Hans Mol and the Sociology of Religion
Abstract
Hans Mol was born in the Netherlands during the 1920s. His imprisonment by the Gestapo during World War II began a long intellectual journey, exploring the role of religion in society. His work on the sociology of religion throughout the 20th and 21st Century is distinctive in its quest for both methodological and existential balance Part One of this book includes a brief outline of Mol's most influential theory as originally explicated in Identity and the Sacred (1976). This is followed by a look at the initial reception of that theory in relation to the competing concepts of Mol's contemporaries. Part Two is comprised of four previously-unpublished essays written by Mol during the 70s and 80s. Covering topics from evolution to evangelicalism, the papers display the sweeping ambition of this sociologist as well as the tone and contours of his intellectual articulation. In the Postscript this volume concludes with select transcripts of interviews conducted between Adam Powell and Hans Mol during the Spring of 2012. This volume of Mol's work will be of keen interest to academics and students with an interest in the sociology of religion post-World War II and the development of contemporary Christian theology.
... Earlier, Mol divided cultural identity into two dimensions (Powell, 2017). One is to focus on the social dimension. ...
There has been a growing interest among scholars and practitioners in cultural empowerment due to the importance of this subject. In this study, we aim to explore the connection between traditional cultural symbols and cultural identity, further estimating how two variables stimulate consumers’ emotional value to generate consumers’ purchase intention. Based on existing traditional cultural literature and the theory of planned behavior (TPB), we first proposed a research framework and then empirically tested the relationship among traditional culture symbols, cultural identity, emotional value, and consumers’ purchase intention. The survey data was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) and the following conclusions were drawn. First, the cognition of traditional cultural symbols and cultural identity has a direct and significant impact on the emotional value thereby, eliciting consumers’ purchase intention. Second, traditional cultural symbols are directly and indirectly (i.e., through emotional value or cultural identity) positively associated with consumers’ purchase intention, also cultural identity is directly and indirectly (i.e., through emotional value) associated with consumer purchase intention. Finally, emotional values mediate the indirect effect of traditional culture and cultural identity on purchase intention, and cultural identity plays a moderating role between traditional cultural symbols and consumers’ purchase intention. Our findings help to expand the existing literature on consumer purchase intentions by rationally using traditional cultural symbols in the product design and suggesting relevant marketing strategies. The research results can provide valuable inspiration for promoting the sustainable development of the national tidal market and repeating consumers’ purchasing intentions.
As an ancient cultural element, Dunhuang murals have strong historical and cultural inheritance significance. This study explores the impact of cultural identity on consumers' purchase intention, which has certain theoretical significance and practical value. Theoretically, this research advances the assumptions of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) by integrating cultural identity into the model. Based on the existing literature on ancient culture and cultural identity, this study proposes a new research framework to empirically test the relationship between ancient cultural symbols, cultural identity, emotional value, and consumer purchase intention. By analyzing the collected data through structural equation modeling (SEM), the study draws the following conclusions: First, ancient cultural symbols significantly enhance an individual’s sense of cultural identity and emotional value perception, thereby significantly affecting their purchase intention. Second, ancient cultural symbols impact consumers' purchase intention directly and indirectly through cultural identity and emotional value. Cultural identity also impacts consumers' purchase intention directly and indirectly through emotional value. Finally, ancient cultural symbols have a significant positive impact on purchase intention through the chain mediation effect of cultural identity and emotional value. In summary, ancient cultural symbols not only directly enhance cultural identity, emotional value, and purchase intention, but also indirectly affect purchase intention through the intermediary effects of cultural identity and emotional value. The research results provide empirical basis for the use of traditional cultural symbols in product design and marketing strategies. In particular, they provide theoretical support for the marketing strategy of Dunhuang mural casual clothing, which helps to enhance consumers' cultural identity and purchase intention.
