Search

This article presents a commentary on papers about the sociology of religion. The question of the influence of the sociology of religion on general sociology and on the general intellectual debate is easier to pose than to answer. There is a growing awareness that there are well-developed sociologies other than those which dominate Western social science. Reading Emile Poulat's paper about the founding of the Conférence Internationale de Sociologie des Religions, one is struck by the fact that the sociology of religion is presented as a world of its own. It is as if the sociology of religion does not need any external or outside justifications for its existence and development. Meanwhile, James Beckford points out that there have been various studies describing and revealing some important social tendencies. There has been proliferation of studies of religious movements, charismatic renewals and fundamentalist uprisings with visible and dramatic effects on social life and societal frameworks. Industrial society had a fairly stable structure and an institutional build-up based on rules that are centrally enforced by state authorities and shared norms. The information society displays a much greater variety of codes, world views and cosmologies.

An introduction is presented which discusses the process of selecting the papers published within the issue from a great number of papers related to religion and sociology which were presented at a conference in Santiago de Compostela.

This article presents notes on the 13th Conference of the Sociology of Religion at lloret-de-Mar, Costa-Brava, Catalonia, Spain, in 1975. The conference was held at a popular tourist resort. The place was crowded with bars, souvenirs and tourists mainly coming from Great Britain and West Germany. The theme of the conference was Religion and Social Change. The principal papers were not read at the conference but appeared in advance in the acts either in extenso or as resumés. The papers were discussed at the conference in five different kinds of sessions. It is quite possible to unite the many different papers and discussions in one single view or even in a short article. Thirty papers were printed in the acts, and half of them in extenso. The subject areas also varied widely: From African to Irish religion and from Polish to Japanese popular beliefs. The theoretical discussions also covered the wide range from traditional positivism and functionalism to some tender outbreaks of critical theory, This confrontation which is very usual among secular sociologists still possesses the charm of novelty among sociologists of religion, but nevertheless it made discussions difficult at the conference.

Copyright of Social Compass is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article argues that Sweden has remarkable Church records and population statistics, which are far more detailed and complete than the material from most other countries especially for the period after 1750. The purpose of this paper is to bring the usefulness and availability of Swedish Church statistics to the attention of the social sciences of religion. Specifically, the primary purpose of this article is to draw attention to the Stockholm Institute of Religion Church Statistics Data Sets. These Data Sets contain data relevant to a number of interesting research problems. Furthermore, the Data Sets are designed to allow analyses of development and change in Church commitment. In the first part of the paper, 19th century data will be used to shed light on the question as to whether equivalents of the recurrent 20th century findings on religion and social stratification can be established for the preceding century as well. The second part of the paper will utilize late 20th-century data to discuss the persistency of 19th century regional difference in Church involvement. The essential theme of the paper thus concerns the relations between 19th- and 20th-century religious life in Sweden.

This article presents an overview on the fourth consultation of the European Colloquium on the Sociology of Religion at William Temple College, Rugby, England from April 17-21, 1963. Twenty six people from a dozen countries, including the U.S. and Finland, met for the conference. Canon R. S. O. Stevens of Birmingham, who acted as secretary to the Colloquium, opened the conference, welcoming the visitors and introducing Miss M. Batten, Principal of the College, whose paper Religious Life in Britain in the Post-War Period, proved a fitting beginning, discussing as it did the basis for sociological investigation in the sphere of religion. The following morning, with the Reverend Michael Jackson in the chair, Doctor John Kent, a church historian from Manchester, gave a paper, Sociological Factors in Disunity. His analysis of the history of divisions within the Protestant churches in England was of considerable interest, and his suggestions as to the causes of the present movement towards Anglicanism on the part of Methodists in Britain, were illuminating. Plans for the future were discussed at length, Professor Goldschmidt giving the report for the steering committee. Brief reports on work in progress then followed.

This paper recapitulates and summarizes the achievements and failures of sociology of religion in Spain as of December 1976. The author explains that this paper is by no means the first attempt to elaborate a historical synthesis of socio-religious research in Spain. According to him, other authors have tried at various times to analyze the situation of sociology of religion in Spain by studying the main periods of its evolution and development. He points out however that the acritical attitude adopted by most of these papers is of very little interest in 1976; analysis of what was done in the past has no meaning unless it is related to contemporary trends in research, as well as to the elaboration of certain priorities with regard to future research. While this paper limits itself to a historical review of the prior development of sociology of religion in Spain, it tries to point out to the future by critically weighing the acquisitions in this field. The author confesses that the present effort of recapitulating and summarizing the achievements and failures of Spanish sociology of religion inevitably places him in a rather delicate and even uncomfortable situation. According to him, criticism in this case becomes self-criticism in so far as it concerns a group of investigators to which he himself belongs.

