Sensitizing Blinders: Theorizing Theory in a Post-Colonial Era

Theories in the sociology of religion do more than identify the patterns that shape religious life. They also systematically hide other patterns from easy view. This often stems from the unexamined assumptions that each theory inherits from its cultural and historical context. This address presents three examples from the sociology of religion’s recent past. The first is an “underlying forces” theory that traces religious developments to long-term social trends. The second is an “individual-based modeling” theory that bases social outcomes on individual actions. The third is a “response-to-loss” theory, which connects religious innovation to unwanted social change. Each sees, and fails to see, different things. The address then examines some approaches to globalization, showing their presumption of the centrality of the developed West. Recent work on religions in the Global South, however, paints a different picture. The post-colonial patterns found there may well shape religion worldwide in ways that our current theories fail to see.