An Italian-born Belgo-Australian Sociologist of Religion
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.39972Keywords:
Sociology of religion, autobiography, fiction, research metrics, social theory, popular cultureAbstract
This autobiography addresses how my life experience across citizenshipsand religions has had a profound impact on my Weberian perspective onthe sociology of religion. It also informs how my various mentors acrosscontinents have influenced my work over the years. This was thanks to thepeople I studied with at the Catholic University of Leuven and La TrobeUniversity, and those I worked with at Western Sydney University andwhile leading the Australian Association for the Study of Religions andthe International Sociological Association's (ISA) Research Committee 22on the Sociology of Religion. This article concludes by showing how myworks as a fiction writer and as a research mentor and university administratorhave been intertwined with my sociology of religion.
References
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Arnason, Johann P. 2003 Civilizations in Dispute: Historical Questions and Theoretical Traditions. Brill, Leiden.
Barbalet, Jack 2008 Weber, Passion and Profits: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in Context. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Barbalet, Jack, Adam Possamai and Bryan Turner (eds) 2011 Religion and the State: A Comparative Sociology. Anthem Press, New York.
Bataille, Georges 1957 La littérature et le mal. Gallimard, Paris.
1961 Les larmes d’Éros. Jean-Jacques Pauvert, Paris.
Beckford, James A. 2003 Social Theory and Religion. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Beilharz, Peter 1997 Imagining the Antipodes: Culture, Theory and the Visual in the Work of Bernard Smith. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Bekerman, Zvi, and Ifat Maoz 2005 Troubles with Identity: Obstacles to Coexistence Education in Conflict Ridden Societies. Identity 5(4): 341–57. https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532706xid0504_3
Benjamin, Walter 2006 The Writer of Modern Life: Essays on Charles Baudelaire. Belknap, Press, Cambridge, MA.
Bergès, Michel 2000 Machiavel, un penseur masqué? Editions Complexe, Paris.
Black, Alan (ed.) 1991 Religion in Australia: Sociological Perspectives. Allen & Unwin, Sydney.
Bouma, Gary 1999 From Hegemony to Pluralism: Managing Religious Diversity in Modernity and Post-Modernity. In Managing Religious Diversity, edited by G. Bouma, 7–27. Christian Research Association, Melbourne.
Bouma, Gary (ed.) 1996 Many Religions, All Australians: Religious Settlement, Identity and Cultural Diversity. Open Book Publisher, Adelaide.
Calinescu, Matei 1978 The Disguises of Miracle: Notes on Mircea Eliade’s Fiction. World Literature Today 52(4): 558–64. https://doi.org/10.2307/40131311
Carroll, John 1993 Humanism: The Wreck of Western Culture. Fontana, London.
Cox, James 2014 The Invention of God in Indigenous Societies. Acumen, Durham.
2018 Restoring the Chain of Memory. T. G. H. Strehlow and the Repatriation of Australian Indigenous Knowledge. Equinox, Sheffield.
Cox, James, and Adam Possamai (eds) 2016 Religion and Non-Religion among Australian Aboriginal Peoples. Routledge, Oxon.
D’Avray, David L. 2010 Medieval Religious Rationalities: A Weberian Analysis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Dassetto, Felice 1996 La construction de l’islam européen. Approche socio-anthropologique. L’Harmattan, Paris.
Davie, Grace 2002 Europe: The Exceptional Case. Parameters of Faith in the Modern World. Darton, Longman and Todd, London.
De Vaus, David 1994 Letting Go: Relationships between Adults and Their Parents. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Dempsey, Ken 1994 Smalltown: A Study of Social Inequality, Cohesion and Belonging. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Deudon, Eric 1980 Renaissance du conte fantastique aujourd’hui: Claude Seignolle. Romance Notes 21(1): 122–25.
Eliade, Mircea 1957 Mythes, rêves et mystères. Gallimard, Paris.
Garcia-Ruiz, Jesús, and Patrick Michel 2012 Et Dieu sous-traita le salut au marché. De l’action des mouvements évangéliques en Amérique Latine. Armand Colin, Paris.
Giordan, Giuseppe, and Adam Possamai 2018 Sociology of Exorcism in Late Modernity. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke.
