Asking Questions in a World of Answers
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Abstract
Sociologists frequently raise difficult and uncomfortable questions in and about the organizations which they inhabit. Because institutions depend on full confidence in orthodox answers for their stability, the prophetic voice of question-raising sociologists can be threatening to the priestly class of institutional gate-keepers. Raising challenging questions in the face of reigning answers often puts sociologists at odds with institutional interests and certainty, and therefore they sometimes face marginalization by and even exclusion from the organizations and communities in which they live and work. This article examines some of the ways in which sociologists deal in the currency of questions, and explores the idea that certainty of absolute knowledge can undermine Christian faith, distort the meaning of the Biblical text, and reduce the sense of wonder, enchantment, and mystery that a life of faith can offer.
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Keywords
Sociological theory, questions, uncertainty, doubt, Protestant principle, living the question, sacred canopy, enchantment
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Enns, Peter. 2016. The Sin of Certainty. Why God Desires Our Trust More than Our “Correct†Beliefs. New York: HarperOne.
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James, Carolyn Custis. 2010. Half the Church: Recapturing God’s Global Vision for Women. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Marcuse, Herbert. 2002. One Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.
Marx, Karl. 1932/1964. The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, edited by Dirk J. Struik, New York: International Publishers.
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. 1974. The German Ideology. New York: International Publishers.
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. 1986. The Communist Manifesto. Middlesex, England: Penguin Books.
Ritzer, George, and Jeffrey Stepnisky. 2014. Sociological Theory. 9th ed. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Sandberg, Sheryl. 2013. Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. New York: Knopf.
Simmel, Georg and Donald N. Levine (ed.). 1971. On Individuality and Social Forms: Selected Writings. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Smith, Christian. 2012. The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press.
Smith, D. E. 1990. The Conceptual Practices of Power: A Feminist Sociology of Knowledge. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.
Wallerstein, Immanuel. 2000. The Essential Wallerstein. New York: The New Press.
Wuthnow, Robert. 1990. “Living the Question – Evangelical Christianity and Critical Thought.†Cross Currents 40 (2): 160-175.
Baudrillard, Jean. 1994. Simulacra and Simulation. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.
Berger, Peter L. 1998. “Protestantism and the Quest for Certainty.†The Christian Century. August/September, pp. 782-796.
Berger, Peter Ludwig and Anton Cornelis Zijderveld. 2009. In Praise of Doubt: How to Have Convictions without Becoming a Fanatic. New York: HarperOne.
Bourdieu, Pierre and John. B. Thompson. 1991. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Brueggemann, Walter. 2001. The Prophetic Imagination. 2nd ed. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.
Collins, P. H. 2000. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.
DuBois, W. E. B. and Robert A. Wortham, eds. 2011. The Sociological Souls of Black Folk: Essays by W. E. B. DuBois. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Enns, Peter. 2016. The Sin of Certainty. Why God Desires Our Trust More than Our “Correct†Beliefs. New York: HarperOne.
Evans, Rachel Held. 2012. A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband ‘Master.’ Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.
Heddendorf, Russell and Matthew Vos. 2010. Hidden Threads: A Christian Critique of Sociological Theory. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
James, Carolyn Custis. 2010. Half the Church: Recapturing God’s Global Vision for Women. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Marcuse, Herbert. 2002. One Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.
Marx, Karl. 1932/1964. The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, edited by Dirk J. Struik, New York: International Publishers.
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. 1974. The German Ideology. New York: International Publishers.
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. 1986. The Communist Manifesto. Middlesex, England: Penguin Books.
Ritzer, George, and Jeffrey Stepnisky. 2014. Sociological Theory. 9th ed. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Sandberg, Sheryl. 2013. Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. New York: Knopf.
Simmel, Georg and Donald N. Levine (ed.). 1971. On Individuality and Social Forms: Selected Writings. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Smith, Christian. 2012. The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press.
Smith, D. E. 1990. The Conceptual Practices of Power: A Feminist Sociology of Knowledge. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.
Wallerstein, Immanuel. 2000. The Essential Wallerstein. New York: The New Press.
Wuthnow, Robert. 1990. “Living the Question – Evangelical Christianity and Critical Thought.†Cross Currents 40 (2): 160-175.
Section
Research Articles