sociology and religion, what a pair

Traditionally, sociology has been trapped in two camps with regard to religion: those who seek to undermine religion as an important social force and those who more or less defend it. the former view was a driving force in the secularization of the American university as Christian Smith has shown. Religion was consistently argued as an epiphenomenal social force, something that was only caused by psychological or social needs. In other words, people only turn to religion when they need a psycho-social bandaid to resolve other deeper problems.

What is now evident is that religion is gaining legitimacy as a social force in its own right. This is an important direction for the study of religion especially in the global clash of societies where religion is clearly an important driver of economic, political, and other social behaviors.

As a new study has found, there has been a significant increase over the last 25 or so years not only in the quantity of work done by sociologists on religion, but also in how religion is treated in those studies. No longer is it assumed to be only a reflection of some other socioeconomic trend, but increasingly it is treated as the factor that may be central to understanding a given group of people.

via News: Sociologists Get Religion – Inside Higher Ed.

For those studying theology, it should be clear that sociology and biblical studies need to be more integrated as a way to gain a richer and deeper understanding of those social forces that have shaped doctrinal histories. Rather than assume that the dividing lines between heresy and orthodoxy have been established for eternity, this is one case where our changing understanding of religion as a primary mover in societies ought to fuel the engines of theological progress and creativity lest it get stuck in the irons of doctrinal anemia.

Related posts:

1. us religion: post-secular, more secular, post-christian?
2. media ministry gets the papal nod
3. standing at the precipice of reason
4. emergent christians missed the memo that their movement is dead.
5. secularization is not about "big" government