Joachim Wach and Sociology of Religion Author(s): Joseph M. Kitagawa Source: The Journal of Religion, Vol. 37, No.

3 (Jul., 1957), pp. 174-184 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1199890 . Accessed: 18/10/2011 13:02
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JOACHIM WACH AND SOCIOLOGYOF RELIGION

JOSEPH M. KITAGAWA* INTRODUCTION

fessor Joachim Wach in August, 1955, we have lost one of the most articulate spokesmenof the sociologyof religion.He was bornin 1898 at Chemnitz, Germany, and studied at the universitiesof Munich, Berlin, Freiburg, and Leipzig. He started his scholarly careeras Privatdozentat Leipzig in 1924 and served there as ProfessorExtraordinariusfrom 1927 to 1935. Then the politicalsituationin Germanycaused him to seek a new home in the United States, where he taught at Brown University, Providence,Rhode Island, 193545, and at the University of Chicago, 1946-55. Looking back over his life, one may say that ProfessorWachwas destined to inherit many divergent elements of his familialand culturalbackground. Among his ancestors were noted philosophers, jurists, bankers,musicians, and pastors. He was as much an heir of the Enlightenment as of pietism. By birth and by training he was a cultured German,and yet he was, like many of his distinguished ancestors,a true world citizen. Although he never occupieda chair of sociology of religion as such either in
* M. J. Kitagawa is assistant professor of history of religions at the University of Chicago. He received his degrees from Rikkyo Daigaku, Tokyo (Bungakushi), Central Theological College, Tokyo (L.I.T.), Seabury-Western Theological Seminary (B.D.), and the University of Chicago (Ph.D.). Mr. Kitagawa was a student of Joachim Wach for several years, and in 1951 he joined him as a member of the Federated Theological Faculty at the University of Chicago. His articles have appeared in periodicals both in the United States and in Japan.

ITHtheuntimely of death Pro-

Germany or in the United States, this subject fascinated him early in his life and remainedclose to his heart until the end. In all fairnessto him, however,we cannot label him as a sociologistof reliof gion per se. Rather, his understanding of religion must be seen as a sociology part of his comprehensive system of Religionswissenschaft.
RELIGIONSWISSENSCHAFT1

To Professor Wach, Religionswissenschaft is an empiricalscience and not a philosophic discipline. He is critical of C. P. Tiele, who erased the boundaries between Religionswissenschaftand the philosophy of religion.2Similarly, Wach feelsthat Chantepiede la Saussayeequated Religionswissenschaftwith the philosophy and history of religion. Turning to philosophers of religion, Wach notes that his own teacher, Ernst Troeltsch, not only erased the boundaries between philosophyof religionand Religionswissenschaft but was never clearas to the essenceand the task of the latter. Troeltsch maintained that one cannot speak of a "universalposition, a common universalpossessionof the science of religion."3 him ReligionswisTo senschaftwas a normativediscipline;for example:
Die Religionsphilosophie zur Religionsist
wissenschaft geworden. Aus einem Zweige der Metaphysik zu einer selbst~indigen Untersuchung der Tatsachenwelt des religiosen Bewusstseins, neuen Wissenschaft.4

