In 1938 Franklin Roosevelt, facing a political challenge from a resurgent Republican Party, denounced the party’s “fascist” tendencies. It was an early example of how the term could be applied even to conservatives loyal to the framework of a liberal democracy. One might have expected this . . . . Continue Reading »
Psychology and sociology were meant to bring about an epoch of progress. Where did they go wrong?
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In 2002, in these pages, Peter Berger, the late American sociologist, offered a succinct summary of the health and status of sociology. In Invitation to Sociology (1963), he had praised its promise. Two generations later, he offered a much more pessimistic picture. Now, a decade and a . . . . Continue Reading »
This past August, Brown University public health professor Lisa Littman had her woke moment. Littman studies sexual health concerns, from reproduction to substance use in pregnancy to gender dysphoria—today’s topic of intense scrutiny and politicization. Understanding how children and . . . . Continue Reading »
The Sacred Project of American Sociologyby christian smithoxford, 224 pages, $28.95 Things wouldn’t be so bad if the sacred project of American sociology were just the sacred project of American sociology. Allowances are made for sociologists. The problem is that all the human sciences as . . . . Continue Reading »
Religion and the Social SciencesConversations with Robert Bellah and Christian Smithedited by R. R. Reno and Barbara McClayMore often than not it’s a class in the social science that challenges the faith of students, not a class in biology. Does critical understanding of our religious . . . . Continue Reading »
First tale: A tenured sociologist at a prominent research university, with a couple of books under his belt on related subjects, publishes the first-ever research, using a nationally representative sample, on the young-adult outcomes for kids raised by people who have same-sex romantic . . . . Continue Reading »
The Slain God: Anthropologists and the Christian Faithby timothy larsen oxford, 272 pages, $45 The discipline of anthropology is often considered post-religious if not anti-religious. Most working anthropologists profess no religious faith. And anthropologists stand in a structurally and . . . . Continue Reading »
Dame Rebecca West had a theory that the history of civilization since Christ could be divided into three panels like a triptych. In the first panel, stretching roughly from the Crucifixion to the Middle Ages, the language of theology so dominated learned debate that all complaints were expressed in . . . . Continue Reading »
In his 1987 book Hope Within History, Bible scholar Walter Brueggemann argues that when people are in situations like that of the ancient Hebrews under Babylonian captivity, where an overwhelmingly powerful majority holds seemingly complete and brutal sway over an oppressed minority, the latter must . . . . Continue Reading »
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