Religion and Alienation: A Theological Reading of Sociology

by Gregory Baum

Book by Baum, Gregory

Genres: Sociology, Theology

Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Gerhard Albert Baum (1923–2017), better known as Gregory Baum, was a German-born Canadian priest and theologian in the Roman Catholic Church. He became known in North America and Europe in the 1960s for his work on ecumenism, interfaith dialogue, and the relationship between the Catholic Church and Jews. In the later 1960s, he went to the New School for Social Theory in New York and became a sociologist, which led to his work on creating a dialogue between classical sociology (Marx, Tocqueville, Durkheim, Toennies, Weber, etc.) and Christian theology.

In the 1970s, he welcomed the insights of the Theology of Liberation that came from Latin America and other societies. He also became interested in the work of Karl Mannheim and developed a program of ideology critique that he hoped would eliminate the ideological elements in religion, especially those elements that preached contempt for others and allowed Christians to remain unmoved by the suffering of the victims of social injustice and structural violence.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Baum continued his study into ideology critique by integrating the work of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. He connected the Frankfurt School's concept of "the end of innocent critique" with the Catholic Church's "preferential option for the poor". Both concepts extended his interest in ideology critique. Since Baum has always been interested in social ethics, he also studied the work of Karl Polanyi, with whom he sympathized greatly.

Reviews

[Steven R. McEvoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some books are known to have influenced a generation, or a generation of thinkers. This book has the potential to do it a second time. Baum has re-written the entire book, dropping whole chapters and adding new ones.

This book was first published in 1975 as Religion and Alienation: A Theological Reading of Sociology and was immediately recognized as the seminal book on the continuing discussion between religion and sociology. This new edition will challenge a new generation of readers, thinkers, and students of either religion or sociology. This book is designed to help people encounter the gospel as a message of hope and liberation - a guidebook to help set us free from the prisons we have walled ourselves into, or that we have allowed society to place us into.

UW’s own Scott Kline and David Seljak, who both teach at St. Jerome’s University (SJU), wrote the forward to this new edition and give the book high praise.

Baum takes us on a journey through a series of progressive thoughts and areas of study to draw us forward into the study of religion and alienation. Baum looks at religion as both the source of alienation and as a product of alienation. He examines how alienation is also a product of the industrial society. Baum tackles the ambiguity that religion creates, both from a biblical perspective and from the perspective of the social sciences. Then he brings into the discussion the psychologists, with both Freud’s and Durkheim’s perspectives on symbolism. Those are but the beginnings of Baum’s work on this diverse topic.

A book launch can be a fascinating event. I have witnessed book launches that were merely reading excerpts from the book and signing copies, to live choral pieces composed just for the event with media from around the world. You never know what you will find at a book launch until you are at the event.

This new book is being launched here at SJU on October 20th at 7:30 p.m. Baum will be giving a lecture on Christian Muslim Dialogues in a Post 9/11 World at Siegfried Hall. This event will be a book launch and lecture, followed by signings of the book. Baum’s Lecture at SJU last January on the same topic had the highest attendance of any of last year’s Lecture Series at SJU. This, even with the controversy over Pope Benedict XVI’s comments, will be even more significant. So come find out what Baum has to say on this topic and attend the book launch for this new work.

This book will be an excellent addition to any religious thinker’s library. It was thirty years in the making and time has only made it better. Even if you read only the last chapter on the five reasons that theologians should engage in dialogue with social thinkers, it will make the book worth the changes.

(First Published in Imprint 2006-09-13 as ‘Baum revisits religious discourse’.)