A unique study of the link between theology and culture from a sociological perspective which addresses the issue of the pursuit of enchantment in the context of postmodernity. Sociology is applied to sociology itself to discern its own domestic response to theological readings of culture. A novel reading of Simmel, Bourdieu and Weber in relation to the Swiss Catholic theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar, produces a controversial critique of assumptions regarding religious belief in the context of debates on secularisation and postmodernity.

KIERAN FLANAGAN is Reader in Sociology at the University of Bristol. His other publications include: Sociology and Liturgy: Representations of the Holy and editor (with Peter C.Jupp) of Postmodernity, Sociology and Religion. Since 1996 he has been Chair of the British Sociological Association Sociology of Religion Study Group.