| Contemporary sociology considers itself an objective science, one that has been able to transcend all subjective and moralistic interpretations of social reality through its reliance on techniques borrowed from the natural sciences. However, this thesis attempts to show the fallacy of such a belief through an analysis of the religious perspectives upon which American sociology was founded and a description of how those religious roots have continued to influence the discipline ever since.;Although American sociology was to become overtly secularized after 1920, it retained its ameliorative outlook. Under William Ogburn's direction, sociology would continue to attempt to "save" mankind through positivistic sociological analysis and technocratic societal planning, hoping to insure the "good life" for the majority of the population (a secularized rationalized variant of the social gospelers' Kingdom). Within the various branches of applied sociology the discipline's original soteriological aspirations have been maintained.;The thesis is developed that American sociology received a major impetus from the Protestant Social Gospel Movement of the late nineteenth century. Social Gospel ministers such as Walter Rauschenbusch, Josiah Strong, and Washington Gladden were searching for an ameliorative scientific technique, which they labelled sociology, to aid them in their quest to rid America of its social evils. Their hope was that the newly "purified" society would signify the arrival of heaven on earth, an earthly utopia the social gospelers referred to as the "Kingdom of God on earth". In the writings of many of the first generation of American sociologists can be seen the attempt to develop sociological theories, methodologies, and reform strategies, all dedicated to the establishment of God's Kingdom. Among the sociologists and reformers discussed in this light are Albion Small, Charles Henderson, George Vincent, Marion Talbot, Jane Addams, Charles Cooley, Charles Ellwood, Richard T. Ely, E. A. Ross, and Franklin Giddings. The most outspoken critic of "Christian sociology" was William Graham Sumner, although even his sociology can be shown to have its origins in religious beliefs. American sociology was, in spite of Sumner's warnings, to take on an ameliorative orientation in the period between 1880 and 1920. |
