Graduation Date
1998
Document Type
Thesis
Program
Other
Program
Art
Committee Chair Name
Dr. Elizabeth Watson
Committee Chair Affiliation
Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff
Second Committee Member Name
Dr. Samuel Oliner
Third Committee Member Name
Dr. Linda A. Parker
Keywords
Art
Subject Categories
Art
Abstract
Sociology has been notoriously bereft of theory dedicated to explaining the emergence and perpetuation of the social phenomenon of religion. Berger’s sacred canopy contention and Stark and Bainbridge’s theory of religion are the most salient, if not sole, exceptions. Berger claims that religion functions by giving significance to an otherwise meaningless world. Stark and Bainbridge, on the other hand, insist that religion functions by compensating folks for those things which secular society cannot provide them. In sum, Berger’s approach is holistic yet lacks a program for empirical study, and Stark and Bainbridge’s approach is too tangled up with the embattled notion of rationality. Adequate sociological analyses must theoretically and methodologically address the question stipulated in Berger’s treatise: What is the dialectical relationship between religion as a socializing institution, religion as an element of the subjective stock of knowledge, and the experiences that the religious have of the objective world? I propose that a synthesis of Berger’s and Stark and Bainbridge’s respective analyses would produce a perspective and method quite capable of answering this question. In sum, this thesis attempts to purge Stark and Bainbridge’s supply and demand theory of religion of its rational choice assumptions in an effort to forge an empirical program for investigating the various elements of religion outlined by Berger.
Recommended Citation
Gragg, Tony Randall, "Toward a Synthesis of Perspectives in the Sociology of Religion" (1998). Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects. 2450.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/2450