Los lugares de patrimonio cultural son espacios de encuentro en los cuales se socializan y validan los bienes culturales y se generan múltiples beneficios sociales. Sin embargo, la literatura académica sobre el patrimonio cultural ha presentado poca evidencia empírica acerca de la relación entre el patrimonio cultural y sus beneficios. El propósito de este artículo es evaluar la correlación estadística de tres indicadores de impacto muy frecuentes en la literatura sobre patrimonio cultural: valoración del patrimonio, identidad nacional y capital social, con la exposición al patrimonio. El método empleado para el estudio fue entrevistar a 401 estudiantes universitarios, en Salamanca-España y Barranquilla-Colombia. Así, se exploró la fiabilidad del modelo mediante el análisis factorial exploratorio y de consistencia interna; se identificaron las dimensiones de las escalas, así como la validez de criterio y constructo. Los análisis correlacionales dan como resultado relaciones poco significativas entre la exposición al patrimonio con los indicadores mencionados: K. Social, I. Nacional y Valoración.
Birey doğduğu andan itibaren süreklilik gösteren değişime maruz kalır ki bu durum her türlü topluluk için de farklı derecelerde söz konusudur. Değişimin etkileri ile birlikte hem bireyin hem de bireyin içinde bulunduğu topluluk ve toplumun kimliği oluşmaktadır. Bireysel ve toplumsal kimliğin oluşumunda ve korunmasında birçok değer arasında din önemli bir yer işgal etmektedir. Din-kimlik etkileşimini ele alan kuramlar arasında Hans Mol’un kimlik kuramı din temelli toplulukları inceleme noktasında en önemli kuramlar arasında bulunmaktadır. Buradan hareketle, bu çalışmada, bir sufi tarikatı olan Menzil Nakşiliğinin kimlik oluşumu Mol’un kimlik kuramı bağlamında ele alınmıştır. Mol’a göre, kimliğin kutsallaşması olan din, kutsallaşma sürecinde işlevselliği gözlemlenen dört mekanizma ile dinî değerlerin galebe çaldığı bir kimliğin oluşumuna doğrudan katkı sağlamış olmaktadır. Nesnelleşme, ritüel, bağlılık ve mit olarak adlandırılan bu mekanizmalar kimlik oluşumunun yapı taşlarıdır. Dolayısıyla din, mitleri, ritüelleri ve duygu temelli bağlılıkları, istikrarlı bir kimlik duygusu sağlayan her şeyi güçlendiren aşkın bir dünya görüşüne sığdırabilir. Bununla birlikte, modernleşme ile görülen değişimden en çok etkilenen kurumlar arasında yer alan din ile ilgili birçok teori üretilirken, dinin toplumsal öneminin azalacağı yönündeki varsayımı ile sekülerleşme teorisi en çok tartışılanlar arasında yer almaktadır. Türkiye merkez olmak üzere birçok farklı ülkede müntesibi bulunan Menzil Tarikatının mevcut kimliklerini edinme sürecinde, var olduğu düşüncesinden hareketle kutsallaşma mekanizmalarının belirlenmesi ve meydana gelen kimliğin yorumlanması bu çalışmanın temel konusudur. Sonuç itibarıyla, belirli bir örneklem grubuyla görüşme tekniği ve katılım yöntemi uygulanan bu çalışmada, tasavvufî değerlerle oluşan Menzil kimliğinin aynı zamanda seküler bir kimlikle de belli bir oranda bütünleşme ve uyumluluk sağladığı gözlemlenmiştir.
The inevitability of death is an existential issue addressed in significantly different
ways by religion and science. Whether it is a spiritual afterlife fostered by Zoroastrianism or
the achievement of immortality in life through Cryonics, using a tripartite toolkit of identity,
faith, and worldview, I will explore how Mazdeans and Cryonicists approach death.