This article locates some of the major problem-areas encountered in attempts to produce an autonomously sociological approach to the study of religious conversion. The discussion is generated by a general dissatisfaction with prevailing methodological strategies conventionally deployed in study within the sociology of religion as a whole, and by a concern to specify focus on conversion as a means of both highlighting the cognitive consequences of such deficiencies and of indicating some directions for the delineation of alternative and potentially more fruitful approaches within the broadly micro-constructionist sociological paradigm. The paper begins with an overview of prevailing tendencies in the social-scientific study of conversion by way of highlighting the analytic linkage between methodological strategy and conceptual suppositions as to the substantive nature of conversion phenomena which characterizes them. Next, this paper discusses the relevance for study of conversion of some attempted reformulations of the conceptual underpinnings of sociology of religion and suggests that analysis premised upon the empirical as distinct from the theoretic fundamentality of religious belief may go some way to operationalizing sociological inquiry into conversion as an activity whereby religious knowledge becomes relevant for individuals.

Pentecostalism has ‘bucked the trend’ predicted by Émile Durkheim and others that religion would decline and disappear in a secular modern age. In searching for the clues as to why this happened, this paper outlines Durkheim’s thought on the phenomenon that sparks religious life – effervescence – and his belief that in the secular future societies would make use of this phenomenon to create instances of ‘secular sacralisation’. Following these ideas, the author traces the development of Pentecostalism, a religious phenomenon that has harnessed the power of effervescence and grown explosively in the ‘secular’ age. Thus, Pentecostalism has appropriated (in part) the role that Durkheim believed society itself would have to fill in a future, secular age, and has reinforced the link between effervescent experience and a transcendent divine entity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses papers presented at the 2011 conference of the Société Internationale de Sociologie des Religions/International Society for the Sociology of Religion, on topics including monastic utopias, Pentecostalism in French Polynesia, and evangelical Protestantism in Lebanon.

Copyright of Social Compass is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Social Compass is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article focuses on the cooperative initiative between the journal Social Compass and the International Society for the Sociology of Religion (ISSR). From its beginnings, the ISSR has made every endeavour to publish the papers presented at its meetings. This had the advantage of enabling members to prepare for active participation in the meetings. However, there were some disadvantages. The papers, once commissioned, were not subject to editorial review before publication. In addition, the only papers published were those to be delivered in plenary sessions. Cooperation between Social Compass and the ISSR ensures that conference proceedings will appear in subsequent issues of Social Compass. Each year, the first issue of Social Compass will carry papers delivered at the preceding ISSR conference. Two issues are devoted to each biennial conference. As a result of the cooperative initiative, the work of sociologists of religion will be more effectively integrated and the journal and conference will become mutually reinforcing. The journal will bring the work of a larger number of conference participants to the attention of a wider circle of scholars, while the conference will become an effective forum to stimulate and sustain support for the journal.

This paper attends to a selection of the scholarly writings on the development of the new religious movements in the U.S. as of March 1983. The subject of new religions in the U.S. is immense, since it is in the U.S. that new groups began first to attract large number of followers, and also the attention of the media, along with that of the leaders of a number of institutions in U.S. society. The traditional religions and their leadership, the medical profession, the legal profession, defenders of the traditional family and lifestyles, and certain bureaucratic structures of local, state, and federal levels of government have all become involved in controversies surrounding new religions. The many issues that have risen have contributed to the development of a large literature on the new religious movements. There are many accounts of the development of the new religions in the U.S., most of which are simplistic, ahistorical accounts not yielding much understanding. What these accounts are trying to explain is the rise of interest in innovative types of religion particularly among young people in the U.S. during the past fifteen years or so. This wave of new religiosity has taken many forms.

