Introduction: culture and constraint in the Sociology of Religion

Sociology of Religion, Winter, 2004 by Grace Davie

The articles included in this issue of Sociology of Religion are all based on papers given at the 2003 meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion in Atlanta, Georgia. They have a common theme: each of them explores the increasing emphasis on culture in sociology as a whole and more especially in the sociology of religion. The "cultural turn," it is often assumed, would open up the sociological agenda, permitting new insights and new ways of looking at the issues. Paradoxically, however (or perhaps not), the following papers deal as much with constraint as they do with new ideas or new approaches. To talk only in terms of a free-floating, late modern and increasingly global culture is not helpful. We need to examine the subtle embedding of these currents in different places, in different roles and in different social contexts. To understand this process better is the purpose of these articles.

Davie, for example, demonstrates the different trajectories within the sociology of religion itself. These are not random differences, but can (and should) be mapped in relation to institutional, philosophical and linguistic constraints within the profession. With this in mind, it becomes easier to understand why the "same" debate in the sociology of religion resonates differently in different places--why for example the French (both secular and religious) are unusually pre-occupied with sects and new religious movements, indeed with any religion that does not fit the parameters of the French case. What is commonplace elsewhere becomes a major issue of principle for French people. We learn as much about Frenchness from these debates as we do about sects and new religious movements. These points are developed more fully by Willaime, who explores in some detail both the quintessentially French concept of laicite and the significance of the "cultural turn" for the sociology of religion in France. The two are intimately related.

Martin, in a distinguished Furfey lecture, reaches back to Weber, more especially to two classic essays. The first "Politics as a Vocation" explores the characteristics and constraints of the political role, contrasting this with the religious and the academic (including the journalist). Understanding these restrictions more fully enables a better understanding of recent controversies--both within the churches and in public debate, not least the question of war. The second essay, "Religious Rejections of the World and Their Direction," reveals the tensions within Christianity between acceptance and rejection of the world--how to be in the world but not of it. The possibilities that emerge are many, varied and in constant evolution. A church that begins as a prophetic movement becomes in the course of time increasingly restricted; new oppositional forces then emerge both within the church and outside it--the prophetic role continues but in innovative ways.

Mellor's text is uncompromisingly theoretical, and the most outspoken in its critique of the cultural turn, or at least some manifestations of this. Mellor recognizes the new currents in sociology but warns against a discourse that ignores the constraints of society. He is critical of those who talk simply in terms of the mobilities, networks and flows that derive from the changes in global technology. In its extreme form such approaches result in a form of technological determinism. A valuable corrective in this respect can be found in a return to Durkheimian themes, including a renewed emphasis on religion. Willaime offers a useful counterpoint to Mellor--covering similar ground but from a different perspective. Willaime is more sympathetic to the cultural turn, given perhaps the particular characteristics of French sociology. In France there can be no doubt that a greater emphasis on culture permits innovative developments in the study of religion.

Neitz is also positive towards the cultural turn, seeing in this shift new opportunities for thinking about the sociology of religion. Escaping from the binary oppositions of classical sociology, Neitz invites us to think in terms of relationality and narrative to explore the religious field. Such ideas are strongly related to aspects of political activism--notably social movements through which are discovered the multiplicity of identities found in late modern societies. This article thinks through the implications of the cultural turn for the sociology of religion from a feminist perspective and insists from the outset that the constraints on women (indeed on many different types of women) are different from those on men. Paying attention to religious practice, to "lived religion," rather than religious belief will lead to a better understanding of gender and sexuality quite apart from religion itself.

Molokotos Liederman, finally, explores in a more empirical article a new phenomenon in the Greek Orthodox Church--the emergence of "the rocking priests," a rock band of black-robed Orthodox priests who, at first glance, appear to be breaking the codes of Orthodoxy, but on closer examination are not only constrained by the particular case of the Greek Orthodox Church but are engaged in efforts to draw young people back into this culture rather than to independence from it. The fact that the Free Monks use highly modern means of communication to achieve these goals reflects a paradox found in many religious movements in the late modern world--reminding us that reactions to the messages of modernity are as "modern" as that which they seek to oppose. Greece offers a particularly interesting illustration given that it is torn in allegiance between West and East, between tradition and modernity and between a homogeneous past and more heterogeneous future.