The Sacred Project of American Sociology PDF
Preview The Sacred Project of American Sociology
THE SACRED PROJECT OF AMERICAN SOCIOLOGY THE SACRED PROJECT OF AMERICAN SOCIOLOGY Christian Smith 1 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 © Oxford University Press 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Smith, Christian, 1960– The sacred project of American sociology / Christian Smith. p. cm. — (Philosophische analyse = Philosophical analysis) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–0–19–937713–8 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978–0–19–937714–5 (ebook) — ISBN 978–0–19–937716–9 (online content) 1. Religion and sociology—United States. 2. United States—Religion. I. Title. BL60.S565 2014 306.60973—dc23 2013050538 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper For sociologists more committed to the best possible understandings and explanations of the truth about social life—whatever they may be— than to making social life conform to their predetermined ideological commitments. “We despise all reverences and all the objects of reverence which are outside the pale of our own list of sacred things. And yet, with strange inconsistency, we are shocked when other people despise and defile the things which are holy to us.” Mark Twain, Following the Equator CONTENTS introduction ix 1. The Argument 1 2. Evidence 28 3. Spiritual Practices 115 4. How Did We Get Here?—The Short Story 119 5. Consequences 133 6. The Question of Accountability 177 7. What Is Sociology Good For? 184 8. Conclusion 189 Appendix: The Alternative of Critical Realist Personalism 199 index 205 vii INTRODUCTION Sociology as an academic discipline appears on the surface to be a secular, scientific enterprise. Its founding fathers were mostly athe- ists. Its basic operating premises are secular and naturalistic. And its disciplinary culture is indifferent and sometimes hostile to re- ligion, often for what are thought of as rationalistic and scientific reasons. American sociology’s early historical professionalization also involved the intentional marginalization of Christian Social- Gospel activists who wanted to claim a place in the newly forming scientific discipline.1 Sociologists today are disproportionately not religious, compared to all Americans, and often irreligious people.2 And a great deal of sociology is devoted to showing that the ordi- nary world of everyday life as it seems to most people is not really 1. Christian Smith, 2003, The Secular Revolution: Power, interest, and Conflict in the Secular- ization of American Public Life, Berkeley: University of Califorina Press, pp. 97–159. 2. Elaine Howard Ecklund and Christopher Scheitle, 2007, “Religion among Academic Scientists: Distinctions, Disciplines, and Demographics,” Social Problems, 54(2): 289– 307; Martin Trow and Associates, 1969, Carnegie Commission National Survey of Higher Education: Faculty Study, Berkeley: University of California at Berkeley, Survey Re- search Center; Martin Trow and Associates, 1984, Carnegie Commission National Survey of Higher Education: Faculty Study, Berkeley: University of California at Berkeley, Survey Research Center. ix
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