aus der h6ichsten Generalwissenschaftzu einer

After Troeltsch, Wach observed two trends in Religionswissenschaft, one 174

WACH AND SOCIOLOGY RELIGION OF JOACHIM

175

starting from philosophyand developing stance, Wach argues that the scholar of a science,the other starting from science the arts deals with a more objective and leadinginto philosophy.However,it structurein art than the student of reliwas Wach's conviction that between gion deals with in manifestationsof relithese two extremes lies the independent gion. In the study of the arts there is a task of Religionswissenschaft.5 greater possibility of agreementbetween recent religious philosophers, the lower "interpretations,"which seek Among Wach depicts Max Scheleras the single to establish the Bedeutung an expresof individualwho is clear on the distinction sion, and the higher Verstehen,which betweenphilosophyand Religionswissen- seeks to relate the phenomenon in its schaft. Schelerinsertsbetween a positive total context. In Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft (and history of re- one starts with an inquiry into the ligion) and the essential phenomenology meaning of religiousphenomena.At this of religion ("die Wesensphainomenologiepoint the philosophicaland metaphysider Religion") a broaderdiscipline as a cal questionsare raised,questions which leads to but is not unifying theme. He calls it "concrete Religionswissenschaft phenomenologyof religious objects and called upon to deal with.9 acts" ("konkrete Phainomenologieder In the philosophyof religion the idea und Akte").6 Ac- of religionmust come first, and the pheReligionsgegenstainde cording to Scheler, this inquiry aims at nomenon of religion follows, because its the fullest understandingof the intellec- problem concerns the Wesen of religion tual contents of one or more religious and its place in a system of values and in forms and the consummateacts in which the processesof the spirit. Thus it is althese intellectual contents have been ways a difficultproblemfor the philosogiven.7 Thus Scheler clearly views the phy of religionto determinehow much of religio-scientifictask from an expressly the empirical-historical ought to be apIt is a task propriated in the religio-philosophical religio-scientificviewpoint. which can be carried out only religio- task. Even when such an appropriation scientificallywith the decisive methodo- takes place, it remainsan applicationof logical means of Religionswissenschaft. philosophyto the data of religion. That Wach maintains that the point of de- which comes from above cannot do jusparture of Religionswissenschaftis the tice to the empirical-historical inquiry historically given religions. While the which works from below upward.10 The task of Religionswissenschaftis philosophy of religion proceeds from an a priorideductive method, Religionswis- the comprehension, treatment, and Deusenschaft has no speculative purpose. tung of historical data, and its methods are However, it is not purely descriptive, and procedure conceivedaccordingly. though description has a basic impor- In this context its systematic task must tance in the discipline.Wach holds that rely solely on empiricaldata. And both the effort of the inquirer into religion historical and systematic concerns are must always be directed toward the necessaryto Religionswissenschaft its in Deutungof phenomena.8 quest to "understand" religions." In comparisonwith other disciplines, It is Wach'sconvictionthat, while the Religionswissenschafthas special diffi- theologian and the philosopherof reliculties with Bedeutung because of the nature of its subject matter. For ingion are entitled to defend and advocate a definite doctrine, the student of Reli-

176

THE JOURNALOF RELIGION

gionswissenschaft cannot make value torical and systematic subdivisions.Unjudgments. In principle, at least, dead der the headingof "historical"come the religions and historic religions can be generalhistoryof religionand the history treated alike.12Subjectively,however,an of specificreligions.Underthe headingof empiricalinquireris not free fromphilo-- "systematic" comes his typological consophical presuppositions,and one must cern-both historical and psychological be aware of the danger of subjectivism types. One of the most imaginative ideas deand speculation."13 In three ways, accordingto Wach, the veloped by Wach is the "concept of the philosophy of religion can help Reli- classical."'sWach believes that the con(1) gionswissenschaft: by sharpeningthe cept of the classicalenablesone to bridge methods of the discipline (the logic of the gap between the descriptiveand the Religionswissenschaft),(2) by articulat- normative aspects of the study of reliing the procedure of inquiry and the gion. It is, in his own words, a "relative philosophic determinationof its object, normwhich does not need to do violence and (3) by the philosophic ordering of to heterogeneous phenomenafrom a prein the whole of knowledge conceived point of view."'" Thus he phenomena and (historico-philosophy the metaphys- states: ics of religion). This relationshipsin no ... Whatdo we meanby "classical" ? Negaway nullifies the clear distinction be- tively, we do not mean those out of a multitude of tween empirical and philosophical in- phenomena whichmerelyhappento be familiar quiries, however. Also, Wach disagrees to us.... The phenomenawhich we designate as something typical;they conwith historians who derive universally classicalrepresent vey with regard to religious life and experience valid norms from empiricism,14even more than would be conveyed by an individual though he acknowledgesthat religio-sci- instance. We may consider Meister Eckhart, entific inquiry shares the principlesand Al Ghazzali, Shankara classicalmystics as and methodsderivedfromuniversalhistory." becausesomethingtypicallymysticalis to be In the systematicinquiryof Religions- found in their devotion and teaching. However, the notion of the classical does not dewissenschaft, Wach, like Simmel, uti- note only the representative characterwhich inlizes a hermeneutical theory of the "rela- heresin a phenomenon, alsoimpliesa norm. but tive a priori," which mediates between Out of the multitude of historical personalities, the one who seeks to understandand the movements and events.., .some are chosen beto deem to ascribe thempoobject to be understood.1" Wach's as- causewe an it possible illuminating,edifying, paradigtentially sumptionis the fact of a universalhuman matic effect which they may influenceour own nature. Hence the importanceof Wach's religious by life.20 typological method, which stands between what he calls the ewig-menschliche In short, the conceptof the classicalis and the historically distinct phenom- Wach's attempt to walk between absolute relativism and a view which starts ena.17 In short, Wach divides the study of uncriticallywith any particulartheologireligion into two dimensions-the nor- cal or philosophicalstandpoint. In this mative disciplines of theology and phi- attempt, Wach finds affinities with losophy of religion,on the one hand, and Gerardus van der Leeuw's phenomenolothe empiricaldiscipline of Religionswis- gy of religion and Mircea Eliade's relisenschaft, on the other. Furthermore, Religionswissenschaft is divided into hisgious morphology. Wach is convinced of the necessity of the principle of relative

