Death, Life and Laughter

Mathew Guest has published widely on contemporary British Evangelicalism and on Christianity in general, addressing such topics as the sociology of spirituality, creationist belief and the reproduction and transmission of religious identities. His recent research has focused on the status of religion within university contexts. He has worked with Douglas Davies on several research projects and as a teaching colleague in Durham for the past fifteen years. With Douglas Davies, he has co-authored Modern Christianity: Reviewing Its Place in Britain Today (2000) and Bishops, Wives and Children: Spiritual Capital across the Generations (2007). He has also co-edited Congregational Studies in the UK: Christianity in a Post-Christian Context (with Karin Tusting and Linda Woodhead; 2004), Religion and Knowledge: Sociological Perspectives (with Elisabeth Arweck; forthcoming), is the author of Evangelical Identity and Contemporary Culture: A Congregational Study in Innovation (2007) and co-author (with Kristin Aune, Sonya Sharma and Rob Warner) of Christianity and the University Experience: Understanding Student Faith (2013). Martha Middlemiss Lé Mon has worked with Douglas Davies on the UK case studies within the framework of two European research projects. The first, 'Welfare and Religion in a European Perspective', resulted in, among other projects, reports in one of the chapters in the volume Welfare and Religion in 21st Century Europe: Volume 1 Configuring the Connections (2010). It also provided the empirical material for her PhD thesis (supervised by Douglas Davies), later published as The In-between Church: A Study of the Church of England's Role in Society through the Prism of Welfare (2009). From the second project, the European Commission-funded 'Welfare and Values in Europe: Transitions Related Religion, Minorities and Gender', a number of project reports were produced and published online, as well as various articles, including 'Care and Career: A Value Conflict with a Woman's Face, Beliefs and Values' (forthcoming). She is currently engaged in research into values and family life in Sweden and is editing a volume (in Swedish) on Welfare and Religion.

• Introduction: Transgressing BoundariesMartha Middlemiss Lé Mon and Mathew GuestPart I: Cultures of Meaning and Religious Identity1. 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 ChangeJames Crossley 3. Mormonism and the Fourth-Century Search for a Christian Doctrine of GodGrant Underwood4. Words and Deeds against Exclusion: Deprivation, Activism and Religiosity in Inner-city BirminghamChristian Karner and David Parker Part II: Ritual, Symbolism and Identity 5. Religion and Ritual Markers between the Public and the Private: Funerary Rites in SwedenAnders Bäckström6. Facing existential meaning challenges through a post-secular clinical model: Swedish case illustrations following abortionValerie DeMarinis 7. The Cedar of Lebanon in England: the Introduction and Reception of a Sacred TreeCharles Watkins Part III: Disciplinary Identity and the Boundaries of Understanding8. Hope and creativity: the shifting nexus between religion and developmentJames Beckford9. Theology, Social Science, and the ‘Power’ of Religion and of the SpiritDavid Martin 10. Called to Speak: Language, Meaning and the Status of Research DataMatthew Wood 11. Where does Islamic Studies Fit?Hugh Goddard 12. From Jevons to Collini (via Douglas Davies): Reflections on Higher Education and Religious IdentityMathew Guest13. A Break from Prose: Defying the Boundaries of GenreEleanor Nesbitt14. An Inquisitive Presence: Thinking with Douglas Davies on the Study of ReligionMichael Thate Epilogue: A ResponseDouglas Davies