A lucid reconsideration of the concept of "the sacred", a term that has a rich vernacular life as well as a well-honed technical usage.
Bernice Martin, Times Literary Supplement
This lucidly written study of The Sacred in the Modern World deserves the widest possible audience. In one of the most impressive restatements of Durkheims theory of sacred forms, ... Read moreGordon Lynch helps us to make sense of contemporary social life. Whether you are intrigued by the power of public media, disturbed by the moral certainties that justify extreme acts of violence, or interested in the rhetoric of humanitarian appeals, you will profit from reading this book. Lynchs voice is without peer in this area and cannot afford to be ignored.
Christopher Partridge, Lancaster University
Offering a clear, authoritative and thought-provoking account of the entanglement of secular and sacred phenomena today, The Sacred in the Modern World will be of great interest to a range of readers, and essential reading for those seeking to make sense of the normative claims to authority evident within many contemporary inter-group disputes about rights, identities and wellbeing. Illuminating how such claims often depend upon patterns of implicit sacralisation, Lynch's innovative and valuable analysis reorients the sociological imagination beyond 'religion' to focus on the mechanisms through which social life continues to be shaped by evolving constructions and enactments of the sacred.
Philip A. Mellor, University of Leeds
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