Over the past 40 or 50 years, scholars of religion have frequently attempted to use the tools of social science to analyse, describe, and explain the relevance and persistence of religion in the modern world. With the bold predictions of the secularization thesis as their stimuli, many sociologists and anthropologists preferred to focus on the under-explored, marginalized, or otherwise unexpected expressions of religion within those ostensibly secularizing contexts. Such studies have led to an abundance of theories and accompanying terms: "implicit religion, " "vernacular religion, " "vicarious religion, " "lived religion, " "popular religion, " and "folk religion." Without choosing any one of these, but owing much to their shared-arguably postmodern-themes of commonplace sacrality and personal empowerment, this paper seeks to explore the possibility of the Hearing Voices Movement (HVM) as an example of religion-making. HVM is a growing force of "voice-hearers" from at least 28 countries who have formed user-led networks for activism and mental health recovery. More importantly, it is argued that HVM blends meaning-making, postmodern notions of identity in relation to power structures, and ritual embodiment, resulting in a striking example of sociologist Hans Mol's notion of religion as a sacralizing process.
In this paper, the identity theory of religion outline by sociologist Hans Mol in the 1970s is introduced and located among the various competing theories of the mid-20th century. Using such comparisons, particularly with enigmatic sociological figures, it is argued that the original consensus that Mol represented yet another neo-functionalist theory of religion is fallacious. Instead, it is suggested that his theoretical framework, whilst ambitious and broad, is something other than functionalism and avoids easy categorisation when viewed from a 21st-century perspective on the history of ideas.
This volume describes the effect of religion on the identity of the native Maoris and Pakehas (white settlers in New Zealand. The description is woven around the idea that the fixed (identity) is constantly "unglued" by the fickle (change). The Maori charismatic movements are seen as attempts to absorb the devastating effects of Pakeha incursion into a viable system of meaning. Yet the white white settlers, too, had to tame the discontinuities with the past and the ravages of cultural change. Religion is seen to be at the forefront of the struggle to defend and reinforce the boundaries around the variety of identities. In presenting his thesis, the author has brought together a wide range of information-other anthropological and sociological studies, historical accounts, official statements, and religious census data. The volume will be of interest to students of sociology, anthropology, and religion. © Pilgrims South Press Ltd., P.O. Box 5101, Dunedin, New Zealand. All rights reserved.
It is argued that Mormon temple garments reveal something of the process whereby religious identity receives reinforcement and protection through the stabilizing effects of material symbols. Such symbols are often described as ?boundaries? or ?boundary markers.? In the case of Latter-Day Saints? ritual clothing, however, this essay contends that identity is more often reinforced in relation to the religious community; the garments create cultural meaning and communicate between insiders. This clothing, then, displays many of the hallmarks of the identity theory adumbrated in the mid-twentieth century by sociologist Hans Mol. Mol suggested that identity is the stable half of a stability/adaptability dialectic, and religion is the sacralization of that identity. This paper explores Mormon temple garments as material mechanisms of stabilization, the efficacy of which is to be found in their capacity to anchor emotions, behaviors, and (ultimately) identity in social ?covenants.? This social cohesion is bolstered by the immutability of the temple garment as an identity generator. Thus, it is argued that Mol?s concept of religious identity illuminates at least one attribute of Mormon ritual dress?namely, its identity-conferring potential. Hidden beneath conventional clothing, these garments serve less as boundary markers and more as signifiers of conformity to a social ideal.
I have not had time to prepare a formal paper and wish to apologise for this, since I had every intention of doing so and it has only been made impossible by a combination of extremely heavy duties and being ill for several months this year. On the other hand, I understand that a number of you have either read the little essay I wrote recently [Chance and Necessity, Knopf, New York (1971)], or at least heard of it. Therefore, I hope that if those who have read it agree or disagree, you can ask me some questions after this presentation. What I would like to do here, is the following. I have taken a few notes at random, which are, of course, on various subjects that I did discuss in the book, and I would like to emphasise a few points.
