La Formation d'une Pensee Sociologique: la Societe Polonaise de l'Entredeux-guerres

Abstract

next two years converted between 150 and 200 to the banner of'Hare Krishna' and the belief that one could 'stay high all the time, discover eternal bliss' without drugs. Those who came to him were young college dropouts adrift in the counter culture sea who tuned in to this guru. Most entered this ascetic and communal society after encountering the Hare Krishnas chanting and dancing in the streets. They came because the philosophy attracted them and because their initial contact with the devotees was warm and friendly. By 1975 there were 30 centers spread throughout the USA. In the mid-1970s there was a decline in sect membership as the counter-culture wound down and the founder died. Prabhupada's death in 1977 precipitated a power struggle between the international governing board of the society and leading gurus some with peculiar western sounding titles such as Northwest Guru, Foreign Guru and Western Guru. The book's last section deals with those disputes and briefly touches on the sect's international growth (forty-three centers in Europe and forty in Latin America by 1983). This final section is most suggestive for other researchers. Rochford has clearly struggled over his material for many years with considerable personal and professional anguish. Yet there are many missed opportunities in this study. For example, he tosses away (in an intriguing footnote) the fact that many members came into the society because they liked the vegetarian regime. A study of the eating habits of such sects might tell us a good deal about their appeal. It is a rare communal society that does not at some point in its history produce a cookbook just like the Ladies Aid Society. Why? And many groups had heated debates over the role of food (the Shakers for one) in their spiritual scheme. Rochford is so interested in interactional analysis on a personal level that he virtually ignores the dispute between the gurus and the Governing Board Commission which reads like the struggle over spiritual authority that characterized both the early Christian settlements and the Avignon papacy. Scholars of contemporary religious movements will find much raw material here that should enlarge our understanding ofthe relationship between prophetic authority, modernization and religious belief. Robert S. Fogarty Antioch College