This sounds like a wonderful program.  Will you be of the group that Bill Redwood is so generously gathering on Friday?  In any case, I would like to meet you early and discuss topics of mutual interest.

You mention at the end of your message that it might be appropriate for me to talk, to your students.  I would be delighted so to do (I am a teacher at heart, and pass up no chance to talk to students).  I did think of a couple of topics that might be suitable, which I mention in case they would be of use to your class.  I gather from listengin to this listserv for some time now that the "rational choice" approach to religion, which is a big deal here, is not a large part of the British conversation.  This approach, centering on the work of Rodney Stark and Roger Finke, emphasizes that religious institutions are in a competitive market with one another, and people choose them on the basis of a rational choice about which institution best serves their religious needs. "Rational" is here used to mean "for a good reason, and therefore not irrational."  I point this out because sometimes this approach is read to be saying that people make their religious choices on the basis of coldly rational market calculations of worldly advantage.

I know the literature and the people of this approach here, and have taught it to my students.  My own research
adapts this approach to look at theological competition within (rather than between) religious organizations.  One of the points of competition in our denominations lately has been over the ordination of homosexuals, which I gather is also getting to be a hot issue there.

I leave for London today.  This email stay effective for the duration.  I look forward to meeting you.

Beau Weston

[log in to unmask] wrote:

Dear William
 

We have two fledgling Masters programmes beginning this year and I am teaching Sociology of Religion to a modest few on our Masters in the Interdisciplianr study of Religion. I am also running a twelve week Masters option on Secularisation for our MSc Race and Ethnicty Students. All our students are part time as we specialise in part time education.

This is the first year that we have have introduced Sociology onto our programme of study. Our overall Masters programme is small, we are not a department, and there are only two f/t staff. The part time director of our Masters in Islamic Studies is a sociologist as well an an Islamic researcher. Given these details - so that you are not misled, if you would be interested in contacting me we are based in Bloomsbury where there are good bars too, and I would be pleased to meet/speak to your students - and perhaps if it is appropriate you could speak to mine concerning issues of interest to yourself?
 

With best wishes
Sharon Hanson
Lecturer in Law and Religion
Deputy Director of the Centre for the Interdiciplinary Study of Religion
Birkbeck College,
26 Russell Square
London WC1 5DQ
Faculty of Continuing Education
Tel     0171 631 6619
work email: [log in to unmask]