Taking a thematic approach, Bryan Turner draws together his important writings in sociology and Islam which engage with the relationship of Islam and the ideas of Western social thinkers. Turner engages with the broad categories of capitalism, orientalism, modernity, gender, and citizenship among others.

Introduction Bryan S. Turner: Building the Sociology of Islam; Classical Approaches – Understanding Islam; Introduction to Section I Classical Approaches – Understanding Islam, Bryan S. Turner; Chapter 1 Islam, Capitalism and the Weber Theses; Chapter 2 Origins and Traditions in Islam and Christianity; Chapter 3 State, Science and Economy in Traditional Societies: Some Problems in Weberian Sociology of Science; Chapter 4 Conscience in the Construction of Religion: A Critique of Marshall G.S. Hodgson’s The Venture of Islam; Orientalist Debate – Positioning Islam; intro2 Introduction to Section II Orientalist Debate – Positioning Islam, Bryan S. Turner; Chapter 5 Orientalism, Islam and Capitalism; Chapter 6 On the Concept of Axial Space: Orientalism and the Originary; Chapter 7 Orientalism, or the Politics of the Text; Chapter 8 Leibniz, Islam and Cosmopolitan Virtue; Islam Today – Sociological Perspectives; intro3 Introduction to Section III Islam Today – Sociological Perspectives, Bryan S. Turner; Chapter 9 Sovereignty and Emergency: Political Theology, Islam and American Conservatism; Chapter 10 Class, Generation and Islamism: Towards a Global Sociology of Political Islam; Chapter 11 Religious Authority and the New Media; Chapter 12 Women, Piety and Practice: A Study of Women and Religious Practice in Malaysia, Joy Kooi-Chin Tong, Bryan S. Turner; Chapter 13 The Body and Piety: The Hijab and Marriage, Kamaludeen Mohamed Nasir, Alexius Pereira, Bryan S. Turner; Chapter 14 Islam, Diaspora, and Multiculturalism; Chapter 15 Shari’a and Legal Pluralism in the West, Bryan S. Turner, Berna Zengin Arslan;