Winner of the 1993 Distinguished Book Award, Pacific Sociological Association "A major work in three different areas of sociology, [A Theory of Religion] is a model of how to build a systematic theory, a leading accomplishment of the rational choice school, and a comprehensive theory of religion...It is a sobering as well as penetrating vision. [This] book deserves a great deal of attention, both in the sociology of religion and in wider realms of social theory."--Randall Collins, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion "The value of [this book] lies in the distance it carries sociology toward a scientific theory of religion and in the sustained rigor of its deductive application. It is a 'must read' for anyone interested in the scientific study of religion or the formal axiomatization of sociology."--Thomas Ryba, Zygon "Stark and Bainbridge have made pioneering and enduring efforts in writing this book, and to a large extent they have been successful in their attempt to explain deductively why and how the phenomena of religion occur."--K. Peter Takayama, Journal of Church and State In this unique text, Stark and Bainbridge begin with basic statements about human nature and, employing the principles of logic and philosophy, build toward increasingly complex propositions about societies and their religious institutions. They provide a rigorous yet flexible sociological theory or religion as well as a general sociological model for deriving macrolevel theory from microlevel evidence. Rodney Stark is a professor of sociology and of comparative religion at the University of Washington and co-author of The Churching of America, 1776-2005: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy (Rutgers University Press). William Sims Bainbridge is director of the sociology program at the National Science Foundation and author of Goals in Space: American Values and the Future of Technology.
1. THE HOLON
11. The organism in its structural aspect is not an aggregation of elementary parts, and in its functional aspects not a chain of elementary units of behaviour.
12. The organism is to be regarded as a multi-levelled hierarchy of semi-autonomous sub-wholes, branching into sub-wholes of a lower order, and so on. Sub-wholes on any level of the hierarchy are referred to as holons.
13. Parts and wholes in an absolute sense do not exist in the domains of life. The concept of the holon is intended to reconcile the atomistic and holistic approaches.
14. Biological holons are self-regulating open systems which display both the autonomous properties of wholes and the dependent properties of parts. This dichotomy is present on every level of every type of hierarchic organization, and is referred to as the "Janus phenomenon."
15. More generally, the term "holon" may be applied to any stable biological or social sub-whole which displays rule-governed behaviour and/or structural Gestalt-constancy. Thus organelles and homologous organs are evolutionary holons; morphogenetic fields are ontogenetic holons; the ediologist's "fixed action-patterns" and die sub-routines of acquired skills are behavioural holons; phonemes, morphemes, words, phrases are linguistic holons; individuals, families, tribes, nations are social holons.
2. DISSECTIBITJTY
21. Hierarchies are "dissectible" into their constituent branches, on which the holons form the nodes; the branching lines represent the channels of communication and control.
22. The number of levels which a hierarchy comprises is a measure of its "depth," and the number of holons on any given level is called its "span" [9].
3. RULES AND STRATEGIES
31. Functional holons are governed by fixed sets of rules and display more or less flexible strategies.
32. The rules—referred to as the system's canon—determine its invariant properties, its structural configuration and/or functional pattern.
33. While the canon defines the permissible steps in the holon's activity, the strategic selection of the actual step among permissible choices is guided by the contingencies of the environment.
34. The canon determines the rules of the game, strategy decides the course of the game.
35. Evolution plays variations on a limited number of canonical themes. The constraints imposed by the evolutionary canon are illustrated by the phenomena of homology, homeoplasy, parallelism, convergence and the loi du balancement.
36. In ontogeny, the holons at successive levels represent successive stages in the development of tissues. At each step in the process of differentiation, the genetic canon imposes further constraints on the holon's developmental potentials, but it retains sufficient flexibility to follow one or another alternative developmental pathway, within the range of its competence, guided by the contingencies of the environment.
37. Structurally, the mature organism is a hierarchy of parts within parts. Its "dissectibility" and the relative autonomy of its constituent holons are demonstrated by transplant surgery.
38. Functionally, the behaviour of organisms is governed by "rules of the game" which account for its coherence, stability and specific pattern.
