Structures of Sin, Cultures of Meaning
Social Science and Theology, Second Edition
by
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The intersection between theology and the social sciences, specifically sociology, has been characterized on the one hand, as one of alliance, and on the other, as one of conflict (Martin, Orme, and Pickering 1980). Some theologians have invited the social sciences as servants, if not partners, inside the tent, while others would exclude them as goats in the yard (Barnes 2001).
It has to be pointed out at the outset that the engagement between theology and the social sciences has primarily been on the part of theology. Theology and ethics insofar as they also deal with the human and the social need empirical insights from the social sciences. The sociological imagination, a child of the Enlightenment, has traditionally been deployed to critique religious and theological explanations. Moreover, the social sciences valorize empirical research and critical skills, and abjure competence on ultimate or transcendental questions. Recently, however, “the age of extremes” (Hobsbawn 1994) that is the twentieth century has provoked some sociologists into normative and ethical reflection (see Bauman 1989, 1993). Moreover, the postmodern revivals of religiosities and ethnicities go beyond the traditional limits of the sociology of religion and have considerable import for the construal of the relation between theology and ethics, on the one hand, and the social sciences, on the other. The doctrinaire oppositional stances, especially on the part of the social sciences, may no longer be appropriate, but the terrain remains contested.
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About the Book
With the inductive and historicist turn in theological method, the social sciences
have become an important handmaid of theology. The interaction between theology and the social sciences, however, has been characterized, on the one hand, as one of alliance, and, on the other, as one of conflict. Structures of Sin, Cultures of Meaning seeks to advance the dialogue and collaboration between them.
Social science considers religion primarily as a social institution and as a cultural system. The first part of the book explains what a social institution is, why religion is a social institution, and elaborates on its implications for theology in such areas as the bureaucratization of religion, the formation of the structures of injustice, the preferential option for the poor. Three additional chapters discuss the failure of collegiality at Vatican II, the relationship of religion to the social institutions of the economy and of politics.
The second part elucidates on what a cultural system is, why religion is a cultural system, and its consequences for theology in such areas as religious identity and community, Christian ethics and formation, evangelization and inculturation. Three additional chapters deal with the anthropology of religion, secularization and fundamentalism, and religious conflict and violence.
The social structures and cultures of the past impinge on those of the present to create the challenges of today and the possibilities for tomorrow. People make history and do theology in the circumstances created by social structures and cultures of meaning.
About the Author
M. D. Litonjua is professor of sociology at the College of Mount St. Joseph,