It was Bryan R. Wilson who once remarked that the Jehovah's witnesses are so much concerned with recruitment that their whole movement is organised essentially towards the work of "publishing the good news" (Wilson, 1967:15). In a sense this remark is somewhat deceptive. The work of "publishing the good news" should not be mixed up with genuine recruitment, the latter being a possible--but not a necessary--sequel to the former. All Witnesses are engaged in publishing their message, convenient or inconvenient ; they are engaged in straight recruitment, however, only when and where they see their chance. Not all individuals outside the Watch Tower movement are, as it were, cut out for becoming serious candidates for membership, and the ordinary Witness is fully aware of this. Therefore, trying to avoid casting pearls before swine, he only proceeds to deliberate recruitment alter having separated non-promising and promising outsiders. In this paper the latter category is examined on the basis of Dutch research data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The section presents abstracts of papers about sociology of religion delivered at conferences and meetings held in August and September 1962. The paper, The Sociology of Religion as Part of a Generalized Sociology of Creative Behavior, A Conceptual Outline by Franz Adler, describes series of role concepts. The true author and the official author stand in a relationship which, based on cooperation, may vary widely in character. Performers who stand between authors and publics may be mediators. They may also be teachers, preachers, executives and pure performers. Another role is that of the critic. A critic with the power of suppressing a work is censor. Finally there is the consumer toward whom production of works is finally directed. It is suggested that the number of people involved in the process of creation and performance is inversely related to the likelihood of innovation. The study, The Professionalization of the Calling: Functional Implications by Robert P. Rankin, analyzes the character of this anxiety as it is expressed in interviews with ministers and laymen in the California-Nevada Annual Conference of the Methodist Church, an administrative unit comprising over three hundred local churches. Data employed in the study, Lay Expectations of the Ministerial Role: An Exploration of Protestant-Catholic Differentials by W. Widick Schroeder, were drawn from a sample of Protestant ad Catholic laymen in two Corn Belt communities, one dominantly Catholic and one dominantly Protestant. Data on questions dealing with qualities or characteristics and conduct expected of a minister are examined.

The article presents information on several papers related to religion and sociology. Among the several papers are "Some Observations on Ideological Groups," by V.C. Nahirny was published in the 1962 issue of "The American Journal of Sociology." "Adaptation and pattern Integration of a California Sect," by F.W. Young was published in the 1960 issue of the journal "Review of Religious Research." "Sects and Society: A Sociological Study of Three Religious Groups in Britain," by B.R. Wilson and "Legitimation and Antisemitism as Factors in the Functioning of a Hebrew-Christian Mission," by B.Z. Sobel was published in the 1961 issue of the journal "Jewish Social Studies."

A clear trend which marked the sociology of religion during the last few years has been its effort to push on Its studies beyond sociography to the domain of social psychology. In this paper the Author takes social integration in the small group as the starting point for a discussion on how far attitudes of the spirit are influenced by the groups themselves. These attitudes are defined as the structurization of personal dynamism which positively or negatively orient behaviour in the face of a psycho-social object. Their two springs arc individual psychology and the social milieu. Attitudes are influenced by the groups to which the individual persons belong. The first achievement of sociology was to free itself from simplicist determinism. The second one consisted In an effort to examine the Influence of the family, union, party and other groups to which people belonged. The third step was an examination of the reference groups, that is, the groups to which people did not necessarely belong but to which they ware psychologically linked. These two ideas can be applied to the sociology of religion. The Author applies them to the religious sentiment of young people (attached or otherwise to the Church groups), to the attitudes of the modal Catholic (i.e. In relation to the parochial group) and to the Institutional points of reference of religious conversion (i.e. between the Church and the convert). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an introduction to this issue containing papers from the 29th Conference of the ISSR (International Society for the Sociology of Religion) that dealt with the tension between secularity and religion.

Over the past 50 years, the journal "Social Compass," has become an important international forum for researchers in the field of the sociology of religion. Its popularity is evident as the journal has about 850 subscribers, 65 percent are universities and research institutes from all over the world. That's saying something, regarding a journal, which is devoted to a minority field of research. However, though this wide reach with pride is possible because of several people who contributed to this journal. So, it is necessary to give credit where credit is due, to those who, in the main, have contributed to the journal its intellectual substance. And because this journal is among other things the locus for publication of the papers presented at the biannual meetings of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion. The journal has never been one school's journal. Rather, it set its sights on giving a true picture of the various theoretical approaches and the range of empirical inquiry, which give life to social science. In this respect this journal has made a name for itself, becoming indispensable to all who work within the social sciences of religion, and theft chosen instrument.