OF JOACHIMWACH AND SOCIOLOGY RELIGION

177

meneuticsadequateto the understanding of religion,as well as of the arts and literature. Also, if religious scriptures, being sui generis, require a special hermeneutics,in what sense can a discipline be dealingwith Scripture calleda science? Volume III is devoted to the hermeneutical theories of well-known historians, notably Ranke and Droysen. His interest in hermeneuticswas not confinedto external rules and principles HERMENEUTICS of interpretationbut extendedto an "inProfessorWach'sgreat concernin her- tegral understanding" religion itself. of meneutics is well evidenced in his mas- Those of us who were fortunate enough sive thee-volume work, Das Verstehen: to study under him will remembervery einer Geschichteder herme- well the four cardinal principles of the Grundzd~ge neutischenTheorieim 19. Jahrhundert.22late master: (1) a comprehensive deAlthough Wach was not yet thirty years scriptionof the facts, (2) a historicaland old when he wrote this work, Das Ver- sociologicalexplanation, (3) a technical stehen is a brilliant and comprehensive process of classification, and (4) the treatmentof the main featuresof the his- necessity of psychological understandtory of hermeneuticaltheory in the nine- ing.24 teenth century. This fact may also exEarly in his life, Wach struggledwith as Bultmannrightly observes, the hermeneuticalproblemsinvolved in plain why, the study reveals very little of "the posi- Religionswissenschaft. Following Sdidertion he himself takes up-one which blom, he asked whether it is possible to might illuminatehistory fromthe critical inquireinto a religionfrom a point outside. Can its Wesen be disclosed to one standpoint.''23 the insight of Dilthey, who does not belong to it? Can an IsFollowing Wach regarded hermeneuticsas a con- lamic scholarmake the Christianreligion And how necting link between philosophyand the an object of scientificresearch? In Geisteswissenschaften. Volume I of far can he hope to judge these strange Das Verstehen,Wach treats the her- phenomena?25 meneutical systems of (a) the classical In Das Verstehen,Wach starts with philologists-Wolfs, Ast, Boeckh; (b) the assumptionthat there can be no unSchleiermacher;and (c) Wilhelm von derstanding without human corporateHumboldt. Wach follows with keen sen- ness (Zusammenleben) that there is and sitivity the interdependentrelationship a primordial phenomenonof understandbetween the individual scholar's her- ing priorto communication. Thus undermeneuticaltheoriesand his philosophical standing is a social fact. And no single orientation. In Volume II the author disciplinehas a monopolyon the problem dealswith the theologicalhermeneutics of of understanding.For instance, philosofourteen well-known theologicans. Fol- phy is interestedin logic and epistemoloand lowing Schleiermacher others, Wach gy; it considers the presuppositionsas
in his Introduction asks whether there can be such a thing as a general herwell as the effects of understanding and its metaphysical foundation. Psychology

objectivity, as exemplifiedin the concept of the classical, "if we want to escape an anarchical subjectivism which would make all 'Wissenschaft'impossible."21 At any rate, the impressive superstructure of Wach's Religionswissenschaft is groundedin his threemain areas of concern:(1) hermeneutics,(2) inquiry into the natureand expression religious of and (3) sociologyof religion. experience,

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THE JOURNAL RELIGION OF

interpretation,asking for the genre or GENOS, type Religious experience differs from other kinds, or form of work; the historical and sociological moral, it in aesthetic, though appears interreetc.,

