Written by Melissa J. Wilde (University of Pennsylvania) as part of A Sociology Experiment. To read this chapter, add it to your cart, complete the checkout process, return to this page, and select “Read Now” to open the Bookshelf reader.

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to: analyze the relationship between religion and people’s lives; compare and contrast various religions around the world from a sociological perspective; and identify how politics, inequality, and religion in the United States relate to each other.