Towards a Global History of Pre-Institutional Sociological Perspectives on Religion: Arabic Contributions from the Early Twentieth Century

The institutional origins and centers of sociology of religion can be located rather clearly in European countries, foremost France and Germany. On the epistemic level, however, the formation of sociological perspectives on religion is a more global affair, as this paper claims. Not least questions of social order, of morality, civilization, and progress were shared between European and Arabic publics since the second half of the nineteenth century. The role of religion and reason, respectively, figured prominently in intellectuals' responses to these questions. In this setting, the role and function of religion came also to be evaluated according to its social utility and usefulness. Moreover, manifestations of religion were categorically distinguished into absolute, transcendent aspects and historically and socially contingent ones. This amounts to a basic sociological perspective on religion. On this basis, an institutionalized sociology that considers religion purely as a product of society, should be considered as but one variant of sociological perspectives, notably also among European intellectuals. Pointing out pre-institutionalized perspectives is a starting point towards a more global history of the sociology of religion, beyond its known European centers.