This article discusses critical discourse analysis CDA) as a framework for a critical agenda in the sociology of religion. CDA uniquely brings together discursive and critical (broadly Marxist) approaches to religion, both of which have been underrepresented in current mainstream scholarship. The article argues that a CDA perspective has a lot to offer to the sociology of religion both by sensitizing scholars to the significance of discourse in creating hegemonic understandings of religion and religions in everyday social interaction dominated by the media; and by offering a framework through which to analyse the discursive construction, reproduction and transformation of inequality in the field of religion. The article discusses the concept of discourse and its different meanings, examines what being ‘critical’ means in the context of discourse analysis and constructs a framework for doing practical CDA. Finally, CDA is discussed as a foundation for a critical sociology of religion.
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