asks the place of understandingin the socio-historical and background the development 2 over-alllife of the psyche. It exploresthe of thephenomenon.... of ... In theinterpretation art, development of man in order to relate and appreciation evaluation interpretation or are closelyconunderstandingto the experienceof life.26 nected, more so than in the interpretation of But most importantof all is the study laws. And in the interpretation religion,it is of of language,because languageis the de- doubtfulwhether the meaning of a religious mescisive vehicle in direct intercourse be- sage can be understoodwithout any referenceto tween man and man, and it is the most its historic character.That is how the early Protestant theologiansconceiveof understanding: faithful medium of communication ex- Primum perceptio, deindecogitatiode illa percepta tending beyond space and time. Wach notitia in praxim, tertiovelle,quartoperficere.29 goes so far as to say that to understand Wach advised his students of the four someone means to understand his lanfor the task of understandguage. In his understanding of her- prerequisites ing religionsotherthan theirown: (1) the meneutics, Wach owes much to Wilhelm von Humboldt, who had profound in- most extensive information available, an adequate emotional condition, sights into the nature of speech, the (2) (3) a right volitional preparation, and structure of language, its psychological and sociological problems, its typology (4) personalexperienceof the holy. Thus holds that and function in the development of hu- the author of Das Verstehen the aim of Religionswissenschaft must be man civilization.27 FollowingVon Hum- an integral comprehensionof religion, boldt, Wach regardedlanguageas a creative act of the mind. Indeed, speechcan even though an absolutely objective is be defined as "das bildende Organ des understanding not attainable. Gedankens," and language is the outRELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE ward manifestation of the Geist of the ProfessorWach holds that the method people who createdit. Hence the imporof Religionswissenschaftmust be adetance of philology. Furthermore,Wach, to its subject matter, the nature following Von Humboldt and Dilthey, quate and expression of religious experience. insists on the importanceof the underFollowing his master, Rudolf Otto, standing of individuality. Wach defines religiousexperienceas exSignificantly, Wach points out that the problemof understanding a prob- perience of the holy.30Wach paid warm is lem of limitations or grades of under- tribute to this great Marburgscholarin his articles.31According to Wach, Otto .standing. In this connection, Wach stood in a philosophicaltradition which writes: was concernedwith the epistemological ... In all understanding twofactors com... question "Whatconstitutesexperience?" bine: the subjective interpretation,which intends to make sure the psychologicalmeaning of an ex- Otto was convincedof the specific charexperience."To this task pressionby relating it to its author,and the objec- acterof religious tive interpretation,which takes it as an entity in he brought, besides a gift for conceptual itself and tries to unfold its meaning. The objecanalysis, an unusualdepth and intensity tive exegesis consistsof threedifferentprocedures: of religious feeling."32 Wach accepts the technical interpretation, analysis of the material or elements of expression. . the generic Otto's starting point:

whichattemptsto elucidatethe lationwiththem.It is a specific interpretation, ("Bewercategory

JOACHIM WACH AND SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION for tungs-Kategorie"), which [Otto]conceived the the term numinous, derived from the Latin word numen. The religious realm is the realm of the Holy. This statement is not, as one might think, tautological. However, it is not the final word. Some mistakes might have been avoided if [Otto] had started... with the demonstration of the objective quality of the reality of which we become aware in religious experience.33

179

tized in enteringinto relationships with other modesof experience of judgment. central or The
religious notions of sin and of redemption, even

that of the Holy, have moralassociations. A

phenomenologicaldemonstration of the foundation of moral values was the aim of the last en-

deavours Rudolf of Otto.3s

Unfortunately, Otto's analysis of the feeling of creaturelinessand "numinous Unwert"caused some critics to believe that his concept of the holy was too psychological. However, Wach feels that Otto's first propositionin TheIdea of the Holy is groundedin an objective quality of mysterium. Tillich makes a similar point when he states:

with the analysis of the nature of religious experience,his great contribution was made in the systematic formulation of the expressionof religiousexperience in three main areas-theoretical, practical, and sociological.39 Methodologically, Wach suggests the followingfour forNearly all critics agree that the weakest point in Otto's analysis of religious experience is his mal criteriaof religiousexperience: Significantly, Wach observes that Otto in his last two decades struggled with two problems,one of a philosophical, the other of a theological, nature. The first is the questionof the relationof religionand ethics. Wach states:
1. Religious experienceis a responseto what is concept of schematism ("Gefiihlsgesellung"). The word he took from Kant, but he changes its experiencedas ultimate reality.... meaning. Religious experience becomes schema2. Religiousexperience a total response is of

The phenomenologicaldescription of the holy in Rudolf Otto's classical book The Idea of the Holy demonstrates the interdependence of the meaning of the holy and the meaningof the divine, and it demonstratestheir commondependenceon the nature of ultimate concern.When Otto calls the experience of the holy "numinous,"he interprets the holy as the presenceof the divine. When he points to the mysterious characterof holiness, he indicates that the holy transcendsthe subject- say in the History of Religions. However, object structureof reality. When he describesthe Otto's conclusion is that the answer to and mystery of the holy as tremendum fascinosum, the question "Was Jesus the Christ sent he expresses the experience of "the ultimate" in by God?" can be decided only by faith the double sense of that which is the abyss and and thus does not fall within the comthat which is the ground of man's being. This is of history.37It might be added not directly assertedin Otto'smerely phenomeno- petence logical analysis, which, by the way, never should in this connection that Wach wrestled be called "psychological."However, it is implicit with the same theological question toin his analysis, and it should be made explicit ward the end of his life.38 beyond Otto's own intention. 34 While Wach was seriously concerned

