Wach - Sociology of Religion

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION

Volume 16

SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION

JOACHIM WACH

First published in 1947 by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd.

This edition first published in 2019

by Routledge

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1947 Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd.

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ISBN: 978-0-367-02386-7 (Set)

ISBN: 978-0-429-02545-7 (Set) (ebk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-08585-8 (Volume 16) (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-08586-5 (Volume 16) (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-02317-0 (Volume 16) (ebk)

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By

JOACHIM WAGH

First published 1947

TO

ROBERT PIERCE CASEY

In Friendship and Gratitude

And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery. EPH . iii, 9.

The divine can mean no single quality, it must mean a group of qualities, by being champions of which in alternation, different men may all find worthy missions.

W ILIAM J AMES , The Varieties of Religious Experience.

THIS BOOK IS PRODUCED IN COMPLETE
CONFORMITY WITH THE AUTHORIZED
ECONOMY STANDARDS

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES.

The introduction to the sociology of religion, Einfiihrung in die Religionssoziologie, which the author published in German in 1931, has been given a favourable reception. This approbation, as well as the desire to prepare an outline in English for his lectures on the sociology of religion in an American university, has prompted him to continue his efforts. The following sketch is intended to serve as a basis for lectures in class; hence its concentrated presentation.

Problems allied to ours are discussed in systematic and historical theology and in the science of religion, in political theory and the social sciences, in philosophy and psychology, in philology and anthropology. The author, a student not of the social sciences but of religion, is convinced of the desirability of bridging the gulf which still exists between the study of religion and the social sciences, an enterprise in which an important role will be played by cultural anthropology. He considers his contribution more as a modest attempt at a synthesis than an inventory with any claim to completeness.

Personal experience has aided the author in realizing the vital importance and significance of religion as an integrating factor in human society and in understanding its function in the contemporary crisis of civilization in East and West. Notwithstanding the existence of many preliminary studies and monographs by a great number of eminent scholars, the present attempt had to develop its own methodology. The author is conscious of many shortcomings, which the expert in some of the fields concerned will easily discover. Ut desint vires, tamen sit laudanda voluntas.

A word might be said regarding the arrangement of the following outline. The topics are presented in an order which is designed to do justice to historical facts as well as to logic. After some methodological and general considerations in ) presents some considerations of a more general character suggested by our inquiry.

I feel much indebted to Dr. R. M. Maclver for his advice and encouragement. Mr. Max Vorspan has rendered the author a great service through a stylistic revision of the manuscript. Finally, I wish to thank Dr. E. Broome, Dr. E. Kretzmann, and Mr. E. Szarama for their help. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance of Mr. William F. Kahl in the making of the indices.

J OACHIM W ACH

B ROWN U NIVERSITY

P ROVIDENCE , R.I.

A brief summary of the dominant trends and prevailing theories in the field of sociology of religion and an appreciation of the results will be found in the authors contribution, Sociology of Religion, to Twentieth Century Sociology: A Symposium, edited by Georges Gurvitch and Wilbur E. Moore (New York: Philosophical Library, Inc.).

J.W.

January 25, 1945