Karl Bakeman

Scott Jaschik wrote an excellent piece in Inside Higher Ed about the sociology of religion. He captures the discomfort many social scientists feel with studying the topic, and in an interview with Darren Sherkat at SIU highlights the concern about religious organization using funding to direct research in the directions that support their ideological agenda. Jaschik also profiles an interesting new report from David Smilde and Matthew May for the SSRC about the emerging strong program in the sociology of religion. Here’s a link to read Smilde’s and May’s working paper. Interestingly, one of Smilde’s findings contradicts the concern raised by Sherkat about funding. According to the working paper, there is no relationship between religious funding and socio-evaluative findings. According to Smilde:

It suggests that rather than supporting pro-religiousness, it seems to focus its support on classic “religious sociology,” in which religious scholars use sociology to engage religion, warts and all, in order to improve religious institutions and practices.

Anecdotally, I had noticed an up-tick in the number of sociologists studying religion. I had attributed it to a cultural shift in the wake of 9/11 and a curiosity about religion as fundamentalism became an increasingly powerful political force around the world. However, Smilde finds:

Despite the growing importance of globalization, immigration, the growth of non-Christian religions in Western countries, and the considerable spread of Christianity in the global South, there is no evidence of any diversification of the traditional subject matter of the sociology of religion: the United States, Christianity and, more specifically, Protestantism. If there is any trend at all, it is towards a slight accentuation of thematic concentration. By the end of the sample, three quarters of all articles looked at religion in the United States and over half at Christianity.

The neglect of globalization surprises me. Seems like a good opportunity for an ambitious grad student . . .