In this issue we present a wide ranging set of papers that offer thoughtful reflections on a mix of historical and contemporary concerns. Some also include insightful empirical analysis, but the overall emphasis is on the meaning and significance of events. Matteo Bortolini begins with an examination of “the Bellah Affair” of the early 1970s, a controversy that centered on qualifications for membership in the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University. As he demonstrates, a “reputational struggle” played out in high-profile mass media, based largely on leaks of confidential documents, including evaluations of Robert Bellah’s scholarly work. In the process, the reputation of sociology itself, as a field of scientific inquiry aspiring to parity with the natural sciences, was called into question. Brian Conway contributes an analysis of the relationship between the Catholic Church and sociology in Ireland, using a comparative institutional perspective. He traces three historical stages in the career of Catholic sociology in Ireland, and compares developments there with events elsewhere in Europe and in the United States. Many readers, even those with a strong interest in the history of sociology, may be unaware that during the middle decades of the twentieth century there was also a significant “Catholic sociology” movement within the United States, complete with its own sociological journal. Though it seems strange now, I still recall seeing copies of this journal on the library shelves at St. Louis University during my studies there. It is interesting to speculate whether the near future will see other religiously imbued forms of sociology, perhaps especially an Islamic variant, and also whether some concept of spirituality may find its way back into sociological thought and writing. Robert Prus focuses on Emile Durkheim and the significance of his 1903 Moral Education, a work that is not well known among the majority of sociologists in the United States. Approaching this work from the perspective of symbolic interactionAm Soc (2011) 42:1–2 DOI 10.1007/s12108-011-9127-0