Giordan, Giuseppe, and Adam Possamai (eds) 2020 The Social Scientific Study of Exorcism. Springer, Leiden. Forthcoming.
Gruber, Thorsten 2014 Academic Sell-out: How an Obsession with Metrics and Rankings is Damaging Academia. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education 24(2): 165–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/08841241.2014.970248
Hall, Richard 2018 On the Alienation of Academic Labour and the Possibilities for Mass Intellectuality. Triple C 16(1): 97–113. https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v16i1.873
Hassan, Riaz 2008 Inside Muslim Minds. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
Heller, Agnes 1995 Where are We at Home? Thesis Eleven 41: 1–18.
Henslin, James, Adam Possamai and Alphia Possamai-Inesedy 2013 Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach. Pearsons, Sydney.
Hiernaux, Jean-Pierre, and Jean Rémy 1978 ‘Socio-political’ and ‘Charismatic’ Symbolics: Cultural Change and Transactions of Meaning. Social Compass 25(1): 145–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/003776867802500111
Ireland, Rowan 1999 Religious Diversity in a New Australian Democracy. In Managing Religious Diversity, edited by G. Bouma, 94–110. Christian Research Association, Melbourne.
Isherwood, Lisa, and Kath McPhillips 2008 Post-Christian Feminisms: A Critical Approach. Ashgate, Aldershot.
Kahn, Joel 1995 Culture, Multiculture, Postculture. Sage, London.
Kellehear, Alan 1996 Experiences Near Death: Beyond Medicine and Religion. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Machiavelli, Niccolò 2011 The Prince. Penguin Books, London.
Mackie, Fiona 1985 The Status of Everyday Life: A Sociological Excavation of the Prevailing Framework of Perception. Routledge, Abingdon.
McMillan, David 2011 Theology as Autobiography. Practical Theology 4(1): 27–34. https://doi.org/10.1558/prth.v4i1.27
Michel, Patrick, Adam Possamai and Bryan S. Turner (eds) 2017 Religions, Nations and Transnationalism in Multiple Modernities. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke.
Onnudottir, Helena, Adam Possamai and Bryan Turner 2013 Religious Change and Indigenous Peoples: The Making of Religious Identities, Ashgate, Aldershot.
Pavel, Thomas 1983 The Borders of Fiction. Poetics Today 4(1): 83–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/1772153
Possamai, Adam 2005a In Search of New Age Spirituality. Ashgate, Aldershot.
2005b Religion and Popular Culture: A Hyper-Real Testament. P.I.E.-Peter Lang, New York.
2005c Perles Noires. Nuit d’Avril, France.
2009 Sociology of Religion for Generations X and Y. Equinox, London.
2012b Le XXIème Siècle de Dickerson et Ferra. Editions Asgard, France.
2015 Le crépuscule de Torquemada (Tome 1 de la série, Les possédés de la Renaissance). Rivière Blanche, France.
2017 L’histoire extraordinaire de Baudelaire. Rivière Blanche, France.
2018a The I-zation of Society, Religion, and Neoliberal Post-Secularism. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke.
2018b La réflexion de Borgia (Tome 2 de la série, Les possédés de la Renaissance). Rivière Blanche, France.
Possamai, Adam (ed.) 2012a Handbook of Hyper-Real Religion. Brill, Leiden.
Possamai, Adam, and Anthony Blasi (eds) 2020 The Sage Encyclopaedia of the Sociology of Religion, 2 vols. Sage, London. Forthcoming.
Possamai, Adam, James Richardson and Bryan Turner (eds) 2014 Legal Pluralism and Shari’a Law. Routledge, London.
2015 The Sociology of Shari’a: Case Studies from Around the World. Springer, Leiden.
Possamai-Inesedy, Alphia, and Alan Nixon (eds) 2019 The Digital Social: Religion and Belief. De Gruyter, Boston.
Rémy, Jean, Liliane Voyé and Emile Servais [1978] 1991 Produire ou reproduire? Une sociologie de la vie quotidienne. Bruxelles, De Boeck.
Richardson, James (ed.)2004 Regulating Religion: Case Studies from Around the Globe. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
Salim, Arskal 2015 Contemporary Islamic Law in Indonesia: Sharia and Legal Pluralism. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.
Turner, Bryan 1991 Religion and Social Theory, 2nd edn. Sage, London.
