Nuts, Sluts, and Converts: Studying Religious Groups as Social Problems: A Comment
Irving Horowitz has called for studying religious movements as social problems. Yet he is critical of those who propose going “beyond detente” with respect to the relationship of religion and social science. Nevertheless, it has been this “detente” and its articulation through putatively “value-neut...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
1985
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| In: |
Sociological analysis
Year: 1985, Volume: 46, Issue: 2, Pages: 171-178 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Irving Horowitz has called for studying religious movements as social problems. Yet he is critical of those who propose going “beyond detente” with respect to the relationship of religion and social science. Nevertheless, it has been this “detente” and its articulation through putatively “value-neutral” factionalism which has inhibited the inquiry into religion as a social problem, because religion has been viewed positively as a functional imperative. The waning of both detente and hegemonic functionalism in the sociology of religion reflects the increasing controversiality of religion in America. This controversiality may produce a cultural context which will question certain “clericalist” tendencies which have been embedded in the modern sociology of religion, including the sponsorship of research by churches. The controversy over students of religion sympathizing with “cults” or collaborating with The Unification Church foreshadows a broader questioning. The waning of detente is producing heightened theoretical ferment in the sociology of religion and opening the way to new overtly valuative perspectives, including critical orientations as well as overtly religious formulations such as “Christian Sociology.” |
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| ISSN: | 2325-7873 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Sociological analysis
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/3711059 |