Rephrasing the Question: A Response to Smith

Abstract

Christian Smith's (2007) essay, Why Christianity Works, is a provocative attempt to explain persistence of religion. His argument employs critical real ism and sociological phenomenology in explaining centrality of emotions to Christianity. He writes the belief content of Christian faith gives rise to cer tain practices and experiences,-particularly emotional ones-that many people find highly engaging, compelling, persuasive, and convincing (p. 167). Smith's article is an important attempt at addressing issues within socio logical study of religion. First, he recognizes that quantitative research is ulti mately unable to explain persistence of religion (p. 167). He also states that religion is likely to continue to persist for foreseeable future (p. 177). These two points demonstrate need for studies such as his: Christianity continues to exert strong influence on people despite opposition from various directions. Attempts to justify religion through what might be termed harder science have proven insufficient. By employing a slightly softer approach, Smith hopes to both supplement this previous research while addressing a lack of attention to sig nificance of emotion for religious practice and tradition (p. 169). While acknowledging these strengths, there are three points at which I think Smith's argument should be developed further: (1) he does not define Christianity nor justify his conclusion that Christianity works; (2) he needs to explain relationship between cognition and emotion, and how Christianity is transmitted to non-believers; and (3) he needs to explain his notion of human nature. I will conclude with a discussion of theological issues in Smith's work.