Turner, Bryan (ed.) 2018 The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Theory, 5 vols. Wiley Blackwell, Oxford.
Van Bruinessen, Martin, and Julia Howell (eds) 2007 Sufism and the “Modern” in Islam. I.B. Tauris, London.
Arnason, Johann P. 2003 Civilizations in Dispute: Historical Questions and Theoretical Traditions. Brill, Leiden.
Barbalet, Jack 2008 Weber, Passion and Profits: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in Context. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Barbalet, Jack, Adam Possamai and Bryan Turner (eds) 2011 Religion and the State: A Comparative Sociology. Anthem Press, New York.
Bataille, Georges 1957 La littérature et le mal. Gallimard, Paris.
1961 Les larmes d’Éros. Jean-Jacques Pauvert, Paris.
Beckford, James A. 2003 Social Theory and Religion. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Beilharz, Peter 1997 Imagining the Antipodes: Culture, Theory and the Visual in the Work of Bernard Smith. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Bekerman, Zvi, and Ifat Maoz 2005 Troubles with Identity: Obstacles to Coexistence Education in Conflict Ridden Societies. Identity 5(4): 341–57. https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532706xid0504_3
Benjamin, Walter 2006 The Writer of Modern Life: Essays on Charles Baudelaire. Belknap, Press, Cambridge, MA.
Bergès, Michel 2000 Machiavel, un penseur masqué? Editions Complexe, Paris.
Black, Alan (ed.) 1991 Religion in Australia: Sociological Perspectives. Allen & Unwin, Sydney.
Bouma, Gary 1999 From Hegemony to Pluralism: Managing Religious Diversity in Modernity and Post-Modernity. In Managing Religious Diversity, edited by G. Bouma, 7–27. Christian Research Association, Melbourne.
Bouma, Gary (ed.) 1996 Many Religions, All Australians: Religious Settlement, Identity and Cultural Diversity. Open Book Publisher, Adelaide.
Calinescu, Matei 1978 The Disguises of Miracle: Notes on Mircea Eliade’s Fiction. World Literature Today 52(4): 558–64. https://doi.org/10.2307/40131311
Carroll, John 1993 Humanism: The Wreck of Western Culture. Fontana, London.
Cox, James 2014 The Invention of God in Indigenous Societies. Acumen, Durham.
2018 Restoring the Chain of Memory. T. G. H. Strehlow and the Repatriation of Australian Indigenous Knowledge. Equinox, Sheffield.
Cox, James, and Adam Possamai (eds) 2016 Religion and Non-Religion among Australian Aboriginal Peoples. Routledge, Oxon.
D’Avray, David L. 2010 Medieval Religious Rationalities: A Weberian Analysis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Dassetto, Felice 1996 La construction de l’islam européen. Approche socio-anthropologique. L’Harmattan, Paris.
Davie, Grace 2002 Europe: The Exceptional Case. Parameters of Faith in the Modern World. Darton, Longman and Todd, London.
De Vaus, David 1994 Letting Go: Relationships between Adults and Their Parents. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Dempsey, Ken 1994 Smalltown: A Study of Social Inequality, Cohesion and Belonging. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Deudon, Eric 1980 Renaissance du conte fantastique aujourd’hui: Claude Seignolle. Romance Notes 21(1): 122–25.
Eliade, Mircea 1957 Mythes, rêves et mystères. Gallimard, Paris.
Garcia-Ruiz, Jesús, and Patrick Michel 2012 Et Dieu sous-traita le salut au marché. De l’action des mouvements évangéliques en Amérique Latine. Armand Colin, Paris.
Giordan, Giuseppe, and Adam Possamai 2018 Sociology of Exorcism in Late Modernity. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke.
Giordan, Giuseppe, and Adam Possamai (eds) 2020 The Social Scientific Study of Exorcism. Springer, Leiden. Forthcoming.
Gruber, Thorsten 2014 Academic Sell-out: How an Obsession with Metrics and Rankings is Damaging Academia. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education 24(2): 165–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/08841241.2014.970248
Hall, Richard 2018 On the Alienation of Academic Labour and the Possibilities for Mass Intellectuality. Triple C 16(1): 97–113. https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v16i1.873
Hassan, Riaz 2008 Inside Muslim Minds. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
Heller, Agnes 1995 Where are We at Home? Thesis Eleven 41: 1–18.
