Sociological Noir Irruptions and the Darkness of Modernity

Contrary to secular claims regarding the expulsion of religion, modernity does in fact produce unprecedented forms whose understanding re-casts the relationships between sociology and theology. This book explores ‘irruptions’ which disturb modernity from without: fragments or deposits of history that have spectral – or ‘noir’ – properties, whether ruins, collective memories, or the dark Gothic or the Satanic as manifested in culture. The study investigates what irrupts from these depths to unsettle our understanding of modernity so as to reveal its theological roots. A ground-breaking and extensive work, Sociological Noir explores literature, history and theology to re-cast the sociological imagination in ways that inspire reflection on new configurations in modernity. As such, it will have wide-spread appeal to sociologists and social theorists with interests in religion, theology and debates on postsecularism and culture.

Acknowledgements Introduction 1. A sociology of gloom: initial forebodings 2. Collective memory: remembrance and the constitution of images 3. Ruins: irruptions in the fragments 4. Dark Gothic: life in the shade 5. Satan: modernity’s imaginary friend 6. Sociology, sin and expiation 7. Sociodicy or theodicy? A matter of sociological choice Conclusion Appendix 1: Fingering apparitions: the sociologist and the vulgar statue Bibliography

Kieran Flanagan is Senior Research Fellow in the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies at the University of Bristol, UK. He is the author of Sociology in Theology: Reflexivity and Belief (2007); Seen and Unseen: Visual Culture, Sociology and Theology (2004); The Enchantment of Sociology: A Study of Theology and Culture (1996); and Sociology and Liturgy: Re-presentations of the Holy (1991), and co-editor with Peter C. Jupp of A Sociology of Spirituality (2007); Virtue Ethics and Sociology: Issues of Modernity and Religion (2001); and Postmodernity, Sociology and Religion (1996).