2 of 3

Yet Bellah is not without hope. If the church in America-liberal or evangelical-currently offers little that challenges the therapeutic culture of self-improvement, it could do much more, Bellah believes. The church possesses a rich tradition that offers a balance between individual and community, freedom and responsibility, a tradition in which love for God and love for neighbor are inextricably interwoven and concern for this world is informed by awareness of the world to come.

Such values the church must not only teach but also embody. For, as a sociologist, Bellah is acutely aware that such ideas must come to life in a community in order for them to have their full effect on our confused and erratic cultures. The church, that is, must once again become a social force: to protect its members from the assault of other social forces; to link its members so as to draw out the maximum virtue and power of both individuals and the group; to preserve and proclaim its distinctive gospel amid the din of competing messages; and to contribute what grace it can to its neighbors in the worldwide transformational mission of our compassionate God.

Evangelicals have an ambivalent relationship to sociology and social science more generally. Our missionaries study anthropology as they seek to understand the cultures they serve. Our church planters pore over land surveys, zoning regulations, and demographic statistics in order to calculate the best location and style for a new congregation. Our youth workers attend conferences led by analysts of postmodernity and futurists who claim to predict tomorrow's features by extending today's trends.

We recognize, however, that sociologists have often offered themselves as secular prophets—as alternatives, in fact, to the church's preachers. Indeed, sociologists and prophets offer the same potent combination: a presentation of the way things are, a prediction of the way things will be, and a prescription of what we should therefore do. Sociologists have claimed the authority of scientific observation and inference. Preachers have claimed the authority of scriptural exegesis and application. Thus sociology has often stood as rival, not companion, to Christian teaching.

True prophets, however, can combine the best of both traditions. True prophecy can use whatever tools are available in order to explain what is actually the case, to surmise what is likely to soon take place, and to discern what to do about it all. Sociology is not necessarily inimical to the gospel, nor is it simply the elaborate demonstration of the obvious. Meaning and Modernity itself offers a wealth of data and interpretation that will provoke any reader to reconsider just what is going on and why. One essay, for example, discusses the moral formation of children by educational bureaucrats who might just know what they're doing (will wonders never cease?), while another shows that the members of megachurches tend to be more involved in their churches and communities than are members of smaller congregations.

Most evangelical leaders seem cognizant of only a few dimensions of social life today-entertainment media, sexuality, and fidelity to the church and its programs. Are we seeing how even these favorite topics fit into larger social patterns that include race, economics, technology, and gender? Without such awareness, we shall be treating symptoms and not diseases. The powers and principalities that Saint Paul spoke of 2,000 years ago can take many forms.

next page... |  2 of 3

share this page

July 8 2002, Vol. 46, No. 8