Sociology of Religion 2004, 65:4 319-321

Introduction: Culture and Constraint in the

Sociology of Religion
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 glohal culture is not
helpful. We need to examine the suhtle 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
placeswhy 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 Idicite 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 controversiesboth 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 worldhow
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 itthe prophetic role continues but in innovative ways.

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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 hut 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 Mellorcovering 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 activismnotably 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 Churchthe 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 worldreminding 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.
In the session in Atlanta that dealt in particular with the "Cultural Turn in
Social Theory" and from which three of these papers derive (Mellor, Willaime
and Neitz), Nancy Ammerman offered some insightful comments in her role as
discussant. Central to her contribution was an emphasis on the capacities of religion (in all its diversity) to break free from the positions assigned to it by the

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dominant paradigms of sociology. In this respect an emphasis on culture is particularly helpful as we come to appreciate that for modem people (just like their
predecessors), religion remains a resource for the whole of life and not only for
the religious aspects of this. In most parts of the Western world, the institutional separating out of religion from the dimensions of life over which it had historic
influence (education, health, welfare and to a considerahle extent politics) is
undisputed. Almost all sociologists agree on this aspect of secularization; it is part
of the increasing specialization of modern living. Religion remains, however, a
powerful motivator for many peopleand across the institutional divide. With
this in mind, we need to examine what precisely is availahle to such people in
terms of symhols, rituals, stories and institutions as they "work out" (in every
sense) their salvation in particular, diverse and ever-changing contexts and
according to the roles in which they find themselves. These articles are offered as
a contribution to that search.
Grace Davie