Religion und Sozialer Wandel Und andere Arbeiten / Religion and Social Change And other Essays PDF
Preview Religion und Sozialer Wandel Und andere Arbeiten / Religion and Social Change And other Essays
Internationales Jahrbuch für Religionssoziologie International Yearbook for the Sociology of Religion Internationales Jahrbuch für Religionssoziologie International Yearbook for the Sociology of Religion Herausgegeben von Günter Dux Edited by Thomas Luckmann J oachim Matthes In Zusammenarbeit mit Norman Birnbaum In collaboration with Friedrich Fürstenberg Dietrich Goldschmidt Norbert Greinacher Rene König Jacob P. Kruijt Gerhard Lenski Helmut Schelsky Jean Seguy Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH Band VII Religion und Sozialer Wandel Und andere Arbeiten Volume VII Religion and Social Change And other Essays 1971 ISBN 978-3-663-01714-1 ISBN 978-3-663-01713-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-663-01713-4 Gedruckt mit Unterstützung der Deutscher Forschungsgemeinschaft © 1971 by Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden Ursprünglich erschienen bei Westdeutscher Verlag GmbH, Opladen 1971 Alle Rechte vorbehalten Dr. Friedrich Middelhauve GmbH, Opladen Inhaltsverzeichnis Table of Contents I Religion und Sozialer Wandel Religion and Social Change Theoretische Probleme Theoretical Aspects J. Milton Yinger Toward a Theory of Religion and Social Change ............................ 7 Zusammenfassung .................... 29 Günter KehreT Religion und sozialer Wandel. Die Anwen dung eines handlungstheoretischen Modells 31 Summary .......................... 57 GünterDux Religion, Geschichte und sozialer Wandel in Max Webers Religionssoziologie ...... 60 Summary .......................... 93 Hans Bosse Anpassung. Zu einem Thema der modernen Religionssoziologie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 95 Summary 104 Wallgang S. Freund Religionssoziologische und sprachstruktu relle Aspekte des Entwiddungsproblems in der islamischen Welt .................. 105 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 123 11 Begriff und Funktion Concept and Function of Religion der Religion Peter A. Ang,eles On the Nature of Western Religious Expla- nation .............................. 127 Zusammenfassung .................... 138 Bryan S. Turner The Re-Appraisal of Tylor's Concept of Religion: The Interactionist Analogy .... 139 Zusammenfassung .................... 149 6 Inhaltsverzeichnis Srdjan Vrcan Some Theoretical Implications of the Reli giosity as a Mass Phenomenon in a Con- temporary Socialist Society ............ 150 Zusammenfassung 165 III Empirische Untersuchungen Empirical Investigations Karl M. Schmitz Kirche im Feld sozialer Interaktion ...... 168 Summary 183 Dean R. Hoge Religious Commitments of College Stu- dents over Five Decades .............. 184 Zusammenfassung .................... 210 Elisabeth Binderei! Berufspositionen und Berufsvorstellungen promovierter katholischer Laientheologen 212 Summary . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 1. Religion und Sozialer Wandel. Religion and Social Change. Theoretische Aspekte Theoretical Aspects Toward a Theory of Religion and Socia! Changet J. Milton Yinger Any adequate theory of the interconnections of 4'eligion and social change must be an application of a more general theory of change. A skillful application can, in turn, contribute to the reformulation and improvement of the general theory. Unfortunately, serious problems of definition and conceptualization have retarded the investigation of the interconnections. We are lacking, I think it is fair to say, a widespread agreement on the meaning of social change. In such a situation there can scarcely be a generally accepted explanation. Theories of social change, to be sure, are abundant. Evolutionary, dialectical, and cyclical explanations; biological analogies of the birth and death of civilizations; descriptions of timeless and trendless fluctuations; one-factor emphases on technology, economic forces., geography, of theology - these are among the sweeping and overly-simplified, even if instructive, interpretations of changes in human institutions and behavior. These theories are often mutually contradictory, however, and frequently lack empirical grounding. None has won widespread assent. Social change as structural change, cultural change, and character change If we lack anything approaching a generally accepted theory, it is mainly because of the great complexity of the problem. It is partly due, however, to a failure to break the problem down into component parts, while describing the parts in such a way that their relationships can be examined. The result has been wide disagreement over the very definition of social change. In the hope of making the problem somewhat more manageable, I will offer a general definition of social change, before turning to its religious aspects, and then specify the elements of which it is composed 2. 