The secondproblemwhich confronted Otto was "What think you of Christ?" This great theological issue was discussed by another of Wach's masters, Ernst Troeltsch, in his Die Absolutheit des Christentums, which appearedin the same year (1902) that Otto's The Life and Workof Jesus was published.Wach quotes approvingly Otto's statement that "this new religionof Jesus does not grow out of reflectionand thinking .... It breaks forth from the mysterious depth of the individuality of this religious genius.""3 Accordingto Otto, this religionof Jesus centersin the preaching of the Kingdomof God. This view is also expressed in his book The Kingdom of Godand theSon of Man, subtitledAn Es-

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THE JOURNAL OF RELIGION

the total being to what is apprehendedas ultimate

reality....
3. Religious experience is the most intense experienceof which man is capable.... 4. Religious experience is practical, that is to

say it involves an imperative,a commitment whichimpelsmanto act... ." Concerning the "theoretical expression" of religious experience, Wach states:

intuition religious already presentin the original

or experience.This intuition is often represented

A minimumof theoreticalexpressionis always

While Wach did not take sides in the controversy as to whether myths are derived from ritual or vice versa, he took a keen interest in the interplay between compulsion and tradition, on the one hand, and the constant drive for individual liberty, on the other hand, in the historic development of the cult.46 Among the three areas of the expression of religious experience, Wach was most keenly interested in the "sociological expression," which motivated him to

in symbolic whichin itselfimplieselements form, or This is of thought doctrine. first perception forin mulated moreorlesswell-defined coherent and theoretical statements.41 of The content the intellectualexpression of revolves aboutthreetopicsof religious experience
particularimportance-God, the world,and man. being evolved in terms of myth, doctrine, and

publish Einfiihrungin die ReligionssoziSociology Religion,48 of ologie.47 Religionsand de soziologie,49 Sociologie la religion.50
Let us now turn to Wach's understanding of the sociology of religion.
SOCIOLOGYOF RELIGION

Wach views sociology of religion as one subdivision-albeit an important one .42 dogma.... original experience, however, or in -of Religionswissenschaft. It is the off... In the it itsprimary to expression, isdifficult differentiate of two different scholarly pursuits between theory and practice, between theology spring -the study of society and the study of andethics....43 religion: Although Wach rightly holds that In addition theproblems to which sociology the what is formulated in the theoretical of religioninheritsfromthe two parental disciit difficulties tasks. statement of faith is done in religiously plines, hasits ownpeculiar and of shares the with inspired acts, and thus, "in a wider Thatis to say:sociology religion all actions which flow from and are sociology of other activities of man certain probsense, lems and, in addition, has its own which are due determined by religious experience are to to the peculiar nature of religiousexperienceand be regarded as practical expression or its expression.51 cultus,"44 he nevertheless narrows his Briefly stated, the task of sociology of definition of the "practical expression" of religion is the individual, typological, religious experience to worship. He says and comparative study of religious in part: grouping, religious fellowship, and relias as Religion suchhas beendefined worship; association. 12 Before the emergence of experiences theholyareinallreligions expressed gious in acts of reverence toward the numen whose of the sociology of religion as a recogexistence is intellectually defined in terms of nized discipline, a great deal of material myth, doctrine,and dogma.... Underhill,to was gathered, "particularly in the course whomwe areindebted someof the mostsig- of the nineteenth for century, and periodinificantcontributions the study of worship, to cally grouped and reviewed from theodividestheseacts into (1) ritual(liturgical pat(visi- logical and philosophical, psychological tern),(2) symbols (images),(3) sacraments and sociological viewpoints."'53However, ble thingsanddeeds),and (4) sacrifice. 4

In other words, theological, and cosmological, conceptions are continuously anthropological

OF JOACHIMWACH AND SOCIOLOGY RELIGION

181

Society... is a streamof socio-historical hap- religion was somewhat impaired by his critical it. under which he pening, constitutedthroughthe interactionof attitudetoward The categories
individuals.This interaction is infinitely complex and far-reaching; comprehension it and the the of formulationof the laws that governit are attended with great difficulties. Nevertheless, the phenomena of social interaction are known to the individual as a participant, by direct inner perclassified religious phenomena are not entirely