39. Skills, whether inborn or acquired, are functional hierarchies, with sub-skills as holons, governed by sub-rules.
4. INTEGRATION AND SELF-ASSERTION
41. Every holon has the dual tendency to preserve and assert its individuality as a quasi-autonomous whole; and to function as an integrated part of an (existing or evolving) larger whole. This polarity between the Self-Assertive (S-A) and Integrative (INT) tendencies is inherent in the concept of hierarchic order; and a universal characteristic of life.
The S-A tendencies are the dynamic expression of the holon's wholeness, the INT tendencies of its partness.
42. An analogous polarity is found in the interplay of cohesive and separative forces in stable inorganic systems, from atoms to galaxies.
43. The most general manifestation of the INT tendencies is the reversal of the Second Law of Thermodynamics in open systems feeding on negative entropy [24], and the evolutionary trend towards "spontaneously developing states of greater heterogeneity and complexity" [25].
44. Its specific manifestations on different levels range from the symbiosis of organelles and colonial animals, through the cohesive forces in herds and flocks...
The 'crisis' confronting Western sociology, detailed most recently by Alvin Gouldner (The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology, New York: Basic Books, 1970), is seen to hinge on a fundamental re-examination of the identification of the logic of the natural and social sciences. The second phrase in Comte's 'to see in order to foresee, to foresee in order to anticipate' is viewed as a reminder that, though natural science may be characterized as the extension of empirical foresight, the impact of new knowledge derived from social research upon the researcher and those to whom it is communicated results in a paradoxical denial--to some degree, in the shorter or longer run--of its continued reliability. The dialectical logic involved is viewed as providing a bridge between Marxist and non-Marxist sociology as well as offering a paradigmatic image that might serve the complementary conceptual assumptions of both the 'system' and the 'conflict' theorists who are currently battling for the mantle of orthodoxy in Western sociology. Indeed, it recaptures for sociology in the West the capacity to contribute substantively to the destruction of compulsive identification with the social order discoverable in the present and in the past and transforms all social research, in principle, into 'action' research.
This article is a modest and frankly speculative attempt to draw the atten tion to two variables which (a) could possibly be 'behind' the more tradi tional ones, such as asceticism, objectivity, efficiency, rationality and individualism mentioned as salient for the original development of rational capitalism, natural science and modern democracy, and (b) could possibly provide an interesting fit with sociological theory and the sociology of religion.
In this talk, I would like to trace the origins of some of the major theoretical and experimental advances which have led to the development of a successful microscopic theory of superconductivity and then to indicate briefly some of the current problems. Fritz London made extremely important contributions to the theory and laid the groundwork for our present understanding. He showed how the Meissner effect and other superconducting properties could be understood as a consequence of quantum effects operating on a macroscopic scale. A striking prediction of his, which only recently has been verified experimentally, is the quantization of flux in a superconducting ring. My own work on superconductivity theory has been influenced greatly by that of Fritz London. Nobel Laureate John Bardeen, professor of physics at the University of Illinois, presented the following address in London, England, on September 17, 1962, when he received the third Fritz London Award in recognition of his work in developing a successful theory of superconductivity. The presentation was made during the Eighth International Conference on Low Temperature Physics, which was held at Queen Mary College, University of London. The Proceedings of that conference, to be published by Butterworths, London, are expected to be available in April.
The process of organic evolution requires consideration of factors facilitating the transformation of the organisms as well as factors responsible for preserving the modifications. The author stresses the stabilizing role of natural selection. The four sections deal with: (1) the individual variability, especially the phenomena of mutation; (2) the dynamics of the variability of populations; (3) individual adaptability and regulatory mechanisms of morphogenesis; and (4) factors determining the rate of evolution. As pointed out in the preface, the treatment exemplifies the convergence and unification of contributions to the evolutionary thought coming from comparative embryology and anatomy, genetics, paleontology, and systematics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)