Over the past twenty years, religion as a predictor of social behaviors has been increasingly documented in social arenas. Traditional relationships between religion and family, voting patterns, race and education have been well noted. More recently, studies show the closer relationship with health behaviors, gender scripts, patterns of crime and deviance, military rituals, sports, legal decisions, life course behaviors and religious patterns among the new immigrants.

"Handbook for Religion and Social Institutions is written for sociologists who study a variety of sub-disciplines and are interested in recent studies and theoretical approaches that relate religious variables to their particular area of interest. The handbook focuses on several major themes:

Preface. Religion and Social Institutions.- Politics and Social Movements: Religion, Social Movements and Politics.- Economy: Economics of Religion.- Education: Religion and Education. Health.- Social Welfare: Religion and Social Welfare.- Family and Life Cycle.- Family: Together Bound: Church, Sect and Family.- Adolescence: Religion and Adolescent Development.- Aging: Religion in Late Life.- Religion and Inequality.- Race/Ethnicity: Religion and Race in America.- Social Class: Religion and Social Stratification: A Fair Shares Approach.- Gender: The Interface Between Religion and Gender: Charting the Troubled Waters.- Religion and Social Control: Law and Social Control of Religion.- Crime/Deviancy: Religion, Crime and Deviance.- Adolescent Delinquency: Religion and Adolescent Delinquency. Religion and Culture.- Sports: Religion and Sport: Apparent Relationships in Search of Explanations.- Media: The Evolving Sociology of Media and Religion.- Technology: A Cultural Cartography of Science, Technology and Religion.- Religion as a Social Institution.- Church Membership Historically: Religious Involvement in America: Trends and Explanations.- Denominationalism/Congregationalism: Denominations, Congregations, and Special Purpose Groups.- Religious Leadership/Clergy: Clergy and Religious Leadership: Recent Trends.- Religion and Social Institutions in a Global/Transnational Perspective.- Immigration: Does God Fit Within the Normal Curve?: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges in the Study of Immigrant Religion.- Globalization: Religion as Social Institution in Global Perspective.