What does religion mean to the individual? How are people religious and what do their beliefs, practices and identities mean to them? This work draws together authors from around the world to explore belief, practice and identity. Using case studies firmly placed in the empirical, it discusses what religious belief means to the individual.

Introduction, AbbyDay; Part I Belief; Chapter 1 Cultural Intensification, DouglasDavies; Chapter 2 Speaking Personally, JanetEccles; Chapter 3 Young People’s Spirituality and the Meaning of Prayer, SylviaCollins-Mayo; Chapter 4 Who are the Believers in Religion in China?, XiaowenLu, RichardO’Leary, YaojunLi; Part II Practice; Chapter 5 New Paradigm Christianity and Commitment-formation, Jayeel SerranoCornelio; Chapter 6 A Peaceable Common, Kevin S.Reimer, Alvin C.Dueck, Joshua P.Morgan, DeborahE. Kessel; Chapter 7 Autonomous Conformism – the Paradox of Entrepreneurial Protestantism. Spring Harvest, RobWarner; Chapter 8 Social vs. Spiritual Capital in Explaining Philanthropic Giving in a Muslim Setting, AliÇarko?lu; Part III Identity; Chapter 9 Development of the Religious Self, David M.Bell; Chapter 10 Accommodating the Individual and the Social, the Religious and the Secular, PeterCollins; Chapter 11 Religion and the Individual, RussellSandberg; Chapter 12 Freedom in Chains, MichaelKeenan; Chapter 13 Religious Identity and Millenarian Belief in Santo Daime, AndrewDawson;