The connection between Sociology and faith is absolutely vital to me. I believe that, to be a Christian, a “little Christ” we must be Sociologists to some degree. Sociology is about people. It’s about understanding the big picture of history and institutions and then relating it to an individual’s life story and experience as an embodied person. If society is constructed by the participants, then God is the architect and somehow along the way we lose the ability to follow the design. Instead we have the plans (Bible) and workers trying their best to carry out the architect’s vision (Christians). For me, Sociology is a hugely faithful act and the most Christ Like and worthwhile endeavor. If I didn’t think this, I’m not sure why I’d devote so much time and resources to earning a degree and gaining so much knowledge.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge of scripture is like armor but the ability to translate those capital T Truths into something tangible, applicable, breathable, and relevant is a whole other matter. I believe Sociology is an excellent lens or tool through which to do the biblical work of humbly pursuing justice and spreading radical love and empathy to our neighbors. I think that the most faithful act is holding empathy for an oppressor or an oppressed both. It is the tension between the two, the cracks in which faith exists and God binds everything into something beautiful.
In Japanese culture, there is an art style known as Kintsugi, which translates to “the beauty of imperfections”. Kintsugi is the “art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum, a method similar to the maki-e technique” (Yonobi Magazine). I think of faith and of Sociology in these terms, with God being the gold bits, humanity being the bowl, and sociology being the act or art of noticing the full picture. Of contextualizing and understanding the piece as something broken in need of repair. Understanding the potential. And finally bringing about the beautiful, restored, and made whole new creation. Without the three steps of Observation, Identification, and Restoration, there is no art and likewise there is no Sociology.
Sociological principles, at least as far as I have come to understand them through the department’s excellent tutelage, are deeply biblical. Versus such as Acts 4:32-35 which reads:
All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their
possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had . . . God’s grace
was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons
among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them,
brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was
distributed to anyone who had need.
To put this act into Sociological terms, the early church instilled systems of socialism and mutual aid to correct the hardships weathered by both Jews and Gentiles alike under Roman occupation/rule.
In order to be good Christians, it’s imperative that we learn how to see the world as Jesus does and to act according to his example. Jesus highlighted as the most important “rule” of all, to love God before all else and then to love your neighbor as yourself. How can we understand our neighbors without knowing their context or all the powers at work upon their lives from a sociocultural perspective? How can we translate and apply biblical principles of Jubilee without these understandings? I would surmise that you can’t, at least, not well anyways. It is for this reason I decided to pursue Sociology and I stick to my decision and have been convinced time and time again that to practice Sociology is a deeply faithful endeavor.
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