Sociology and Theology
In two days' time, I will be delivering a talk at the National University of Singapore. Interestingly, this talk was organised by the Religion Cluster of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
This has got me thinking about the relationship between Sociology and Theology. Being involved in the field of Theology, it's common for us to consider our relationship with Sociology, but from the primary perspective of Theology. Perhaps it is also appropriate that we now consider the relationship between Theology and Sociology, but this time from the primary perspective of Sociology.
Sociology has a particular way of studying religion, and it is called the Sociology of Religion. It seeks to understand the role of religion in society and how people make meaning of life through religion.
I would like to posit that Sociology's assessment of religion is possibly less accurate if it seeks to study the role of religion dispassionately without taking into serious consideration the confessional claims of religion, i.e. Theology. Beyond Sociology's own assessment of religion and its social role, it is more crucial for Sociology to understand how religion defines its own role in society - this will certainly provide for a more realistic definition of religion and religiosity.
Of course, the Sociological community would examine confessional statements of religious communities in different light as compared to the Theological community itself. That is a given that must be accepted by virtue of the sheer nature of Sociology itself. But yet, I am also suggesting that the Sociological community would benefit from attempts to study and understand religious claims on the terms of the religious communities themselves. In this instance, acceptance and agreement are not as crucial as understanding is.
Sociological realities are studied based on a premise of objectivity, observation from a "healthy" distance. But I am challenging this premise. I am suggesting that sociological realities - and in this instance, religious realities - are better understood when studied from the positions of the people's convictions, practices, values, and passions. Only then will the meanings held by the religious people be understood by the Sociological community; not perfectly, but perhaps less inaccurately.
I think that in listening to the confessional claims of people like me from the confessional religious community, the National University of Singapore has got it right. It is not just a gracious gesture of academic humility but also an apt Sociological position to take in the academic community's endeavour to understand religion in society.
Comments (6)
The sociological community has always been interested in religions. Religious observances and practice plays a significant role in sociological thinking. Sociology, like theology has developed much in the last decades. Social studies are not longer done at a 'distant' but involves immersion, contextualisation and enculturation.
Posted by Alex Tang | November 12, 2008 12:49 AM
In agreement with Alex above, objectivism is not the only epistemological perspective guiding sociological research today. Your thoughts may connect in part with Social Constructionism. I point you to this short post of mine.
Posted by Lonely D | November 12, 2008 3:15 AM
Hi Alex and LD,
Thanks for the note, and particularly, for pointing me to the short quote from NT Wright.
I'm aware of the state of contemporary Sociological claims in regard to epistemological objectivity. And yet, from the perspective of a member of the Theological community, it still seems that the claims for "immersion, contextualisation and enculturation" (perhaps arising from the Western postmodern disillusionment with the modern project) are still prima facie confessions.
To make claims is one thing, but to act upon those claims seriously is another issue all together. This absence of the latter is perhaps due to the possibility that the postmodern reaction is precisely what I've just described it to be - a reaction, which has yet to be translated into thought-through action.
Surely, I have come across much Theological work that has interacted seriously with Sociological material; my own dissertation does so too. But I have yet to come across any Sociological work that has interacted seriously with Theological material in the way that Philosophy has done in centuries past. Inasfar as Theology's relationship with Sociology is, the former's endeavours to cross denominational lines have yet to be reciprocated. Ironically, it is the former that has been utterly cautious about making statements of dispassion.
In particular relation to Religion, Sociology still largely studies religion in phenomenological terms. To use a metaphor, Sociology has built bridges but has not yet crossed them.
This is precisely what I'm commending NUS for - inviting concrete THEOLOGICAL rhetoric before an audience of Sociologists.
Posted by sk | November 12, 2008 7:39 AM
I was one of the attendees at your talk yesterday, and I just wanted to thank you for your presentation which I felt was very concise and intelligible even to someone who doesn't have much background in theology and sociology. All the best for your doctoral thesis!
Posted by ayxh | November 14, 2008 11:31 PM
Hello SK and LD,
Nice to meet you LD and I like the critical realism thingy.
SK, I find your reply very interesting. Philosophy and theology are like bedfellows. They have a symbiotic relationship.
I can also understand theology (from your perspective Christian theology) interacting with sociology. I look forward to reading your paper.
However I fail to see similarity of a reciprocal response from sociology. To sociology, your theology is one of but thousands of theology that are present. How then do you expect a generalised response from sociology? Sociology is phenomenological and epidemisological. I like your metaphor of bridge building. However, why does sociology need to cross over, and to cross over to what?
Posted by Alex Tang | November 15, 2008 1:37 AM
Hi Dr Tang,
Your questions are precisely the very questions I'd like to present to thinkers in the Sociological field. My rationale is quite simple, really...
In the past several decades, theological methodology has shifted somewhat and progressed on to a fresher way of theologising, precisely because of Theology's interaction with Sociology.
And so, whilst the phenomenological character of Sociology in its present state is noted, who knows how a more serious interaction with Theology (of the various religions, not just the Christian religion) might push Sociology further towards a more progressive character?
So your questions are precisely pertinent to the concerns which Sociology must answer if it desired to interact more seriously with Theology - which I think it should.
Posted by sk | November 15, 2008 8:39 PM