Social Compass

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the International Review of Sociology of Religion, Social Compass, here is the letter I received from it. It is addressed to anyone who ever turned its pages, reading perhaps...

The author reconstructs the four moments that have constituted Social Compass's history. As the publication of the Dutch Catholic Social-Ecclesiastical Institute, the journal was initially dedicated to the dissemination of a sociography of Catholicism. Then, under the direction of the International Federation of Institutes for Social and Socio-Religious Research, Social Compass contributed to the production of a sociology of Catholicism. From here, attached to the Centre of Socio-Religious Research of the Catholic University of Louvain, Social Compass emerged as a professional, scholarly journalfor the sociology of religion. And, for over a decade now, the journal has been attempting to negotiate the postmodern condition.

The cognitive minorities that are the sect, the new religious movement and the religious order, constitute social organizations that publicly affirm the difference which is of a symbolic nature. In consequence, the organizations self-define their frontiers, and hence demonstrate the capacity for self-regulation of their internal relations and the instances of conflict resolution in society at large. Social Compass has studied the subject, above all through an analytic analysis. It went through its most intense periodfrom the 1970s to the 1990s, linked, it would seem, to the debate on secularization as a social withdrawal on the part of religious institutions. The debate has rekindled, in recent years on points of method and theory, in the tension between a sociology of implication and a distanced sociology.

Any attempt to grasp that which is currently at stake in sociology of religion from a Latin American point of view requires awareness of the current context, including multiple on-going processes of globalization and geopolitical tensions in the post-September 11 world. The internal contradictions of the process of modernization and the inequalities involved in globalization create repercussions in the field of religion in Latin America, with its diverse and plural character. The emergence of new religious phenomena-neo-pagan magical cults, anti-globalization movements with spiritual overtones, Pentecostal cults, African-American cults, New Age movements, various ecclesiastical movements and the greater or lesser influence of each established church or denomination in Latin American societies, all this will depend, in future, upon global scenarios and upon the general climate of uncertainty which exists, and which has an effect on the search fr meaning and people's needfor ritual expression.

This article has three sections. The first deals with the attempts by the sociology of religion to come to terms with the post-modern condition; it draws on the argument set out in the final chapter of Davie (1994). The second section updates these ideas taking account of more recent evidence. The third looks to the future; it is based primarily on the more theoretical aspects of Davie (2002a). It illustrates the needfor rather different approaches in the sociology of religion as the debates of the new century assert themselves.

On the occasion of Social Compass's 50th anniversary as a leading journalfor the sociology of religion, the author was asked to define the challenges which this discipline willface in the African context in the next 50 years. After retrospectively sketching both the African situation (with its three pillars of historic African religion, Islam, and Christianity) and some Africanist themes in the sociology of religion, globalization is discussed as a major challenge. how does it affect religion and identity, and how does the model of the formal (self-)organization which it favours, have an impact especially with regard to representation and resilience of African religious forms? The second major challenge clusters around the problematic state of civil society in Africa: in the face of disorder and violent conflict. Here the pivotal question is. can African religious forms contribute to the societal consensus that is central to modern statehood?

The sociology of religion is globalizing hesitantly, but still gives little attention to Asia. We need to extend our current debates and our best concepts to Asian societies. The many challenging phenomena include the resurgence of religions, debates and struggles over the political role of religion, the variety of religionstate interactions, and the impact of power on religions and theologies. For such questions, Asia is much more diverse than Europe and North America, and we should not shrink from trying to enhance our collective empirical and theoretical competence through study of Asian cases. We need to globalize more deliberately and here some possible suggestions are offered.

Scientology has consistently been interpreted by sociologists in terms of rationalization. However, a review of existing studies shows that the meaning attached to this term varies around a central ambiguity summed up as the "iron cage" versus "charisma". The author argues that this ambiguity arises from ambivalence over the public meaning of science in modernity. Through a re-examination of existing accounts of Scientology provided by Wilson, Whitehead, and Wallis, the author offers a revised interpretation that attempts to resolve the ambiguity through emphasizing the socially constructed and rhetorical nature of the public meaning of science. With this, rationalization appears no longer as an external logic dictated by science, but as resource of persuasion that social groups may construct differently on different occasions to suit different specific purposes such as legitimation of their actions and beliefs. Accordingly, NRMs may fruitfully be studied as active attempts to develop an ethics of conduct based in part on interpretations of the public meaning of science.