A Sinner Among the Saints: Confessions of a Sociologist of Culture and Religion

Abstract

As one who came early and has stayed late at the sociological party, I thought it would be appropriate to provide a brief inventory of my sins over more than 40 years as a sociologist of culture and religion. Where culture is concerned, my own changing perspectives parallel developments in the field itself, though I also confess to a few doubts and suspicions regarding culture's current revival. Turning to religion, I identify myself with both Durkheim and Weber if only as another scholar in the field who is “religiously unmusical.” I confess to wondering why so many of my colleagues have paid so little attention to religion. And having raised the question, I go on to suggest several answers and rebut all but the last with materials drawn from a recently completed study of “world religions and worldly politics” in some 14 countries around the globe.