This section presents a calendar of events related to the sociology of religion scheduled from August to October 1977. The 14th International Conference of the Sociology of Religion will be held in from August 28-September 1, 1977 in Strasbourg, France. The meetings are held every two years for the discussion of papers in the sociology of religion interpreted broadly to include other social-scientific perspectives on religious phenomena. the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the Religious Research Association will be held from October 27-30, 1977 in Chicago, Illinois. The theme for the 1977 joint annual meeting will be The Interface of Religion and Science. This deliberately interdisciplinary theme will allow scholars from many different disciplines to examine the relationship of their particular professional interests to religious phenomena, while at the same time encouraging participation by those seeking to apply results of research in religion to specific problems. Papers will be presented in many different topic areas.

This article reports on the 8th International Conference of Religious Sociology in Barcelona, Spain, on July 2-4, 1965. The theme for the conference is Religion in the Transition From a Pre-Technical to an Industrial and Urban Society. Though the theme of this conference was explicitly defined, only three of the seven papers read to the assembly were directly concerned with the subject. Professor Kirk's contribution treating the role of religion in the evolution of the American South, can perhaps best be seen as a statement about the hindrances religion can put in the way of socioeconomic change, about religion as a conservative factor. Lord Simey reminded us of the professional obligations of the sociologist of religion, and though there was no direct relation to the main subject of the conference, it was important to have him ask this question, especially in this group of sociologists who are primarily working within a Church context. This became clear when Mr. Spencer decided to devote his presidential address to the subject of professional ethics of the sociologist of religion. As for the last speaker, Fr. Greeley, we were only too glad to have the president of the American Catholic Sociological Society with us and thus to see emerge the possibility of a closer contact and cooperation with American confréres, to mind much that his paper dealing with social successes of American Catholic Education, was in no way related to the conference theme.

Copyright of Social Compass is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Social Compass is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

English. The sociology of religion is at an impasse in its analysis of the mystical dimension of its object. Inspired by the ethnomethodological perspective, this paper proposes an alternative analytical strategy. This approach maintains that claims of mystical influence can be dealt with by sociological enquiry without devaluing the self-understanding of those making the claims. The strategy is exemplified in the analysis of video accounts of apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Hercegovina. It is argued that the claimants constitute the apparitions through a process of transubstantiation, the visionaries becoming the embodiment of the Virgin Mary's aesthetic qualities, moral features and historical role, and her religious function. French. La sociologie de la religion semble bien dans une impasse quant à l'appréhension de la dimension surnaturelle de son objet. La perspective ethnométhodologique offre une issue à ce difficile problème. Dans cette perspective, l'analyse rend possible une compréhension du phénomène des apparitions de la Vierge Marie sans en altérer l'autocompréhension de ceux qui sont engagés dans les phénomènes. L'illustration porte sur les apparitions à Medjugorje à partir de séquences vidéo. Ces séquences, est-il avancé, constituent les apparitions par un procédé de transsubstantiation: les voyants deviennent l'incarnation des qualités esthétiques de la Vierge, de ses traits moraux et de son rôle historique, ainsi que de sa fonction religieuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes--in a deliberately subjective way--a retrospective of the trajectory of the sociology of religions in France since the 1950s. It identifies three moments: they correspond both to typical periods of the French religious evolution since the Second Worm War and to intellectual problems that have marked the theoretical development of the research. Till the 1960s (the first moment), the classical vision of secularization found its confirmation with the observation of the collapse of the Catholic parochial civilization. A second moment is linked with the discovery of a proliferation of beliefs throughout the allegedly secularized society. A third moment deals with the question of the shaping and transmission of socio-religious identities in a multicultural society, where the need for redefining the very notion of laïcité is at the centre of public debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disjunction of time and space under conditions of globalization is bringing about an ongoing reformulation of the boundaries between seemingly clear orienting polarities, including those between core and periphery, metropolis and hinterland, home and away, global and local; and more generally, identity and difference. Using these polarities as analytic points of departure, this paper lays some theoretical foundations for raising questions about how we construct and reconstruct religions in global society. The core argument is that different places in which adherents to a religion locate serve as centres for an ongoing negotiation as to what constitutes that religion. The process greatly relativizes distinctions such as that between homeland and diaspora, especially as concerns the question of authenticity and, hence, authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a look at the comparative use of civil religion as a theoretical construct of the sociology of religion in Chile under Augusto Pinochet's regime during 1973-1989. The first declarations of the military junta repeatedly carried the message of a democratic restoration. In short, the junta called upon what has been identified as a key element of American civil religion: democratic faith. To mitigate the incongruity between a repressive regime and deeply ingrained Chilean traditions, an alliance between civil religion and unrestricted power was established. With the notable exception of the Catholic Church, all major social organizations in the country were dismantled or placed under intense surveillance. Patriotism, equated with anti-Marxism and a free market economy, was the first principle of the project of reconstrucción nacional. The dogma of a sacred war against communism was a recurring litany throughout the regime. Pinochet, however, never quite succeeded in making the church an instrument of his own civil religion. On the contrary, the church came to be perceived as a serious threat to his political agenda. As things were, the junta's moral agenda gave Chileans little choice, one could either be with the junta or against it; one could either serve God or Satan.