Henslin, James, Adam Possamai and Alphia Possamai-Inesedy 2013 Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach. Pearsons, Sydney.
Hiernaux, Jean-Pierre, and Jean Rémy 1978 ‘Socio-political’ and ‘Charismatic’ Symbolics: Cultural Change and Transactions of Meaning. Social Compass 25(1): 145–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/003776867802500111
Ireland, Rowan 1999 Religious Diversity in a New Australian Democracy. In Managing Religious Diversity, edited by G. Bouma, 94–110. Christian Research Association, Melbourne.
Isherwood, Lisa, and Kath McPhillips 2008 Post-Christian Feminisms: A Critical Approach. Ashgate, Aldershot.
Kahn, Joel 1995 Culture, Multiculture, Postculture. Sage, London.
Kellehear, Alan 1996 Experiences Near Death: Beyond Medicine and Religion. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Machiavelli, Niccolò 2011 The Prince. Penguin Books, London.
Mackie, Fiona 1985 The Status of Everyday Life: A Sociological Excavation of the Prevailing Framework of Perception. Routledge, Abingdon.
McMillan, David 2011 Theology as Autobiography. Practical Theology 4(1): 27–34. https://doi.org/10.1558/prth.v4i1.27
Michel, Patrick, Adam Possamai and Bryan S. Turner (eds) 2017 Religions, Nations and Transnationalism in Multiple Modernities. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke.
Onnudottir, Helena, Adam Possamai and Bryan Turner 2013 Religious Change and Indigenous Peoples: The Making of Religious Identities, Ashgate, Aldershot.
Pavel, Thomas 1983 The Borders of Fiction. Poetics Today 4(1): 83–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/1772153
Possamai, Adam 2005a In Search of New Age Spirituality. Ashgate, Aldershot.
2005b Religion and Popular Culture: A Hyper-Real Testament. P.I.E.-Peter Lang, New York.
2005c Perles Noires. Nuit d’Avril, France.
2009 Sociology of Religion for Generations X and Y. Equinox, London.
2012b Le XXIème Siècle de Dickerson et Ferra. Editions Asgard, France.
2015 Le crépuscule de Torquemada (Tome 1 de la série, Les possédés de la Renaissance). Rivière Blanche, France.
2017 L’histoire extraordinaire de Baudelaire. Rivière Blanche, France.
2018a The I-zation of Society, Religion, and Neoliberal Post-Secularism. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke.
2018b La réflexion de Borgia (Tome 2 de la série, Les possédés de la Renaissance). Rivière Blanche, France.
Possamai, Adam (ed.) 2012a Handbook of Hyper-Real Religion. Brill, Leiden.
Possamai, Adam, and Anthony Blasi (eds) 2020 The Sage Encyclopaedia of the Sociology of Religion, 2 vols. Sage, London. Forthcoming.
Possamai, Adam, James Richardson and Bryan Turner (eds) 2014 Legal Pluralism and Shari’a Law. Routledge, London.
2015 The Sociology of Shari’a: Case Studies from Around the World. Springer, Leiden.
Possamai-Inesedy, Alphia, and Alan Nixon (eds) 2019 The Digital Social: Religion and Belief. De Gruyter, Boston.
Rémy, Jean, Liliane Voyé and Emile Servais [1978] 1991 Produire ou reproduire? Une sociologie de la vie quotidienne. Bruxelles, De Boeck.
Richardson, James (ed.)2004 Regulating Religion: Case Studies from Around the Globe. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
Salim, Arskal 2015 Contemporary Islamic Law in Indonesia: Sharia and Legal Pluralism. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.
Turner, Bryan 1991 Religion and Social Theory, 2nd edn. Sage, London.
Turner, Bryan (ed.) 2018 The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Theory, 5 vols. Wiley Blackwell, Oxford.
Van Bruinessen, Martin, and Julia Howell (eds) 2007 Sufism and the “Modern” in Islam. I.B. Tauris, London.
Published
2020-01-24
Issue
Section
Articles
License
Equinox Publishing Ltd.
How to Cite
Possamai, A. (2020). An Italian-born Belgo-Australian Sociologist of Religion. Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, 32(2-3), 248-261. https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.39972
