Calvin Seminars in Christian Scholarship - 2001 Pew Funded Seminars

Morality, Culture, and the Power of Religion in Social Life

Christian Smith
Professor of Sociology,
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

June 25 - July 27, 2001

Course Description:

In the last decade, it has become increasingly clear that, for understanding the social world, religion still very much "matters." Much of the old secularization theory, predicting that religion would lose its plausibility and influence in modern society, has been abandoned, as more scholars have found that religion still significantly influences many aspects of social life from politics to health to family life to crime and deviance. What remains unclear, however, is not simply that religion matters, but more precisely how and why religion matters. Exactly what is it about religion per se that maintains such a motivating and shaping influence in human social life? The natural tendency in social science in addressing this question is to rely on reductionistic explanations for religious effects assuming that religion is reducible to things like resources, social networks, and organizational structures that have nothing distinctively religious, spiritual, or moral about them. This seminar will explore distinctively non-reductionistic understandings of the human condition and religious faith, uniting empirical analyses of religious effects with theoretical inquiry in a variety of potentially illuminating literatures. Our purpose will be to work on developing a theoretical perspective to bring to the broader scholarly enterprise which perhaps better explains the continued social influence of religion, by further exploring the spiritual and moral depths of the human condition and their implications for understanding human action and society. Although this project most directly engages sociologists of religion and culture, scholars in other fields and disciplines with related interests and expertise are also welcome to apply.

Tentative Reading List:

- Charles Taylor, Human Agency & Language, and Philosophy and the Human Sciences
- parts of Milbank, Theology and Social Theory
- perhaps Nicholson, Body & Soul: the Transcendence of Materialism
- Mavrodes, "Religion and the Queerness of Morality"
- Margaret Sommers' work on Narrative, Identity and Action
- some sociobiological theorizing of morality/altruism
- theoretical works in the sociology of culture (Swidler, Bourdieu, etc.)

As a follow up to this seminar, a colloquium will be held in January 2003, in which participants will present their projects in the presence of critics Lisa Pearce, Penny Edgell, Richard Wood, Rhys Williams, and Michael Young.

SEMINARS IN CHRISTIAN SCHOLARSHIP 2001 Sponsored by The Pew Charitable Trusts
The Loss of the Self in a Postmodern Therapeutic Culture Paul Vitz Professor of Psychology, New York University June 25 - July 27, 2001 Course Description: This seminar focuses on the notion of the "autonomous self" that lies at the foundation of modern psychology and the ways in which postmodern culture has eroded or swept away this self. The group will look at the work of post-modern critics of the self in psychology and related fields. Recent research in developmental psychology with its strong evidence for how the basic self evolves very early in life from universal perceptual tasks, interpersonal relations and simple language will be used, in part, to respond to the post-modernists and other recent theorists of personal identity. A major theme is the promise of Trinitarian theology as providing the foundation for a renewed concept of self that does justice to the individual by recognizes the value of relationships to personal identity. This is an interdisciplinary seminar and scholars with expertise and interest in this area are encouraged to apply. Public Lecture Follow-up Conference	Morality, Culture, and the Power of Religion in Social Life Christian Smith Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill June 25 - July 27, 2001 Course Description: In the last decade, it has become increasingly clear that, for understanding the social world, religion still very much "matters." Much of the old secularization theory, predicting that religion would lose its plausibility and influence in modern society, has been abandoned, as more scholars have found that religion still significantly influences many aspects of social life from politics to health to family life to crime and deviance. What remains unclear, however, is not simply that religion matters, but more precisely how and why religion matters. Exactly what is it about religion per se that maintains such a motivating and shaping influence in human social life? The natural tendency in social science in addressing this question is to rely on reductionistic explanations for religious effects assuming that religion is reducible to things like resources, social networks, and organizational structures that have nothing distinctively religious, spiritual, or moral about them. This seminar will explore distinctively non-reductionistic understandings of the human condition and religious faith, uniting empirical analyses of religious effects with theoretical inquiry in a variety of potentially illuminating literatures. Our purpose will be to work on developing a theoretical perspective to bring to the broader scholarly enterprise which perhaps better explains the continued social influence of religion, by further exploring the spiritual and moral depths of the human condition and their implications for understanding human action and society. Although this project most directly engages sociologists of religion and culture, scholars in other fields and disciplines with related interests and expertise are also welcome to apply. Tentative Reading List: - Charles Taylor, Human Agency & Language, and Philosophy and the Human Sciences - parts of Milbank, Theology and Social Theory - perhaps Nicholson, Body & Soul: the Transcendence of Materialism - Mavrodes, "Religion and the Queerness of Morality" - Margaret Sommers' work on Narrative, Identity and Action - some sociobiological theorizing of morality/altruism - theoretical works in the sociology of culture (Swidler, Bourdieu, etc.) As a follow up to this seminar, a colloquium will be held in January 2003, in which participants will present their projects in the presence of critics Lisa Pearce, Penny Edgell, Richard Wood, Rhys Williams, and Michael Young.
Program Description Two Pew seminars are offered each summer. The participants in each seminar share and discuss common reading during a five-week residency and work on individual research projects with the director and fellow participants. They are also expected to attend a follow-up conference, and some participants may be invited to speak at this conference. The highest quality work produced will be included in a collection of essays on the seminar topic.
Advisory Board: V. Elving Anderson University of Minnesota Jean Bethke Elshtain The University of Chicago Roger Lundin Wheaton College	George Marsden University of Notre Dame Eleonore Stump St. Louis University