Sociology of the Sacred: Religion, Embodiment and Social Change

About Chris ShillingPhilip A Mellor

Philip Mellor is Professor of Religion and Social Theory at University of Leeds.  Chris Shilling is Professor of Sociology in SSPSSR at the University of Kent at Canterbury UK. Having completed a BA in Politics and an MA in Social and Political Thought at the University of Sussex he was awarded his PhD in the Sociology of Education at The Open University. Growing increasingly dissatisfied with cognitive conceptions of agency and disembodied theories of social and cultural processes his research and writing from the late 1980s has sought to contribute to the embodiment of sociology and sociological theory and to promote the interdisciplinary field of body studies. He has lectured widely in Europe and North America has written on embodiment in relation to a wide range of substantive issues (from religion archaeology sport music and health and illness to work survival technology and consumer culture) and his publicationshave been translated into a number of different languages. Chris Shillings major books include Changing Bodies: Habit Crisis and Creativity (Sage 2008) Embodying Sociology: Retrospect Progress and Prospects (editor Blackwells 2007) The Body in Culture Technology and Society (Sage 2005) and with Philip A. Mellor The Sociological Ambition (Sage 2001) and Re-forming the Body. Religion Community and Modernity (Sage 1997). He is currently editor of The Sociological Review Monograph Series and is continuing to research and write on embodiment as a foundational grounding for social thought and social research.