1 Adapted from The Scienti/ic Study 0/ Religion. by J. Milton Yinger (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1970), by permission of the publisher. ! I will not try to suggest the vast literature on social change. For a few valuable leads, see E. E. Hagen, On the Theory 0/ Social Change (The Dorsey Press, 1962); Daniel Lerner, The Passing 0/ Traditional Society (The Free Press, 1959); David McClelland, The Achieving Society (Van Nostrand, 1961); Wilbert Moore, Social Change (Prentice-Hall, 1963); Amitai Etzioni and Eva Etzioni, eds., Social Change (Basic Books, 1964). 8 J. Milton Yinger Sodal mange is the process of movement of a sodal system from one relatively homeostatic structural-cultural-character balance toward another. There is, of course, a great deal of movement, of process, in homeostatic systems. One can think of these, however, as pendulum swings or oscillations. They do not cumulate. They do not break through the existing system. Indeed, they serve to protect the system by helping it to adapt to manges in its environment or inadequate functioning in one or more of its parts. These adjustments within a system are indicative of the interdependence of its various elements. Sodal change, on the other hand, refers to processes through which new systems are built. Pressures or tensions in one or more of the parts are strong enough to bring about realignment of the other parts. There is movement toward a dif ferent balance, not areturn, through homeostasis, to the old balance. As I shall be using the term, eam of the elements - social structure, culture, and indivi dual maracter - is essential. Shifts in the structure of interaction are not social change, in the fun sense, unless they are powerful enough and prolonged enough to cause modifications in the culture and in individuals' motivations and values. New designs in the "blue prints for action" are another element in the compound; but such cultural changes should not be confused with the social changes of which they may be a part. Under some conditions, rather extensive culture change can occur without major sodal change. Shifts in individual motives, needs, and tendencies are less likely to be confused with social mange than are structural and cultural shifts. They are, nevertheless, part of the total. Social change, as I am using the term, occurs only when there has been realignment in an parts of the system. There is no implication in this description that societies move continuously from situations of relative balance, through periods of disruption, into new situations of balance. New forces may enter a system at sum a rate that the realignment process cannot proceed rapidly enough. Mankind may have entered a time when structural-cultural-character elements are continuously out of phase with one another. We do not know the consequences of such endemie social change; but we will be wise, I believe, not to judge those consequences against a presumed normal model of stability. The picture of homeostatic balance among the three elements is an analytic concept to be used as a point of reference, against which various forms of movement can be seen and compared. It is not a description of the normal or desirable social order. Even traditional societies are not the static, culturally homogeneous social systems they are sometimes taken to be 3. From my point of view it is amistake to assume, a prim·i, that change must begin with one part of the system, with other elements simply reflecting, by their manges, the altered circumstances around them. The sequence of events in any system is a matter for empirical investigation. And however a process a See ]oseph Gusfield, "Tradition and Modernity: Misplaced Polarities in the Study of Sodal Change," American Journal 0/ Sociology, 72, 1967, pp. 351-362. Toward a Theory 0/ Religion and Social Change 9 gets started, social change results only when all parts of the system are modified through various feedback processes '. It is clear that any adequate theory of society must be a theory of change, and not simply a theory of homeostatic processes. In other words, it must be a theory of how societies evolve into different forms - or fail to - and not only an explanation of how they operate. Yet social systems are resilient and "tough." They can sustain quite a lot of stress or "wobble" in some of their parts without being overwhelmed. There has been in American race relations, for example, a great deal of structural change. Patterns of interaction between Black and White have been significantly modified, as the Negro population has moved into the cities, dispersed through the nation, entered new occupations, and shifted to integrated schools. Cultural patterns, however, and the tendencies and motives of individuals, have changed less drastically. An older order is still "justified" by widely shared norms and defended by individuals socialized to those norms, although not without changes in each instance. This is to suggest, in terms of our problem, that extensive religious change is not the inevitable consequence of modifications in the social structure. Those modifications must be powerful enough and persist long enough to upset prevailing cultural elements