This paper presents an international bibliography of sociology of religions for 1994.

This paper begins with the perspective from which studies of religion in Cuba have developed: studies of organic forms of religious life in their content, practices, cultural modalities and organic structures. In Cuba, these forms are diverse and have coexisted for many years. Cuban religion is characterized by syncretism. Cross-breeding and migration have blurred religious and ethnic divisions and many different sects besides Catholicism are to be found. The approach adopted is of ah interdisciplinary type, yet based on observation of facts and a dialectical interpretation, unencumbered by confessional interferences and ideological presuppositions. Within a Marxist perspective, religion is studied as a form of social consciousness. Yet it is not a simple passive "reflection", a mechanical copy of reality, as some have believed in a simplistic interpretation of Marx. Any representation is a universal property of the consciousness forcefully manifesting itself. While at the same time refusing essentialism, the author defines religion by its reference to the supernatural. He studies, notably, the following elements: religious consciousness, religious activities, the organizational factor, and the rapports between these various elements and the functions of religion. Finally, the author defines the concept of religiosity as the type and degree of effect of beliefs and practices on actors and social groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to assess the impact of the secularization debate of the mid-1960s on the theoretical evolution of the sociology of religion and on the development of the ICSR. An analysis of the Acts published by the ICSR over a thirty-six year period shows that criticisms of the theoretical narrowness of "religious sociology" in Europe existed long before the debate about secularization broke out, and that the ICSR only reacted to this debate six years later, when a new generation of scholars became dominant in the ICSR. The conclusion is that, although the secularization debate did not have any direct impact on the theoretical evolution of the discipline nor on the evolution of the ICSR, it had an indirect impact, in the sense that it was only when a new generation of scholars, who were university professors rather than churchmen, came to power, that the new paradigm which secularization theorists had put forth came into effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a series of articles which deals with the sociological analysis of religious forms taken as cultural and social facts and thus as collective productions of human groups.

This article presents a sociological perspective of religions in India.

This article summarizes Max Weber's thought on the religion of social groups, with the idea of extracting some of its major statements. The objective of this article is not to examine Weberian theory as a whole, but to provide the items necessary for understanding the approach followed by the authors in their own research. In the second part of this article, the authors show what this theoretical approach takes from Weber and how the perspective in which they place their analysis forces them to go beyond it. The authors relate that the theory underlying their work on the social functions of religion was initially inspired by Weberian thought and particularly by what Weber develops in paragraph 7 of his sociology of religion. In paragraph 7, Weber analyzes the demand of different social groups: the peasants, the socially and economically privileged classes: the warrior nobility, the bureaucracy, the bourgeoisie and unprivileged groups: the petite bourgeoisie, slaves and farm workers, the modern proletariat. But the authors' research in Sri Lanka and Kerala on the interrelationships between the religious and political fields during the precapitalist period of these ensembles, as well as in the transformation process affecting their structures, were to lead them beyond Weberian theory in an attempt to uncover the objective causes of this expansion.

This paper presents an international bibliography of sociology of religion.

This paper deals with the major types of definitions of religions used in the sociology of religion and their influence on sociological research. Not all definitions are either substantive or functional: some are a combination of the two. Luckmann makes a difference between an elementary and non-specific social form or religion and a specific historical form of religion. The sociological theory of religion is only interested in specific forms of religion in society. Secularization is occurring through the development of a cultural religion--an American way of life with religious overtones. Berger's use of the term secularization as desacralization is a consequence of his definition of religion. There is no secularization in the U.S., in Yinger's opinion: if one defines religion statically--in terms of a system of beliefs and practices that emerged at a given time and were subject thereafter to no essential revision--religious change is nearly identical with secularization. Thus, the distinguishing traits of religion lie not in the entities themselves but in an attitude extended toward certain ideas, objects and acts, and this attitude is extended to them because, society attributed sacred qualities to them. A substantive definition of religion searches for the essence of religion and defines it as sacred.