Wach considers Weber the first formulatorof a systematic sociologyof religion.60He laments the fact that only Weber'swork in Calvinismis widely acin the dark the major that "the philosophical and historical claimed, "leaving portion of his contribution to the syswork of Wilhelm Dilthey, himself averse tematic sociology of religion.""' Neverto establishingan independentsociologitheless, cal discipline, proved to be important left of systematically and epistemologically. "55 MaxWeber muchto be done.In hisscheme House's account of a basic con- religions he neglected to include the entire group Indeed, of so-called "primitive"religions as well as Mocept of Dilthey can be used to describe hammedanism and other important faiths. In Wach's own view: addition, the great scholar's understanding of

until the beginningof the twentieth century there was no sociologyof religionas such, with categories with which to organize the vast materialsassembledand "its own methodology based on an unbiased examination of the nature of its subject matter."54 While Wach acknowledgeshis indebtedness to sociologists of religion in the United States, GreatBritain,the Netherlands, France, and Scandinaviancountries, he stands, by temperamentand by training,in the Germantraditionof "die verstehende Soziologie." Among the forerunners of this school were Max Weber, Ernst Troeltsch, Werner Sombart, and GeorgSimmel. Wach was personally influencedby Dilthey and says

stood only with referenceto the meaning of things (Sinn)."'' From his master, Max Weber, Wach learned that human conduct alone, unlike all other phenomena, is "understandable"(verstindlich), but that "the understandablehad fluid limits for the empiricalsciences."'8
can be rationallyinterpretedoften serves best, in

On the whole,however, conduct that [human]

pragmatically, in terms of the rationally understandableinterconnectionof humanacts.59

sociological analysis,the purposeof an "ideal like its type";sociology, history,interprets data,

to theiroriginalmeaning. In many respects Weber's work was complemented by the exhaustive studies of his friend, Ernst Troeltsch, which were, unfortunately,
limited exclusively to Christianity .. . It is

not because enough attentionis paid satisfactory,

prehend its working only to a limited extent, regrettable that the commendableprecedent set through the power of imagination. The world of by the two German scholars--one a social scienand philosopher-in society, on the contrary, is our own; we experi- tist, the othera theologian ence the interaction that goes on in it. The other refusing to allow personal metaphysical and individualsin society are like me, and I can con- other theories and conceptions to interfere with task of analyzing describing and ceive the workings of their inner life. I under- the impersonal social phenomena of religious significance has stand (verstehen) the life of society.56 not always been followed.62

ception.We standoutsidenatureand can com-

Wach sharesRichert'sconviction that "understandingsocial phenomena does Basically, Wach maintains that the not involve adherenceto any particular methdology of the sociology of religion system of values . . . but the behavior of must be impartialand objective. Certain
principles must be observed, however:

human beings in society can be under-

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THE JOURNAL OF RELIGION

The firstrequirement an appreciation the dent of religion must acquaint himself is of vast breadth varietyof religious and experience. with the research the sociologist,while of This impliesthat the basis for all sociological he can supply the sociologist with a treatmentsof religionmust be found, in the firstplace,in a widerangeof phenomenologicalworking theory of religious life and its and psychological types... and, second,in the manifestations. Co-operativelythe stumultifarious historical typesofreligion experience. dent of religionand the student of society In otherwords, attemptto limitthe scopeof can articulate any specific categories of the our study to one religion..,.is boundto lead to insufficient perverted and conclusions "63 sociology of religion.For this task Wach ... The second requirement... is an understand- emphasizesthe importanceof hermeneuof ing and appreciation the natureand signifi- tical principlesto determine canceof religious The must phenomena. inquirer feel an affinityto his subject,and he must be first, the actual meaning of any word and conobscured tradition age; and by trained interpret material sympathetic cept, sometimes to his with secondly, the religious implications of terms like understanding."

Elsewherehe asserts that "objectivity the concrete,individual "theological"interpretadoes not presupposeindifference."''5 Can tion given to the term in a religious community. There is no hope of graspingthe spirit and of there be one sociology of religion, then? ... understandingthe life, symbolism, and behavior Wach thinks so, "though there is a of religious so group longas no serious attemptis Catholic and a Marxian philosophy of made to correlate the isolated traits (concepts, society, there can be only one sociology rites, customs) observed with a notion of the of religionwhich we may approachfrom central experiencewhich producesthem." differentangles and realizeto a different What are the main tasks of the socidegree but which would use but one set ology of religion?In Wach'sformulation of criteria."88 This does not imply, how- there are two main areas of study. The ever, that sociologyof religionmust rely first is "the interrelationof religionand on the traditional "comparativemethsociety." This may be subdivided into od" and seek only analogies of religious (a) an examination of the sociological concepts,rites, and organization. Rather, roots and functions of myths, doctrines, "individual features have to be inter- and dogmas, of cultus and associationin preted as part of the configurationthey generaland in particularand (b) research form.""'The sociologistof religionmust on the sociologicallysignificantfunction follow hermeneuticalprinciples and at- and effect of religionin society."7 tempt to understandthe intentionof reliThe secondmain area of study is "the gious ideas, rites, and forms of organiza- religious group." Obviously, there are tion within their context.88 many approaches to the study of reliBecause each religious group has its gious groups. In the main, however, own self-interpretationof "intention," the question naturally arises as to how it is the task of general sociology to investigate the sociologistsof religioncan deal with the sociologicalsignificance of the various forms of intellectual and practical of a variety of such interpretations.Wach experience(myth, doctrine;expression religious prayer,sacrifice,rites; tries to answer this difficultquestion by organization, constitution, authority); it falls to relying on Max Scheler's"relationism"89 the specificsociologicalstudy to cover sociologicalhistorical a examples: Sioux(Omaha) (sociology of knowledge) and utilizing ly concrete, the "typologicalmethod"'0 (methodolo- Indian myth, an Egyptian doctrineof the Middle Such studies should be carried Kingdom
gy of the sociology of religion). Characteristically, Wach suggests that the stu.... out for the smallest conceivableunits (one family or clan, a local groupat a given periodof time, the

