Towards a Sociological Perspective on Religious Synthesis: A New Approach to Syncretism

• In Event: 176 - Section on Sociology of Religion Paper Session. Innovations in the Sociology of Religion

Abstract

Survey data show that Americans are increasingly likely to combine and mix religious traditions and forge a more multidimensional religious path than the one they inherited.
In this article, I ask what social factors structure how people combine religious options in the contemporary United States. I outline the conceptual languages sociologists, anthropologists, and scholars in theology and/or religious studies have used – often in inconsistent ways - to talk about religious blending. I then suggest what a sociological model of syncretism might look like based on a historical and contemporary study of how people combine aspects of Judaism and Buddhism. I highlight three axes of this sociological model: an analytic focus that embeds questions about religious mixing in social structures; an introduction of new units and levels of analysis; and a careful specification given to the processes involved in religious mixing. I argue that this model has the potential to produce new knowledge about the voluntary nature of religion in America, stimulate new theories about religious change, and nuance our understanding of religious shifting and conversion.

Author

• Emily Sigalow, Brandeis University