Читать книгу SCM Core Text Sociology of Religion - Andrew Dawson - Страница 41

Such has been the rapidity and scale of social change over the course of the modern era that Giddens suggests the image of a ‘juggernaut’ be used to sum it up. Modernity has become, in effect, ‘a runaway engine of enormous power which, collectively as human beings, we can drive to some extent but which also threatens to rush out of our control’ (1990, p. 139). By demanding the ongoing revision of social-scientific approaches, the scale and rapidity of modern social change have direct implications for the sociolog­ic­al study of religion. As will be seen in the forthcoming chapters, not only do sociologists continue to contest precisely what is signified by the term ‘religion’, some are calling for a much more restricted use of the word. Instead, they argue, terms such as ‘religiosity’, ‘mysticism’ or ‘spiritualities of life’ are better placed to conceptualize contemporary modes of religious belief and practice (Heelas, 2008). In the same vein, social scientists disagree as to where religion is now to be found and, therefore, how it is best to be looked for. Holding that religion is progressively assuming an increasingly non-traditional profile, some argue in favour of non-standard means or indirect methods of researching religion (Day, 2009, pp. 86–104). Others, however, continue to argue trenchantly in favour of retaining traditional methods of quantitative research (Bruce, 2009, pp. 7–28). At the same time, disputes escalate in respect of the most appropriate concepts and theories by which contemporary transformations of the religious sphere might best be comprehended. For example, are the spread of religious fundamentalism and perdurance of alternative religiosity to be understood in terms of mod­ernity’s re-enchantment or as symptoms of its secularization (Bruce, 2000; Heelas, 1996)? Whether disputing definition, contesting context, arguing over method or disagreeing about theory, by situating religion amidst the warp and woof of ever-changing social processes, the discipline of sociology makes an invaluable contribution to the academic study of religious belief and practice.