The Sacred Project of American Sociology

225 Pages·2014·1.941 MB·English

by  Christian Smith

THE SACRED PROJECT OF AMERICAN SOCIOLOGY

THE SACRED PROJECT
OF AMERICAN SOCIOLOGY
Christian Smith
1
1
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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