Sociology of Atheism (a request for input)

I received the following message from a reader thinking about doing a PhD. I invite input of any sort that might be useful to him…

Hi James,

I couldn’t find an email for you on your blog so I’m posting this here. Maybe your readers can help me too. I’m writing really to ask a favour. I’ve been looking to start a PhD and would appreciate some of your insight into this. A little about me: I’m a christian born in Bolivia to an evangelical family (although no longer would consider myself evangelical). I have a BTh and an MTh from Queen’s University in Belfast, and an MA In Sociology from Sheffield University in England. For my last degree I researched secularization theory (specifically) and the sociology of religion as a whole. Thus my strengths lie in those two fields. I am now putting together a research proposal for a PhD in a UK university. I’m thinking of doing it on the sociology of atheism and the new atheist movement. And this is where I would be interested in your opinion(s), looking at the topic I’ll be covering, what would YOU like to read? Do you or anybody know of any author or books worth reading that deals with this topic? What would you consider the usefulness of a research like this would be?

Looking forward to yoru opinions and thank you for your time.

Dan

It seems like an interesting topic, and one that could be useful in a number of ways, since some of the issues I’ve heard atheists themselves discuss regularly are the challenges of collaboration (often with a reference to “herding cats”) and the question of whether there can be secular groups which provide the sense of community which churches sometimes provide, and which those who leave faith communities sometimes miss.

Any thoughts, suggestions for reading, or other input? I’m sure Dan would value the discussion, but it seems like a topic worth discussing in its own right.