This paper explores the sociological aspects of religion. In group one of high school students from Stockholm, Sweden it was found that there was a small difference between those who had earlier met a death-motive and those who had not; the former had more emotional disturbances, although this was a very weak tendency. The presence of a death-motive in the actual situation has less to do with the presence of neurotic disturbances, however. Religious words and thoughts often give birth to associations of different kinds in different persons. In order to explore a little how people react to religious stimulus-words such as Bible, a test was made in Stockholm as well as in a remote rural area in southern Sweden at a little village called Bankeryd. In both groups of school-pupils the task for the examinees was to associate a sample of words to the word Bible. Of these words, Old Age, Darkness, Autumn and War could be roughly classified as dark words. The general hypotheses formulated at the start of these investigations were that young people in Stockholm tend to associate--in general--mainly dark words to the word Bible whereas young people in the rural district on the contrary tend to associate bright words to the Bible.

The section features some information sources on sociology of religion. The book, Le Bouddha et sam message, by M. Abbé Delahoutre was written with the purpose of introducing Buddhisms to the Christian world, which is slowly realizing its existent in the other world, and of creating a clearer picture of its distinguishing features from other eastern religions. It presents a survey of the most important data of Buddha's life, placed against the background of his days, of his doctrine, of its later development into three different forms, and of the significance of Buddhism in the various countries of the Far East. Both the present day situation of Buddhism and is contacts with the West are indicates. A summary comparison with the Christian religion concludes the work. The book, In a Strange Land. A Report of a World Conference on Problems if International Migration and the Responsibility of the Churches, centers among the problems posed to the churches that of the migration of Africans and Asiatics. The introductory articles by B. C. H. Sjollema and P. de Jong are followed by the text of papers by Dudley Kirk, Clarence Senior, Marcus Daly, J. Norris, Henry Makula and others. The report concludes with the resolutions taken at the congress and six recommendations to the churches.

The article presents information on the International Consultation-Conference on the Sociology of Religion that was held in Washington D.C. from September 8 to 10, 1962. Ecumenical in the sense that participants came from all parts of the world, the meeting was jointly sponsored by the Religious Research Association and the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. It was supported by a grant from the Hazen Foundation. More than eighty registered participants represented twenty nations, including Canada, Colombia, India, Japan, Malaya, New Zealand, Pakistan, Poland, Puerto Rico and Sierra Leone besides Western Europe and the United States. Following greetings by Dr Lauris Whitman on behalf of the Religious Research Association and Professor Horace Fries; president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, the first session consisted of summary reports on current work in the sociology of religion. Prepared papers by Dr Norman Birnbaum of Nuffield College, Oxford University, and Professor Charles Y. Glock of the University of California in Berkeley were followed by extemporaneous presentations representing other parts of the world.

This article presents a list of papers on sociology of religion, that appeared in the August 01, 1962 issue of the periodical "Social Compass." Some of the books mentioned in the list are "The Personal and the Functional Element in Pastoral Care," by W.M.I. Van Den Ende, "Pastoral Care and Clinical Training in America. Report of a Three Months Visit," by H. Faber and "The Variety of City Churches," by F.A. Shippey.

The article presents information about the papers that appeared in the January 2, 1962 issue of the journal "Social Compass." In every national and cultural situation, the relationship between sociology and religion is, in one way or another, of primary importance, the interaction between religion and society assumes, in social living its peculiar and specific forms of expression. The authors from the U.S., England, West Germany and Holland who have collaborated in the present issue of the journal "Social Compass," consider principally the way in which religious and philosophical values take shape in society. Considering the countries that they come from, it is not surprising that these sociologists lay particular stress on the influence that Catholic and Protestant confessions and denominations have on social life. It is in Dutch studies in the sociology of religion especially that the vertical pluralism that conforms to religious and ecclesiastical lines of demarcation, has been subjected to closest analysis.

