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Protestant religious experience and the rise of American sociology: Evidence from the Bernard papers
Author(s) -
Henking Susan E.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6696(199210)28:4<325::aid-jhbs2300280402>3.0.co;2-2
Subject(s) - protestantism , sociology , religious studies , philosophy
Historians of sociology have long recognized the Protestant ambience within which the discipline emerged in the United States. Autobiographies elicited by L. L. Bernard in the 1920s and 1930s provide insight into the impact of this background on early American sociologists. In addition to confirming the importance of mainstream Protestantism, the autobiographies reveal a multitude of identity strategies adopted by those who came to call themselves sociologists. In negotiating the relation of religious and secular spheres, some abandoned religion en route to a sociological career. Others became sociologists of religion, separated value‐laden (religious) aspects of their lives from value‐neutral (sociological) endeavors, created a sociologically informed mode of Protestantism, or molded a Protestant sociology.