ABSTRACT
In their recent history of American sociology, Arthur Vidich and Stanford Lyman argue that the central problems and concerns of American social science “emanate from the dilemmas and contradictions in the relationship between God, the state, and civil society.” (Vidich and Lyman 1985: 281) Called upon to explain, and justify, the ways of American society to those within it, without reference to God’s divine providence, social scientists have been led to examine “the kind of folks people are” and “the kind of world it is” (Knight, quoted in Dewey 1987: 9), to judge what it means to live intelligently in a world of illness, inequality, death, and scarcity, and to recognize that intelligent social reform will never be wholly realized in this world. Although social scientists seldom understand themselves to be preaching, and would eschew the title of “theologian,” their work encompasses the roles of both minister and theologian in a secular society.
