ABSTRACT
Many scattered efforts are to be found in the field of social history and some in the field of sociology proper, but nothing which would in the least be equal to the traditional fields of Biblical and Talmudic studies, the Hebrew language and general Jewish history. The presupposition to a historical sociology of the Jews, namely a comprehensive economic and social history of the Jews, exists only in torsi. Arthur Ruppin's many subsequent editions of his original book The Jews of To-day contain no sociology but only a demography. The problems of a Biblical sociology, to be sure, are but the general problems of secularization. A sociology of the Bible, while leading to a relativistic attitude as to values if employed by positivists, can make the faithful meet the God of reality along the desert trails, among the shepherds of the mountains, and around the corners of the field if employed by believers.
