Research On Religion » Peter Berger

Paul Froese on the Meaning of Life

tonygill — Sun, 25 Sep 2016 08:00:07 +0000

Have you ever stopped to think about what your purpose in life is? Or do you wonder if life has any meaning? Prof. Paul Froese, professor of sociology at Baylor University and resident scholar at Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion, has thought about these questions, but more importantly he has thought about how other people think about this question. Prof. Froese takes us on a journey beginning with how he started to think about thinking about the purpose in life, which also engages us in a conversation about the book design and how to write in an accessible voice. Paul notes that while this is not a “self-help” book per se, it is designed to get people to be more reflective on how the think about their purpose. We talk a bit about some basic definitions including “meaning” and “purpose,” which also is placed against their antitheses of “meaninglessness” and “nihilism,” and some of the demographics of “meaningfulness” are revealed. References to Russian literature and punk rock bands are scattered throughout this discussion. The bulk of the interview walks us through several key questions that Prof. Froese set out to answer including: Does having purpose make you happy?; Who lacks purpose?; Is purpose within you or is it socially given?; What is the relation to purpose and T(t)ruth (both capital and lowercase “t”)?; And how does time, both our own personal aging and the cultural tempos of larger society, affect how our thoughts on purpose can change? Tony reflects upon some of his life events and growing up in different cultural eras, which Paul notes seem to be changing ever more rapidly nowadays. We finish with Paul’s reflections on what he learned over the process of his academic career dating back to his undergraduate days studying Russian literature and history, and how all of his experiences along the way have filtered into this book. Recorded: September 16, 2016.

RELATED LINKS

Prof. Paul Froese’s bio at Baylor’s ISR and Baylor’s Department of Sociology.

On Purpose: How We Create the Meaning of Life, by Paul Froese.

America’s Four Gods: What We Say about God and What that Says about Us, by Paul Froese and Christopher Bader.

The Plot to Kill God: Findings from the Soviet Experiment in Secularization, by Paul Froese.

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Paul Froese on America’s Four Gods.

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Matthew Moore on Buddhism and Political Theory.

Andre Molle on Spirituality and Martial Arts.

Rodney Stark on The Triumph of Faith

tonygill — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 10:21:04 +0000

The decline of religion around the world may be greatly exaggerated. This is the assertion made by Dr. Rodney Stark — co-founder and director of Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion and frequent guest on our program. He backs his claim with extensive survey evidence from a number of polling organizations (namely the Gallup World Poll) and other bits of evidence from scholarly studies. We take a tour de force of religion around the world to see that faith is as strong as ever, even in the United States.

Surveys by Pew Forum and the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) have indicated religious practice is on the decline in the United States. Tony asks Rod whether he has seen a similar trend in his own research using the Baylor Religion Study. While there has been an increase in the number of individuals who claim “no religious affiliation” or the infamous “nones” discussed by Pew, Prof. Stark notes that this really affects religious affiliation and not necessarily belief. His own examination of “nones” indicates that a substantial number of them still believe in God, pray weekly, and occasionally attend worship services. He also notes that many individuals who proclaim no traditional religious affiliation believe in “non-conventional” forms of the supernatural such as various New Age ideas of spirituality or entities such as elves. Tony points out that even in Iceland where attendance at church services is near the lowest in the Christian world, there is still a strong belief in elves to the point where people will hire clerics to investigate whether such creatures are inhabiting land they plan to build upon. Our conversation at this point also covers some issues with survey methodology and Rod explains the reason he is relying upon the Gallup World Poll for much of his research data.

We then expand our exploration to the rest of the world outside of the US and Europe. Whereas Europe has not seen any significant increase in religious practice or belief recently (outside of Muslim immigrants), the rest of the globe is experiencing a major explosion in religious affiliation, practice, and belief. Rod lists a couple statistics to bolster this point, including 81% of the world population claiming to belong to some organized religious faith, 71% saying that religion is important in their lives, and 51% having participated in some organized form of worship in the past week. Atheism rates remains relatively stagnant with only three countries registering more than 20% of the population as non-believers. Attendance and affiliation remains most flaccid in Europe. This continent registers low among individuals who attend religious services largely because Christianity was never deeply embedded in a number of these countries to begin with (particularly in Northern Europe) and monopolized state churches have little incentive to recruit and serve members, according to Prof. Stark.