In recent years various studies of a religio-sociological nature have supplied numerous data relating to the catholic and protestant diaspora. These data have not yet been integrated in general sociological systems. Influenced especially by German organisations which have concerned themselves with the dispora since the last century, a specific knowledge of the diaspora has been evolving, but this is dominated by the theological element. For the interest in protestant circles see the periodical "Die Evangelische Diaspora" appearing since 1919, and the chair established at Leipzig University in 1934 to study diaspora problems. On the catholic side there may be mentioned the Johann Adam Möhler Institut für Konfessions- und Diasporakunde, at Paderborn, which collaborates closely with the St. Bonifatiusverein. The Catholic Institute for Social-Ecclesiastical Research in the Netherlands and the Catholic Centre for Social Research at Königstein/Ts, Germany, have made various religiographic studies in recent years on the catholic diaspora in the Netherlands, Germany and Scandinavia. In the U.S.A., important works have appeared on relations between catholics and protestants (among others by Will Herberg, J. Kane et al.), which show interesting analogies with European studies. Reviewing progress of the still fairly heterogenous socio-scientific study of diaspora phenomena, the question is raised of the possibility of integrating the facts described in a theoretical system. The theoretical work by R. K. Merton, regarding his system of functional analysis, can be examined to see if it can serve as a theoretical framework for studying the diaspora. As regards Merton's question of observability reference is made to the special difficulty in this respect inherent in the diaspora. Although, sociologically, the study can be confined to parishioners known as such, the question arises whether the diaspora with its geographically widespread parishes does not especially require non-parochially integrated baptised catholics to be included theoretically in the diaspora structure. In the Province of Friesland in the Netherlands, in parishes with 300-800 parishioners there were found to be 100 or more baptised not parochially registered. A complicated question, too, is that of the existence and meaning of personal attitudes to the diaspora. The dilemma is given between social absorption in the over-all environment and the creation of an individual environment. For the forming of the faithful in the diaspora the choice will depend largely upon the value attributable to the religious content of the over-all environment. It would also seem to be profitable to apply the concepts "functional" and "dysfunctional" to the diaspora. Positive functions rest in the Churches' Oecumenical consciousness. In the individual Church the diaspora may act as the territory pre-eminently suitable for pastoral experiments and for activating help to fellow-believers. But the diaspora may also have a dysfunctional effect relatively to the Oecumenical idea: for considerations of security the position of the majority church may be painted too darkly. Besides, isolation may be so great that the approach is sought solely for the sake of approach without sufficient care to the fundamental theological aspects. For analysis of the diaspora phenomenon, Merton's concept of functional requirements is also profitable. The diaspora demands special intensification of contacts, particularly with the "other Christians", puts great emphasis upon moulding of the personality and of the group. Important, too, are special organisational arrangements in the light of the social mechanisms indicated by Merton. One may recall in this connection the recent formation of the diaspora diocese of Groningen in the Netherlands. The extent of the diaspora parishes also calls forth the question of establishing auxiliary churches. The family becomes especially important to religious training (catechism), and so does a weekly periodical where the extent of the group precludes their having their own daily paper. Finally, attention is drawn to the limits of action of the diaspora system: these limits form the structural context. Possibilities in the diaspora are limited as regards facilities for education, medical care, cultural contact, etc. Economic factors may encourage mixed marriages to an exceptional degree in the diaspora. Positive action by the clergy is possible in all these respects only with the assistance of bodies and organisations outside the diaspora. The application of functional analysis can be expected to deepen insight into the phenomena of the diaspora and to help to make investigation of the very complicated diaspora situations in Northern Europe, both catholic and protestant, more effective for the study of the pastoral methods required in varied ways in the diaspora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on a basic problem in the analysis of myth and symbol in the sociology and anthropology of religion: how to establish an analytical system which is sufficiently regularized to allow replication; sufficiently specific to allow empirical test while maintaining sensitivity to cross-cultural nuance in the ethnographic materials, and sufficiently abstract and comprehensive to allow comparisons across cultures. Aspects of the work of two anthropologists involved in this enterprise are examined to highlight comparabilities and pin-point differences in order to facilitate more applications of their work. The two approaches examined are those of Claude Lévi-Strauss and Victor M. Turner. Both are writing at several levels of generality, both are operating with evident but not always identifiable philosophical presuppositions, and both are using somewhat different kinds of geographical and ethnographic materials for the basis of their arguments. Thus, it is always possible that a comparison or contrast drawn by an analyst of both would be accepted by only one or perhaps neither since a proper match between levels of generality, presuppositions, or ethnographic data was not first established. However, both are drawing conclusions from particular ethnographic studies they suggest their analyses have general application potential. Also, the exercise of comparison is a quite natural one for the practitioner seeking to make sense out of a particular myth segment or set of symbols.

