Prof. Pam's Religion Blog » Durkheim

When Sociologists Get Religion

PH — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 04:52:14 +0000

As my students know, Durkheim, the “father of sociology”, had a great deal to say about religion. Some of it, from my point of view, helpful.

Sherkat, a professor of sociology at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, no longer has to worry about arguing for the key role of religion as a social force. As a new study has found, there has been a significant increase over the last 25 or so years not only in the quantity of work done by sociologists on religion, but also in how religion is treated in those studies. No longer is it assumed to be only a reflection of some other socioeconomic trend, but increasingly it is treated as the factor that may be central to understanding a given group of people.

When Sherkat published a paper in the 1990′s this was the response he received:

He remembers one telling him “this is garbage” for citing Weber’s views on the significance of religious values. “It can’t be religion” driving human behavior, the scholar told the then un-tenured Sherkat. “It’s got to be something else that caused the religion.”

Big change! Read the article from Inside Higher Ed here.

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Gator Totem

PH — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 05:24:14 +0000

As we’ll discuss on Thursday, our totem is the “Gator”.

I couldn’t find my “totem” pin to wear this morning. I confess I had a bad feeling about that. I always wear my Gator totem pin on the first day (and last day) of class. What would the Great Gator Goddess think? Oh dear!

Gathering what courage and determination I could, I bravely got on 85 N and then merged on to 280 N.

And what did I see traveling right next to me? An omen!

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Reducing reductionism

PH — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:18:56 +0000

What’s up with reductionism? While reviewing the chapter on Marx in Pals it hit me: it seems to me that few would have any problems with a doctor analyzing your symptoms and finding that the root of the problem is something quite different from your symptoms. So if folks are unhappy with the positions Freud, Durkheim and Marx put forward is it the fault of the reductionism mostly? Only?

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