Few issues generate more controversy in contemporary political life than the role of religion in the public sphere. Areas of particular controversy in recent years have included faith-based opposition to same-sex marriage, the public display of religious symbols or texts, and curbs on certain forms of religious dress in the classroom or workplace. With such issues having become increasingly contentious and politicized in recent years, it is perhaps unsurprising that an unprecedented number of books, journal articles, and papers have been published on religion in the last decade or so. But all too often scholarship in this area is narrowly focused and subject-specific. Or putting it another way, engagement with and collaboration between scholars who are involved in the study of religion from different academic backgrounds — such as lawyers and sociologists — tends to be extremely rare.

Russell Sandberg — a Senior Lecturer in Law at Cardiff University, Wales — calls this issue “academic isolationism” (9), and it lies at the very heart of his book Religion, Law and Society. Sandberg observes that, for example, legal scholars only seldom make reference to sociological research, while sociologists are similarly often focused on issues that are confined to their own discipline. As a result, dialogue between scholars from different disciplines has been “the exception rather than the norm” (9) — a state of affairs that Sandberg considers to be undesirable and one that he evidently is keen to address. Accordingly, Sandberg's book provides the reader with a broad range of sociological and legal materials, to enable him/her to consider how an “interdisciplinary interaction” between law and religion and the sociology of religion might better “inform our understanding of the place of religion in the twenty-first century” (9).

This book is structured in the form of what Sandberg calls “an extended essay” whereby “each chapter [is] building upon the preceding one” (ix). The book is divided into six chapters, and they (respectively) cover the following: the contemporary context for lawyers and sociologists in relation to the study of religion (“The new world”); the secularization thesis; the issue of secularization within religious groups; challenges to the secularization thesis; the debate “beyond secularization”; and finally, what Sandberg terms “a new dawn,” in which he (inter alia) considers life beyond a sociology of law and religion.

There are a number of particular strengths to this book. First, it clearly plugs a gap in the market, because, with its publication, there is now a scholarly text that examines religion from a legal and a sociological perspective. Second, the book is packed full of material that will be of relevance to scholars from a broad range of academic disciplines (e.g., law, sociology, politics, philosophy, religious studies), and notwithstanding the breadth of the subject matter, Sandberg organizes the material clearly and impressively. Third, a characteristic of the book is its deft analysis of the relevant legal issues; Sandberg's ability to explain complex legal principles in a succinct and comprehensible manner will be especially welcomed by readers from non-legal backgrounds. Fourth, Sandberg's book provides an excellent synopsis of the work of leading scholars in the field of the sociology of religion that will be particularly helpful to those who are unfamiliar with contemporary scholarship in this area. Fifth, the book is much more than a descriptive overview of the key tenets of law and religion/sociology of religion, in that Sandberg offers a number of insightful critiques of the work of prominent theorists (e.g., his analysis of the evolution of the work of the sociologist Peter Berger is particularly interesting), as well as a detailed analysis of important principles such as “secularization” (on which he argues there is more consensus between sociologists that might otherwise first appear). And finally, the book is well referenced throughout, with the supporting footnotes providing the reader with plenty of additional information.

There are no obvious weaknesses with the book, although Sandberg does squeeze a lot into the six chapters. As a result, it is not always clear what will be coming next so that, for example, at the beginning of Chapter 5, there was little indication that a significant proportion of the chapter would be devoted to analyzing the seminal Eweida case. However, that said, this is perhaps not just an inevitable consequence of a book of this size, but is also arguably a strength, because Sandberg's approach ensures that the reader is kept on their toes.

In conclusion, this is an excellent book. Russell Sandberg is to be congratulated for having written a thought-provoking and interesting text that will offer much to scholars of religion from a broad range of disciplines. Whilst aimed primarily at lawyers and sociologists, those who are undertaking research in the field of religion from a political perspective will also find much of value in this book.

One of Sandberg's evident concerns is that, with there being little academic discourse between lawyers and sociologists in relation to religion, “[t]here is a real risk that both sub-disciplines will become ghettoized, with experts in each sub-discipline simply talking to themselves” (22). Clearly old habits die hard, and it seems likely that most scholars will continue to plough their academic furrows in the familiar fields of their respective disciplines. However, Sandberg's book may help to “get the ball rolling,” and could thereby provide some much needed momentum for further engagement between scholars of religion from different disciplines.