and to transform individual motives and perceptions. The same qualification is necessary when religion is seen as the independent variable. Religious change does not inevitably bring about change elsewhere. Moreover, religious development is not simply a matter of culture. It also invol ves structural shifts and the growth of new individual motives ana values. Changes in the size and homogeneity of the congregational unit, the rise or decline of participation by laymen, redefinition of hierarchical patterns, and the extent of congregational isolation from or involvement with the surrounding community are among the important structural shifts that can occur in con junction with, or to some degree independently of, cultural shifts. The cultural changes in religion - the redefinition of shared sacred beliefs and rites - have an impact outside the specifically religious sphere, moreover, only if they help to create new men, whose needs, values, and motives redirect their energies. In recent years, several important theories of social change have given serious attention to this character level. Daniel Lerner holds that modernization can occur only when substantial numbers of "mobile personalities" have ap peared - persons capable of identification with different perspectives, of empathy. David McClelland, following Weber, sees the need for a strong achievement motive, adesire to test one's self and to succeed. E. E. Hagen has put emphasis on the capacity for innovation, for rearranging experience and seeing it in a different light 5. Although these men stress different structural , For a general theoretical study of the interaction of structural, cultural, and characterological forces, see J. Milton Yinger, Toward a Field Theory 0/ Behavior (McGraw-Hill, 1965). 6 Thc works of Lerner, McClelland and Hagen are cited in footnote 2. 10 ]. Milton Yinger sources (Lerner, the growth of cities, literacy, mass media, and political parti cipation; McClelland, training for independence and achievement in the family; Hagen, marginality), none takes the qualities of character they describe entirely as independent variables. Character changes are intervening variables that gather up the force of changes in the evironment, transmitting and augmenting them as they evolve. A critical force in determining the nature of that transmittal and augmentation is the quality of the ultima te value system - whether a traditional religion, areformation, or a secular quasi-religion - available to those experiencing change 6. Despite their differences, the approaches of Lerner, McClelland, and Hagen may share in common a Western orientation that is not entirely adequate for other parts of the world. The sequence of events in societies that invent their own new structures may be different from the sequence in societies where many new patterns are imported. The invention and development of an industrial commercial society may require drastic cultural and character changes. To un derstand which societies will undergo rapid development in a world where industrial models are already available, however, it may be more critical to have knowledge of the structure of power. Thus an explanation adequate fot the English-American sequence, for example, may be quite inadequate for the Japanese or Russian sequence. This is definitely not to say, however, that cultural elements and their character counterparts are unimportant ,in the change processes of Japan and the Soviet Union. I mean to say only that the timing of change patterns can vary. There is little doubt that Confucian and Shinto values combined in Japan to support economic development. Emphasis on loyalty, obedience, frugality, and hard work could readily be transposed into support for modernization by an elite dedicated to that goal 7. Even filial piety could be given a commercial dimen sion, with firms being built around family groups, using family symbolism in relationship to their workers, and developing a pattern of life-Iong identifi cation with the same company. Thus existing elements of culture and character supported changes which were initiated in the social structure. Those elements had been insufficient by themselves, however, to set the process of moderni zation in motion. The Soviet situation is somewhat different, sharing elements of both the English and the Japanese sequence. Before the 1917 revolution, communism as a quasi religion had begun something analogous to the culture-character reorganization 8 See Philip Rieff, The Triumph of the Therapeutic (Harper and Row, 1966), especially Chapter 8, for a thoughtful discussion of the role of religious change in reworking the "control" and "release" processes of culture. Cultural revolution occurs when the releasing symbolisms are more powerful than the controlling ones. Aggression, destructive attack on the sodal order grows, as in our time, until new and acceptable symbols of faith arise that are of sufficicnt power to reintroduce controls. 7 See Robert Bellah, Tokugawa Religion (The Free Press, 1957).
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