Moving from the least religiously active part of the world, we then travel to Africa where religious practice has been growing exponentially. This is particularly true in sub-Saharan Africa where there was nary a Christian on the continent in the late 1800s, but a vast majority now proclaim Christianity and attendance rates are the highest in the world. Rod points out that this is not only due to missionary work by Europeans in the early 20th century who introduced the faith, but more importantly is the result of indigenous church growth — i.e., Africans developing and organizing their own Christian denominations. Catholicism also shows strong growth in the region, surprising even the Vatican itself with its strong indigenous roots. We talk briefly about Islam in Northern Africa, and how contact between Muslims and Christians has created unfortunate conflict in some parts of the continent.

Asia is our next region of focus. Having recently co-authored a book with Xiuhua Wang on Christianity in China (see below), Rod explains how this country poses a unique challenge to secularization theory. While China is modernizing rapidly, it is also Christianizing equally fast and despite attempts by the communist regime to suppress or control the growth. Interestingly, the growth in religious practice is coming amongst the most educated and prosperous in Chinese society. While the central regime in China is concerned about this religious growth, many local officials take a hands-off approach to the practice of house churches. Tony speculates that there may be many parallels between what is currently happening in China to what went on in the pre-Constantine Church in the first three centuries. Japan becomes the next topic of conversation. Here, religious practice remains rather low. Rod points out that even with high rates of unbelief, many people still rely upon Shinto priests to bless their autos, homes, and even military equipment (which Tony mentions from a previous podcast with Ron Hassner).

Our last two topics cover Latin America and Islam. In the former, religious practice has increased dramatically despite the notion that Latin Americans have always been (since colonization) firmly Catholic. Prof. Stark tips his hat to Tony’s own research on the region and how Protestant missionaries in the 20th century lit a competitive fire underneath the Catholic Church, which prompted this institution to better serve its parishioner base. We discuss how the Latin American Catholic Church, whereas it used to rely upon imported priests, now sees significant growth in native seminarians and Rod provides an interesting anecdote from his time in California about how competition from Pentecostals motivated a Catholic parish. We touch a bit on Islam noting that while religious practice has been relatively high in North Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia, this faith has become “more intensified” in recent decades. The display of religious symbols (e.g., hijab) has become more pronounced, and Rod discusses how Islam provides a great deal of internal religious competition that can give rise to this, particularly in an environment that is showing increased resentment of Western morals.

We finish off with some reflections on secularization theory and why this perspective is still so entrenched in the Academy. Prof. Stark shares some comments on political correctness and encourages more honest research amongst intellectuals. Recorded: December 30, 2015.

The Triumph of Faith: Why the World Is More Religious than Ever, by Rodney Stark.

America’s Blessings: How Religion Benefits Everyone, Including Atheists, by Rodney Stark.

The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World’s Largest Religion, by Rodney Stark.

America’s Blessings: How Religion Benefits Everyone… Including Atheists, by Rodney Stark (available November 2012).

Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion.

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Rodney Stark on How Religion Benefits Everyone, Including Atheists.

Rodney Stark on the Triumph of Christianity, Part I.

Rodney Stark on the Triumph of Christianity, Part II.

Rodney Stark on the Triumph of Christianity, Part III.

Rodney Stark on The Crusades.

Hunter Baker on Secularism

tonygill — Mon, 28 May 2012 08:00:15 +0000

What role should religion be allowed to play in the public square? With a presidential election heating up, this question will undoubtedly be debated time and time again. Research on Religion jumps headfirst into this debate with Prof. Hunter Baker, an associate professor of political science and the associate dean of Arts & Sciences at Union University. Prof. Baker discusses his recent book, The End of Secularism.

