The Sociology of Religion in England

Abstract

Although the sociology of religion has a long history in the UK, beginning with Herbert Spencer and E. B. Tyler, and continuing to the present day, a marked break with the past occurred with WWII. Up to J. G. Frazer's The Golden Bough (1890-1915) the interest of sociologists was centered on mass movements of ideas. With the revival of interest in the sociology of religion after the war, the source of inspiration has not been the cultural tradition but US empirical head-counting. Broad evolutionary and comparative studies have given way to more precise and narrowly confined investigations in relatively limited fields. 3 recent studies (C. K. Ward, Priests and people, A study in the sociology of religion, Liverpool, England: University Press, 1951, T. Brennan, E. W. Cooney and H. Pollins, Social change in South-West Wales, London, England: 1954, and B. R. Wilson, Sects and society, A sociological study of three religious groups in Britain, London, 1961) are discussed in terms of the thesis that they represent the sociology of persistence and change, and the sociology of organizations, rather than the sociology of religion as a type of ideology. The general trend of sociology seems to be 'from the older divisions of the subject to new specialisms in sociology, in which the church is being cared for along with the other organizations of our s secular society.' But greater familiarity with the achievements of the pre-war sociology of religion is essential. It is important that religious doctrine should be studied along with the other belief systems of our time. AA.