NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Sociologist and Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Rodney Stark, who debunks the notion that Christianity has held back scientific progress in his new book, will preview a new project about why religions succeed or fail during a lecture series at Vanderbilt University.
Stark will speak four times on “Ancient Religious Markets” as the first Templeton Research Fellow at Vanderbilt. The lectures will be held on Feb. 14 and 28, and March 14 and 28. All the lectures begin at 6 p.m. at the Student Life Center on the Vanderbilt campus, with a reception proceeding at 5 p.m.
The lectures are free and the public is invited.
“Rodney Stark is a cutting-edge thinker on religion and culture who questions supposed truisms accepted for hundreds of years,” said Mark Justad, executive director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture, a trans-institutional center at Vanderbilt that brings together scholars across academic disciplines to consider issues of religion and culture.
“This should be a very illuminating and provocative series.”
Stark’s lectures will be hosted at Vanderbilt by the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture.
Stark, the University Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1996 for The Rise of Christianity. His new book is The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism and Western Success.
“Mr. Stark has a vigorous prose style and a gift for clear explanation,” wrote critic William Grimes in his review of The Victory of Reason in The New York Times. “The pace is swift, and the narrative thrilling.”
In the “Ancient Religious Markets” lecture series, Stark will turn conventional thinking about the ebb and flow of religious fervor on its head. He argues that demand for religion is remarkably stable, while the effectiveness of religious organizations is the variable factor that causes interest to wane or increase.
Therefore, an economic model may be the best way to understand the rise and fall of various religions and denominations.
“No single supplier can satisfy the full array of niches since no organization can be at once lax, worldly and otherworldly,” Stark said. “Thus the natural state of religion in any society is pluralism – the existence of an array of suppliers, each appealing to a particular niche or narrow set of niches.”
“Typically, pluralism has been suppressed in favor of religious monopolies. … However pluralism is impeded, the result will be religious dissatisfaction, apathy, and antagonism, since the religious preferences of most market niches will go unmet.”
The lectures are titled:
Feb. 14, “Introduction, The Market Approach to Understanding Religion”
Feb. 28, “Subsidized Religions: 6000 Years of Negligence and Laxity”
March 14, “Religious Competition and Roman Piety”
March 28, “Christian Establishments and the Neglect of Faith”
Stark’s visit is financed by The Templeton Research Lecture Grant, which will bring at least $270,000 to Vanderbilt over three years to fund a research group, speakers, publications and a major conference. The grant was awarded by The Metanexus Institute, which advances research, education and outreach on the constructive engagement of science and religion. It runs some 300 projects in 30 nations, including the Templeton Research Lectures funded by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation.
Stark will produce a book based on his lecture series as part of his commitments as Templeton Research Fellow.
More information about the Templeton Research Lectures and the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture is available at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/csrc/trl/.
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu