Scott Draper is associate professor of sociology at The College of Idaho.
This is a really forefront piece of research. The comparisons among congregations break new ground in explaining the relative success of religious organizations. It pays off in new discoveries about interactional mechanisms and their effects; and gives as richly revealing view of the `atmosphere' or local culture of religious congregations as anything in the literature, while going on to systematically explain what makes congregations different from each other. Religious Interaction Ritual is a great work. This should be a landmark book in the sociology of religion. -- Randall Collins, Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania Draper systematically dissects and compares the rituals of churches, synagogues, mosques, and meditation centers to uncover the social sources of divine experience. Engaging, insightful, and radically new, Religious Interaction Ritual is a step by step manual of how groups create and sustain collective effervescence. -- Paul Froese, Baylor University and author of On Purpose: How We Create the Meaning of Life