We start with a bit of revealing banter about the cover of that book but quickly turn our attention to more academic discussion of secularization theory and its ideological outgrowth, “secularism.” Hunter defines “secularism” as an ideological position wherein religious practice and discourse must be removed from public visibility, either physically in terms of the display of religious symbols (e.g., creche scenes) or rhetorically in terms of how religious ideas influence policy. He argues that while many people feel that a secular public square provides a neutral ground for persons of all different creeds, in reality such a view privileges this specific ideology of secularism and thereby excluding alternative voices from being heard. Hunger further notes that secularism is often applied selectively depending on what political or economic issue is at stake. This is aptly illustrated with a comparison of how Judge Roy Moore was vilified when he tried to display the Ten Commandments in a courthouse, whereas the efforts of Susan Pace Hamill and Governor Bob Riley explicitly used religious justifications for implementing a progressive tax structure in Alabama.

When pressed as to whether secularism as an ideology is gaining an upper hand in America, Prof. Baker acknowledges that it may be in terms of displaying Nativity scenes on public property, but that attitudes towards rhetoric are changing so as to consider religiously-influenced speech to be more acceptable today than compared to the past few decades. A spirited discussion over whether city hall should display a creche around Christmas reveals some interesting insights, with the conversation then veering into the realm of public education, John Stuart Mill, and school choice.

Prof. Baker then reviews and critiques a number of arguments that have been advanced for supporting a secularist vision of governance over one that has religious mixed in, including ideas that religious conflict gives rise to violence, that science is a much better guide for life than religious faith, and whether or not secularism can generate its own moral code of behavior without relying upon Christian foundations. This leads to a discussion of moral relativism and Prof. Baker noting that those who claim relativism are not as relativistic as they seem. Tony then asks Hunter what a world without secularism as a guiding principle looks like and he answers that we already have a working model of that world here in the United States, which in turn generates an interesting comparison with other nations, most notably Sweden. We discuss education policy and health care mandates along the way to our concluding segment wherein Prof. Baker gives his prognostication about the future of secularism and religious liberty in the U.S. Recorded: May 9, 2012.

RELATED LINKS

Hunter Baker’s biography at academia.edu, Union University.

The End of Secularism, by Hunter Baker. Click on this site to see the cover, which we talk about early in the interview.

“Reflections on the Spirit of the Age,” a blog by Hunter Baker.

Political Thought: A Student’s Guide, by Hunter Baker (available July 2012).

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Darin Mather on Evangelicals and Racial Attitudes

tonygill — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 08:00:14 +0000

Are white evangelical Christians becoming more tolerant of other races over time? Darin Mather — a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Minnesota — discusses his recent research on the topic, published in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion. Mather finds that younger evangelicals — those born after 1957, the official “end” of the Baby Boom — demonstrate much more tolerant attitudes and greater racial solidarity with minority groups such as African Americans and Hispanics. We discuss some of the reasons why the younger cohort is more tolerant, including greater contact with individuals of different races and ethnicities, as well as exposure to the ideas of toleration that permated the post-Civil Rights Movement. We have a fascinating discussion relating to relativism and examine whether toleration for other cultures necessarily means a change in (perhaps watering down of) one’s theological mindset. Younger evangelicals appear to accept cultural diversity so long as it is accompanies by an agreement on the basical laws of society. We also delve into the area of public policy, noting that younger evangelicals tend to be less supportive of affirmative action and economic assistance to historically disadvantaged communities. Mather offers several speculative ideas on why this might be the case, including the connection of evangelicalism to the South and the Republican Party. We finish with a brief discussion of Darin’s current dissertation research examining the differences between religious and secular education in Guatemala and the impact that has on equality of opportunity for young women. Recorded: March 7, 2011.

RELATED LINKS

Darin Mather’s websiteat the University of Minnesota.

“Divided by Age?: Generational Shifts in White Evangelical Christians’ Attitudes Toward Racial Diversity,” by Darin Mather in the Interdisciplanary Journal of Research on Religion (requires free registration).

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