Center for Social Research

CSR Project Fellows Mulder and Smith gearing up

Jamie Smith (Philosophy) and Mark Mulder (Sociology) are the CSR Project Fellows for the 2006-2008 academic years. They’re planning a pilot study of evangelical Christians’ attitudes and beliefs about cities and residential patterns. Read on for excerpts from their proposal…

Mulder and Smith write (extensive footnotes are omitted):

“In their landmark study, Divided by Faith, Michael Emerson and Christian Smith articulated the ways in which evangelical spirituality and practice actually contributed to the racialization and segregation of American culture—the very antithesis of the picture of the redeemed community “from every nation, tribe, people and language” (Rev. 7:9). Our proposal for a CSR Fellows grant seeks to launch a correlate (and supplementary) initiative that will consider how evangelicals tend to exhibit an anti-urban bias that contributes to a negative view of urban life and contributes to the growth of suburban and exurban social arrangements. (And like the case studied by Emerson and Smith, here evangelical sensibilities seem to be in contrast to the biblical eschatological hope that locates redemption in a city [Rev. 21:2].) We believe that such an anti-urban bias accords neither with an integral Christian theoretical framework, nor with the findings of social research—which increasingly points to the corrosive effects of the suburbanization of American populations and also indicates the unique possibilities for community in urban settings. In particular, we plan to examine whether urban social arrangements foster “love of neighbor” in unique ways because of the unique social capital yielded by urban geographies. “In sum, our ultimate goal is to write a book that functions as both a supplement and sequel to Divided by Faith, considering a factor not considered by Emerson and Smith: the way in which urban and suburban social arrangements contribute to either racial segregation or integration, where racial reconciliation represents one facet of a general concern for loving one’s neighbor.  In other words, we want extend Emerson and Smith’s analyses by considering not only racial concerns, but broader elements of ‘community-building’ and other-regarding behaviors and practices that we describe with the shorthand ‘altruism.’”

The fruit of this collaboration between a philosopher and sociologist is an ambitious effort to bring theology and empirical study together:

“We believe that social science research that is distinctly Christian must work from robust theological assumptions about what it means to be human, the shape of human community, the breakdown of relationships, and the hope for new social configurations. However, Christian sociological theory that remains a priori speculation is not properly sociological. It must be supplemented and opened to confirmation (or disconfirmation) in the arena of experience through empirical observation. Our research initiative on urban sociality seeks to enact this vision of sociological research.”

CSR staff and student assistants will support Mulder and Smith with data collection and analysis services, including work with Geographic Information Systems.

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