Society for the Scientific Study of Religion

Society for the Scientific Study of Religion
Harvard University · Public domain · source
Name	Society for the Scientific Study of Religion
Formation	1949
Type	Learned society
Headquarters	United States
Leader title	President

Contents

Society for the Scientific Study of Religion is a learned association dedicated to empirical and theoretical study of religion through multidisciplinary inquiry. The organization convenes researchers, publishes scholarship, and fosters exchanges among scholars affiliated with institutions such as Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Chicago, University of Oxford, and University of California, Berkeley. Its activities intersect with research communities linked to American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Science Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Guggenheim Fellowship recipients.

History

Founded in 1949 amid postwar expansion of social science, the Society traces roots to collaborations among scholars at Columbia University, Yale University, Duke University, University of Michigan, and University of Pennsylvania. Early meetings featured contributors associated with projects at Institute for Advanced Study, Brookings Institution, Social Science Research Council, Carnegie Corporation, and journals like American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, and Journal of Religion. The Society’s institutional development paralleled the emergence of notable figures connected to Max Weber, Émile Durkheim, Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim-influenced programs, and later networks involving Peter Berger, Robert Bellah, Rodney Stark, Gordon Marshall and scholars linked to Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press. Over decades it adapted to shifts exemplified by events like the expansion of programs at Princeton Theological Seminary, debates at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and international dialogues involving Pontifical Gregorian University and Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The Society’s mission emphasizes rigorous, empirical study of religious beliefs, practices, organizations, and change, engaging scholars from sociology, psychology, anthropology, history, and political science departments at universities such as Stanford University, Yale University, Columbia University, Brown University, and Cornell University. Objectives include promoting research standards associated with funders like the National Endowment for the Humanities, encouraging cross-national comparative work involving centers at London School of Economics, Free University of Berlin, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and supporting methodological innovation linked to grants from Economic and Social Research Council and collaborations with organizations like International Sociological Association and American Anthropological Association.

Membership draws faculty, postdoctoral scholars, doctoral students, and independent researchers with affiliations to institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, University of Toronto, McGill University, and University of Melbourne. Governance is structured with an elected board, officers including President and Secretary, and committees patterned after governance at American Historical Association and American Political Science Association. Elections and bylaws reflect practices similar to those at Royal Anthropological Institute and Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and the Society liaises with publishers like Sage Publications and Routledge for member benefits.

The Society sponsors peer-reviewed outlets published with academic presses and commercial publishers associated with Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Sage Publications, Taylor & Francis, and Elsevier. It organizes annual meetings that attract delegates from centers such as Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame, Harvard Divinity School, Yale Divinity School, Duke Divinity School, and international partners including Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. Conferences feature panels drawing scholars who publish in venues like Sociology of Religion, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Review of Religious Research, and engage with policy institutions such as United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and World Bank seminars.

Research promoted by the Society has shaped scholarly debates on secularization, religious pluralism, conversion, church attendance, and religion and politics, informing studies at Princeton University, University of California, Los Angeles, Georgetown University, University of Notre Dame, and Emory University. Work presented under the Society’s auspices has been cited alongside scholarship by Talcott Parsons, Clifford Geertz, Anthony Giddens, Robert Putnam, and Samuel P. Huntington, influencing commissions, curricula at seminaries such as Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and public reports by agencies like Pew Research Center, Gallup Organization, and Public Religion Research Institute. The Society’s comparative and quantitative research traditions have generated datasets utilized by archives at Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research and informed interdisciplinary collaborations with institutes like Institute for Social Research and European Research Council projects.

The Society confers prizes and honors recognizing scholarly excellence, career achievement, and outstanding publications, parallel to awards presented by American Academy of Religion, Religious Studies Association, British Academy, and fellowship schemes like the MacArthur Fellows Program and Fulbright Program. Recipients often hold appointments at institutions including Princeton University, Harvard University, University of Chicago, Duke University, and University of Oxford and have work published by presses such as Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press.

Category:Learned societies