sin, repentance,grace, redemption, etc.; thirdly,

JOACHIM WACH AND SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION occasional following of one cult leader, etc.). There is no danger of this task turning into a historical,psychological,anthropological,theological undertaking, because the sociological viewpoint will be the decisive one."

183

Ideally, Wach maintains,a systematic sociology of religion must take into account all religiousgroups, Christianand non-Christian,past and present, in their relationto ethnic divisions,cultures,and societies throughout the world.74 the In Preface to Sociologyof Religion,he says:
The author,a student not of the social sciences but of religion, is convinced of the desirability of bridging the gulf which still exists between the study of religion and the social sciences .. . He considers his contribution more as a modest attempt at a synthesisthan an inventory with any claim to completeness.71

whichare also essentialin religion.While recognizingthe limitations of the sociological method, Wach insists that a sociological approach to the study of religious groupscan shed much light on how religious experienceis expressedin religious fellowship.In this sense, his short study of "Church, Denomination, and reveals most clearly his method Sect""77 and synthetic perspective. As stated earlier,ProfessorWach was not a sociologist of religion per se. His sociology of religionmust be seen in the total context of Religionswissenschaft and in relation to his other concerns, namely, hermeneutics and the inquiry into the nature and expression of religious experience.

this approach [sociology of religion] Similarly,in his conclusion,he goes on weThrough hope not only to illustrate the culturalsignifito say: cance of religion but also to gain new insight into Yet the fact that this study is limited to a descriptive sociological examination of religious groups need not be interpreted as an implicit admission that the theological, philosophical, and metaphysicalproblemsand questionsgrowing out of such a study of society have to remain unanswerable.They can and most certainly should be answered,but it is not the task of this inquiry to do so. Ourpurposehas been to present materials ... to readers of different religious and philosophical convictions and persuasionswho are interested in a study of the interrelationof religion and society.76 the relations between the various forms of expression of religious experienceand eventually to understand better the various aspects of religious experience itself."8

Wach's own words, written in tribute to Albert Schweitzer,are equally appropriate to Wach himself:
[He] is a master of understanding.Without a great natural talent-or shall we say genius-no amount of acquired skill and knowledge would have enabled him to interpret so profoundlyand comprehensivelyas he has done personalities of the past, distant periods and peoples, great religious documents and worksof art, the thoughts, feeling, and emotions of human beings.... Yet, like all masters of a craft, he never relied on the inspirationof his genius but perfected his talents consistently and methodicallyby experienceand study over a long periodof years. His understanding, moreover,has proved to be deep and fruitful, because it is the result not only of a great and inclusive mind, but of an equally great and cultivated heart.79

Although cognizantof the importance of the sociological method, Wach does not regard this method as the universal key to an understanding of religious phenomena. He maintains that the inquiry into the social origin,the sociological structure, and the social efficacy of religious groups cannot deal with the questions of meaning, value, and truth

NOTES 1. I am indebtedto Mr. F. Dean Lueking,who 2. Joachim Wach, Religionswissenschaft (Leipmade available his translationof part of Wach's zig: J. C. Heinrichs'scheBuchhandlung,1924), Religionswissenschaft. p. 119. Wach disapprovesTiele's statement that

