Symposium on Religion

Religion figures much more prominently in social life than in sociology. Indeed, there is perhaps no greater disproportion between the concerns of sociologists and those of the rest of the members of contemporary society. Most Americans believe in God and go to church or other religious services. Though sociologists count beliefs and attendance, these social facts hardly shape sociological theory or analyses of other specific domains of social life. Sociologists have focused a good deal on the ways in which migration is transforming American society, for example, but only glanced at the impact it is having on religiosity and religious preference. It is as though impacts on education, stratification, politics, and urban ecology are seen as significant in a way those on religion are not. The 1980s brought a dramatic surge of interest in the sociology of culture, but studies of television, art, and popular music held pride of place. With a few exceptions like Robert Wuthnow, a survey of the leading work in the field would not have given one the impression that religion was an important part of culture. The field of social movements offers a strong example of the general pattern of devaluation and neglect. Much of the most active participation in social movements and popular politics in recent decades has been driven by religious commitments and organized through religious associations. Yet the most influential approach in the field–the synthesis of political process theory and resource mobilization advanced most prominently by Charles Tilly, Sidney Tarrow, and Doug McAdam—is barely open to considerations of religion (except perhaps as a source of networks for mobilization). It even defines national social movements so basically in terms of state institutions as to marginalize if not rule out incorporating religion into the center of concern. This pushes both the Nation of Islam and the Promisekeepers to the side, despite their scale and social impact. It even obscures the historical roots of the American social movement field which lie largely in the great 18 th