Abstract
As sociologists in the United States grapple with how to forge a truly global and inclusive sociology as well as ponder the imperative to rethink the discipline’s canon, James Spickard’s book Alternative Sociologies of Religion: Through Non-Western Eyes is a creative intervention that will push these conversations in important ways. Although the book focuses specifically on the sociology of religion subfield, its insights apply broadly and explicitly to the discipline as a whole. Through its fascinating case studies, it effectively forces us to uncover and reconsider the core assumptions embedded in western sociology. This is a lofty and challenging—but absolutely crucial—line of questioning that in the end requires precisely the type of specific case exercises the book offers.
The book’s goal is to take seriously ideas from non-western traditions in order to see what they illuminate about religious life that western concepts have obscured. Its departing point is critiques of the sociology of religion’s dominant view of religion: as centered on belief, rules, and organizations, all sequestered from other domains of life. A foray into sociology textbooks reveals these tendencies, which are anchored essentially in Protestant theology and history. Spickard locates these limitations of the subfield in the early history of sociology, when the discipline constructed a view of religion as an irrational set of beliefs and then defined itself in opposition to this.
Looking instead through “non-western eyes,” the book elaborates three themes toward an alternative sociology of religion. These themes include the creation of sacred community, the relationship between religion and ethnicity, and the relationship between ritual experience and healing. As it delves into each of these themes, it calls into question foundational dichotomies of the larger discipline such as tradition versus modernity and the individual versus society. As delicate as such an endeavor may be, Spickard writes, social scientific knowledge must traverse historical and cultural boundaries in order to more comprehensively understand the world. Analysis of three non-western traditions and how they would inform an alternative sociology of religion thus compose the core of the book. These are the Confucian tradition, the sociology of Ibn-Khaldūn of North Africa, and Navajo rituals from the American Southwest.
Spickard’s analysis of the Confucian tradition centers on its particular understanding of virtue; the self as constituted entirely through relationships; and ethical behavior and mutual obligations in relationships, including those between a ruler and their subjects. This leads ultimately to a different meaning of social justice than what western sociology usually promotes, as well as a rethinking of Weberian sociology’s conceptions of tradition and authority. In a second chapter dedicated to the Confucian tradition, Spickard applies this perspective to American congregations, explaining how a Confucian sociology might emphasize, for example, the “sacred work” (p. 125) of women in sustaining community and relationships. This contrasts with the dominant trend in western sociology of religion that would neglect these aspects of congregational life.
The book turns next to the work of politician, judge, and scholar Ibn Khaldūn, born in Tunis in 1332 CE. This is a serious and welcome contribution, for Khaldūn’s grand theoretical writing on the history of Islamic and Arab societies may indeed make him the world’s first sociologist. Spickard focuses on Khaldūn’s contrast between tribal social relations and sedentary urban life; his theory of ethnic solidarity, or “group-feeling”; and his idea of religion (rather than kinship) as a source of unity. For Khaldūn religion and ethnicity are nearly equivalent, whereas western sociology treats them separately. Spickard carefully compares Durkheim and Khaldūn in a section that students of social theory will find riveting. He then applies “Khaldūnian sociology” to the war in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and the early emergence of ISIS. Through these cases the chapter illuminates the affective foundations of group conflict while managing to steer clear of notions of “primordial ethnic sentiments.” It also depicts an analysis of history as cyclical rather than linear, in contrast again to western sociology.
Traditional Navajo beliefs and rituals inform the third alternative sociology of religion the book presents. Here, Spickard presents the relationship between ceremonies and healing and the role of ritual in restoring cosmic harmony. Drawing on various anthropological and sociological works, the chapter demonstrates how rituals are not just symbolic but can have real effects on individuals and the world. A following chapter applies this Navajo perspective to various ritual processes practiced by participants in the Catholic Worker movement in the United States.
As unusual as these theoretical applications may sound, they illustrate remarkably well how non-western historical traditions can explain political and religious phenomena in ways that are new, intriguing, and perhaps more correct than our usual canonical theories. With an astonishing degree of reflexivity, Spickard anticipates and addresses several critiques, from the point of view of postcolonial theory, of the book’s aims. Few questions are left unarticulated.
The book also thoughtfully acknowledges the work of other scholars who have long sought to trouble and change the social anthropology of religion, from Talal Asad to Courtney Bender. At the same time I wondered if the book could do better justice to critical sociologists of religion who have indeed pushed beyond “Euro-American conceptual tools” (p. 35). In the same vein I sensed an occasional slippage between the book’s critiques of the sociology of religion as a field and of popular American perceptions of religion as entirely about beliefs and organizations. In other words, does the problem lie with public misperceptions or with scholars of religion who continue to reinforce the dominant western view?
In highlighting non-western traditions, the book carries the danger of essentializing these traditions. Again, Spickard is very aware of this risk and considers it reflexively. Yet a few moments or turns of phrase made me pause. More broadly, the book could have said more about questions of historiography. The histories of Confucian teachings or Navajo worldviews are presented in a rather uncomplicated manner. But what should we make of the close relationship between the Confucian tradition and the state and upper classes, which the book briefly notes? Are there reasons to be skeptical of twentieth-century anthropological studies of Navajo culture?
A final point that could have been clearer involves the category of religion itself. On one hand, the book supports a larger literature that shows how “religion” is a narrowly defined category that came out of the imperialist project and that hardly, if at all, translates into non-western languages. Given this, it was not always clear to me in the chapters whether the issue at stake was religion or piety or ideology, for example. In some cases, such as the effort to understand a movement like ISIS, these are highly consequential distinctions.
Overall Alternative Sociologies of Religion extends far beyond the subfield of religion and can generate productive dialogue about sociology’s canonical literature and assumptions. This is a dialogue that desperately needs to progress. I daresay most American-trained sociologists are not equipped to ask the right questions or see through our own western assumptions that marginalize other ways of life and other ethical structures. Spickard’s book is thus an invaluable gift to the discipline and to scholars interested in expanding sociology’s vision and inclusiveness.