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York: Tudor Pub. Co., 1952), pp. 443-58; "Redeemer of Men," in Divinity School News (University of Chicago), November, 1948; and "General Revelation and the Religions of the World," in Journal of Bible and Religion, April, 1954. 39. Types of Religious Experience, pp. 38-47. 40. Ibid., pp. 32-33. 41. Wach, Sociology of Religion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944), p. 19. 42. Ibid., p. 23. 43. Ibid., p. 25. 44. Ibid. 45. Ibid. 46. Ibid., p. 27. 47. Tilbingen, 1931. 48. Chicago, 1944; London, 1947. 49. Tiibingen, 1951. 50. Paris, 1955. 51. Wach, "Sociology of Religion," in G. Gurvitch and W. E. Moore (eds.), Twentieth Century Sociology (New York: Philosophical Library, 1945), p. 406. 52. Sociology of Religion, p. 2; also cf. "Religionssoziologie" by J. Wach in Franz K6nig (ed.), Religionswissenschaftliches Wdrterbuch (Freiburg: Verlag Herder, 1956), pp. 749-52. 53. TwentiethCentury Sociology, p. 407. 54. Ibid. 55. Ibid., p. 412. Wach's devotion to Dilthey is seen in his dedication of Das Verstehen,Vol. III, to this master. 56. Floyd Nelson House, The Development of Sociology (New York and London: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1936), p. 396. 57. Ibid., p. 397. 58. Ibid., p. 399. 59. Ibid. 60. Cf. Wach's Einfiihrung in die Religionssoziologie (Tiibingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1931), esp. "Max Weber als Relgionssoziologie" (Appendix). 61. Sociology of Religion, p. 3. 62. Ibid., pp. 3-4. 63. Ibid., pp. 8-9. 64. Ibid., p. 10. 65. TwentiethCenturySociology, p. 418. 66. Ibid. 67. Ibid., p. 419. 68. Ibid. 69. Ibid., p. 420. 70. Sociology of Religion, pp. 9-10. 71. Twentieth Century Sociology, pp. 424-25. 72. Ibid., pp. 425-28; Sociology of Religion, pp. 13-17 and 54-109. 73. TwentiethCentury Sociology, p. 434. 74. Ibid., pp. 435-36. 75. Sociology of Religion, p. v (my italics). 76. Ibid., pp. 374-75. 77. Types of Religious Experience, pp. 187-208. 78. Sociology of Religion, p. 5 (my italics). 79. The Albert SchweitzerJubilee Book, p. 133.

"ist [die Religionsphilosophie] nichts anderes als Religionswissenschaft im engeren Sinne des Wortes; denn Wissenschaft ist die philosophische Bearbeitung des gesammelten und geordneten, klassifizierten Wissens." 3. Ibid., p. 121. 4. Quoted ibid., p. 123. 5. Ibid. 6. Ibid., p. 128. 7. Ibid., p. 129. 8. Ibid., p. 130. 9. Ibid., pp. 130-31. 10. Ibid., pp. 131-32. 11. Ibid., p. 132. 12. ibid., p. 133. 13. Ibid., p. 136. 14. Ibid., pp. 136-37. 15. Ibid., p. 138. 16. Ibid., p. 143. 17. Ibid., p. 147. 18. "Der Begriff des Klassischen in der Religionswissenschaft," in Quantulacumque, November, 1937; "The Concent of the 'Classical.'" in his Types of Religious Experience (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951), pp. 48-57. 19. Ibid., p. 51. 20. Ibid., pp. 51-52. 21. Ibid., p. 57. 22. Vol. I (1926), Vol. II (1929), Vol. III (1933) (Tiibingen: J. C. B. Mohr). 23. Rudolf Bultmann, Essays, Philosophical and Theological, trans. James C. G. Greig (New York: Macmillan Co., 1955), p. 235. 24. Ibid. 25. Religionswissenschaft,p. 138. 26. "Einleitung," Das Verstehen,Vol. I. 27. Das Verstehen,I, 227 ff. 28. "On Understanding," in The Albert Schweitzer Jubilee Book, ed. A. A. Roback (Cambridge: SCI-ART Publishers, 1946), p. 137. 29. Ibid., p. 138. 30. Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy, trans. J. W. Harvey (London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 1923). 31. "Rudolf Otto and the Idea of the Holy," in Types of Religious Experience, pp. 209-27; and "Rudolf Otto und der Bergriff des Heiligen," in Deutsche Beitrdge, ed. A. Bergstrisser (Chicago: Henry Regnery Co., 1953), pp. 200-217. 32. Types of Religious Experience, p. 218. 33. Ibid., p. 219. 34. Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951), I, 215-16. 35. Types of Religious Experience, p. 222. 36. Ibid., p. 223. 37. Ibid., p. 225. 38. Cf. Wach's article, "Radhakrishnan and the Comparative Study of Religion," in The Philosophy of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, ed. P. A. Schilpp (New