This section presents information several reports on socio-religious topics. The article, The Differential Organization of Religious Professionals, by Thomas M. Gannon reports on important differences between religious and diocesan priests. The author is applying the Parsonian social systems approach and focuses on socio-psychological variables as a very efficient and illuminating approach to the understanding of his two main types of religious professionals. The article, Some Characteristics of the Religiosity of Secondary School Attendants, by Stefica Bahtijarevic deals analytically with various religious patterns among young people of the Zagreb Region. In the article, From a Universal Church to a Local Church, Wim J. J. Kusters assesses the position of Catholic Christianity in their present-day life and probes into the efficacy of new ideas, values and behavior under the aspects of polarisation and reconciliation. In the article, A Sociological Reflection on Methodological Problems in the Empirical Study of Secularization, by Roger Creyf attempted to crystallize the major problem of secularization bearing in mind its Christian basis in the famous sense of O'Dea: Religion both needs most and suffers most from institutionalization.

Copyright of Social Compass is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article provides information on the 13th International Conference on the Sociology of Religion to be held August 31-September 4, 1975 in Catalonia, Spain, The conference will revolve around the theme religion and social change. Those who register for the Conference will receive in July the Acts of the Conference. The Acts comprise 16 papers in extenso which will be discussed in the plenary sessions. At each session a rapporteur will present a critique of the papers under discussion, and authors will act as respondents. These groups will be conducted in one language, without translation. Subsequently, the conference will reconvene or a general discussion among participants. Simultaneous translation will be provide in English, French and Spanish.

The article presents summery to a paper that was delivered in the fifty-first and fifty-second annual meeting of the American Sociological Society. The paper is on the social sources of Dutch vertical pluralism as compared with selected contemporary American socio-religious conditions. Dutch society has four main subdivisions, the Roman Catholic, Protestant, humanistic and neutral. Each has a different religious-philosophical orientation, so that each maintains separate organizations in many areas of economic, political and social life. The pattern of vertical pluralism called the verzuiling effectively separates many of those who hold different religious and political views from one another and has many other latent and manifest consequences.

The article discusses the summery to a paper that was delivered in the fifty-first and fifty-second annual meeting of the American Sociological Society. The paper is on the unique programme of lay involvement entered into by the Boston University School of Theology. Graduate students in sociology of religion become progressively clinicians, team members and project directors in situations involving major institutional decisions. Churches, administrative groupings and councils of churches request research assistance in problem-solving.

The past decades have seen an intensification of debate around migrants, gender and sexuality. For the Netherlands, several authors have pointed out how this has given rise to a form of sexual nationalism whereby the idea of being a modern, progressive country is strongly linked to a program of liberal sexual values and offset against a presumably 'backward' migrant who is 'still' religious and traditional. In this article, the author analyses how these dynamics played out in the controversy around HIV-healings or homo healings supposedly taking place in Pentecostal churches in Amsterdam. Media attention highlighted the theme of homosexuality while forgetting the interests of women. This article shows that the sexual nationalism scheme was also operative here, and proposes further developing existing approaches as intersectional 'post-secularist' sociological perspectives aimed at unearthing the ways narratives of modernity, secularization and sexual nationalism structure attitudes towards migrant and religious actors both in social scientific research agendas and among societal actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The renewed vitality of religion in political and public life has prompted reconsideration of established ideas about secularisation and secularism. In Western Europe, ethnocentric enforcements of secularism are implicated in oppressive practices directed at minority women and communities while religiously-justified authoritarian movements against rights for women and LGBTQ people continue to emerge. These ‘postsecular’ challenges require recasting secular thinking within a wider re-theorisation of emancipatory feminist practice. This means recognising the positivity of religious subjectivities and norms in emancipatory political projects. It also entails rethinking the nature of the secular state and challenging oppressions emanating from enforced secularism no less than from coerced conformity to religious norms. The Musawah Framework for Action advanced by the Malaysian advocacy group Sisters in Islam is discussed to illustrate how secular thinking can be recast for emancipatory feminist practice to transform narrow Eurocentric accounts of secularism and patriarchal interpretations of secular and religious norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]