Teaching an Introduction to Sociology Course in a Secular College: Systematic Reflections from an Orthodox Catholic Worldview

Abstract

This essay addresses some of the central issues, prospects, and problems that a serious Catholic scholar can be expected to deal with in teaching an Introduction to Sociology course in a secular college. The paper assumes the basic validity and utility of the secular discipline of sociology while noting certain dysfunctional empirical tendencies that are not intrinsic to this intellectual enterprise. Rather, these dysfunctional tendencies reflect the secular and progressive individual worldviews and biases of the majority of scholars who teach, write, and practice the discipline at this present moment in time and space. Examples of how the individual secular and progressive biases impact on the discipline can be found in numerous ways. Among others, they can be found in 1) the construction of concepts and definitions and in the choice of theoretical frameworks, all bringing with them distinctive, albeit usually implicit, philosophical assumptions; 2) the denial of any metaphysical dimension; 3) the degree and amount of hyper-specialization found in research; and 4) the utopian and ideological aspects part and parcel of the analysis in question. The line of analysis pursued here generally follows an earlier effort of mine dealing with similar issues, i.e., “Sociology of Religion: Contemporary Developments—An Exploratory Critique From a Catholic Sociological Sensibility” (2011).