Research Information System
The 33rd ISSR Conference: Sensing Religion, Leuven, Belgium, 2 - 05 July 2015, pp.394-395
After the Second World War, a new branch of sociology emerged: Religious Sociology. Unlike
the secular sociology of religion, in which religion is studied ‘scientifically’, religious sociology
has been employed to serve the faith by using the methodology of secular sociology. However, the
question aroused straight off: To what extent could it serve the faith by applying to secular tools
of sociology or to what extent could it be a branch of sociology whose foundation lies behind
secularism and modernism? For this purpose, this paper aims to seek out methodological
foundations and premises of religious sociology in the example of comparatively Christian
Sociology and Islamic Sociology. In this context, what are the methodologies and techniques of
those types of sociologies? How do they employ secular methodology to serve their faith? What
are the philosophical assumptions behind the methodology of religious sociology? And finally, are
they scientific sociological study of religion or are they theological attempts to advocate the
religion? With these questions in mind, I will briefly discuss the history of religious sociology.
Then, I will analyze philosophical and methodological assumptions of religious sociology. With
this theoretical background, I will later assess the scientific validity of religious sociology by
comparing “Christian Sociology” and “Islamic Sociology”. Finally, I will evaluate whether
religious sociology, particularly Islamic Sociology, could be a branch of secular sociology.