ABSTRACT
In their history of sociology in the United States, Arthur Vidich and Stanford Lyman (1985: 281) argue that the central concerns of American social science “emanate from the dilemmas and contradictions in the relationship between God, the state, and civil society.” Social scientists in America are asked to explain the “ways of society” to those within it, although in a modern secular society they are asked to do so without reference to God or divine providence. Social scientists may not be theologians, but in modern society their work plays the same role religion played in prior societies.
