li>Builds on excerpts from original theoretical writings with detailed discussion of the concepts and ideas under review</li> <li>Includes new examples of current empirical topics such as Brexit, Donald Trump’s presidency, China’s growing economic power, global warming, intersectionality, social media, and much more</li> <li>Offers additional resources including a website that contains multiple choice and essay questions, a thoroughly refreshed set of PowerPoint slides for each chapter with multimedia links to content illustrative of sociological processes, a list of complementary primary readings, a quotation bank, and other background materials</li> </ul>
Written for undergraduate courses in contemporary and classical sociological theory, the third edition of an Introduction to Sociological Theory continues to provide a comprehensive, in-depth, and empirically engaging, introduction to sociological theory.

Introduction to Sociological Theory: Theorists, Concepts, and their Applicability to the Twenty-First Century

Wiley/Blackwell

Anthropology

A Year In The Heart

Literature & Fiction

Poetry

lulu.com

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Dillon, Michele. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Dillon, Michele

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Dillon, Michele. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Postsecular Catholicism: Relevance and Renewal

In the Course of a Lifetime: Tracing Religious Belief, Practice, and Change

In the Course of a Lifetime: Tracing Religious Belief, Practice, and Change

Catholic Identity: Balancing Reason, Faith, and Power

Catholic Identity: Balancing Reason, Faith, and Power

Debating Divorce: Moral Conflict in Ireland

Introduction to Sociological Theory: Theorists, Concepts, and Their Applicability to the Twenty-First Century

Introduction to Sociological Theory: Theorists, Concepts, and their Applicability to the Twenty-First Century

Introduction to Sociological Theory: Theorists, Concepts, and their Applicability to the Twenty-First Century

A Year In The Heart