Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan

Seen and Unseen

Visual Culture, Sociology and Theology

  • Book
  • © 2004

Overview

Authors:
  1. Kieran Flanagan

    1. University of Bristol, UK

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Kieran Flanagan
    Pages 1-13

  3. Sociology and Virtual Religion: Issues of Memory and Identity

    • Kieran Flanagan
    Pages 14-41

  4. Who Sees There? Tales of Character, Virtue and Trust

    • Kieran Flanagan
    Pages 42-72

  5. Visual Culture and the Virtual: The Internet and Religious Displays

    • Kieran Flanagan
    Pages 73-101

  6. To See or Not to See: The Plight of the Voyeur

    • Kieran Flanagan
    Pages 102-129

  7. Piety and Visual Culture: Seeking to See the Unseen

    • Kieran Flanagan
    Pages 130-157

  8. Dark into Light: A Sociological Navigation

    • Kieran Flanagan
    Pages 158-193

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 194-251
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

This lively and highly original study explores the link between visual culture and religion in terms of tales, memory and character. It draws out the sociological implications of handling the virtual and virtue in ways of seeing. Using Simmel's approach to religiosity in his third study of sociology in theology, Flanagan explores how spectacle is to be understood in ways that yield trust. The study will be invaluable for undergraduate and postgraduate courses on visual culture, sociology of religion and theology.

Reviews

'The book deserves to be read widely and should be of interest not only to sociologists and theologians, but also to many others with an eye for the complexities and opportunities inherent within contemporary visual culture.' - Philip Mellor, Journal of Contemporary Religion

'Overall, this is a book brimming with complex, subtly nuanced and closely woven argument. Its stylistic density is leavened by clear sign-posting, helpful recapitulation en route, and the author's penchant for aphoristic asides...' - Graham Howes, New Blackfriars

'This book adds another brilliant contribution to Flanagan's unique reflexive sociology. His is a distinctly and distinctively 'religiously musical' sociology of religion where the strong boundaries between sociology and theology dissolve.' - Will Keenan, Theory, Culture and Society

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Bristol, UK

    Kieran Flanagan

About the author

KIERAN FLANAGAN is Reader in Sociology at the University of Bristol. His publications include: Sociology and Liturgy: Re-presentations of the Holy; and The Enchantment of Sociology: A Study of Theology and Culture. He has co-edited with Peter C. Jupp: Postmodernity, Sociology and Religion; and Virtue Ethics and Sociology: Issues of Modernity and Religion. He was Chairman of the British Sociological Association Sociology of Religion Study Group between 1997 and 2000.

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation