THE SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION AND SOCIAL-PROBLEMS

The founding generation of sociologists of religion made some penetrating insights into the position of religion in industrial or capitalist societies, but they tended to overlook social problems. Their successors have also paid relatively little attention to social problems, but debates about the advent of postindustrial or late-capitalist society suggest that religion may be undergoing changes that will make it an increasingly important medium for defining and responding to social problems. At the same time, religion may become more of a social problem in its own right. Georg Simmel's concept of “autonomization” in modem culture helps to make sense of the changing relationship between religion and social problems. © 1990 Association for the Sociology of Religion.