Pitirim Sorokin: The Role of Religion in the Altruistic Transformation of Society

IN 1948, in the aftermath of two colossally destructive world wars, the dropping of atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the commencement of the Cold War, Harvard sociologist wrote The Reconstruction of Humanity. He saw as few others did the perilous road that lay ahead. Certainly others sounded a warning bell, but Sorokin’s sweeping studies of cultural history gave him deeper insight into the problems of modern society — and the possible solutions — than others.

What he foresaw was a continued decay of society obsessed with materialism and sensate values. The only solution, he believed, was to consciously renew culture on the principles of idealism and altruism. The first half of Reconstruction of Humanity he devoted to debunking false panaceas of popular democracy, science, capitalism, world government and the United Nations. In the second half he presented his prescription, which involved an intentional restructuring of the family, education and religion — all with the explicit aim of raising consciousness and fostering the development of a deep transformation of human personality from egoism to altruism.

The following comes from his section on religion. He saw modern religions as needing to concentrate efforts on two fundamental reforms: (1) a greater emphasis on religious experience (as opposed to doctrine), and (2) achieving a greater proportion of practitioners who see religion as central, not merely peripheral to their lives.

Sorokin, though a sociologist, was quite sophisticated in his understanding of religion. Large sections of his work, The Ways and Power of Love are devoted to the Western monastic system and Indian yoga as means of effecting a thorough moral and psychological transformation of the individual.

The message of Reconstruction of Humanity (which, incidentally, was dedicated to Mohandas Gandhi) is more relevant and urgent today than ever.

III. Religious Institutions

Religion is a system of ultimate values and norms of conduct derived principally through superconscious intuition, supplemented by rational cognition and sensory experience. As such it tends to constitute the supreme synthesis of the dominant values and norms of conduct. Its superconscious intuition makes us aware of, and puts us in contact with, the superconscious aspect of the ultimate reality value, the Infinite Manifold, God, or the Holy. Herein religion is little dependent upon logic and sensory experience. In so far as it attempts to give a rational and empirically correct synthesis of the superconscious, the rational, and the empirical aspects of the Infinite Manifold, it draws upon syllogistic and mathematical logic and upon empirical science.

Virtually all the major religions and all genuine religious experiences have apprehended the ultimate reality value in a very similar way so far as its superconscious aspect is concerned. The differences between the Tao of Taoism, the “Heaven” of Confucianism, the Brahman of Hinduism and Buddhism, the Jehovah of Judaism, the God of Christianity, and “the Inexpressible” of mystics consist mainly in differences of terminology, in the accentuation of this or that aspect of the Infinite Manifold, and in the even more subsidiary differences of rationalized dogmas and cults. In these secondary traits religions vary and undergo change; in their intuition of the ultimate reality value as an Infinite Manifold, as in their basic values and norms of conduct, they remain essentially unchangeable. The scale of values of all genuine religions unanimously puts at the top the supreme value of the Infinite Manifold itself (God, Brahman, Tao, the Holy, the Sacred), and then, in descending order, the highest values of truth, goodness, and beauty, their inferior and less pure varieties, and finally the sensory and sensate values. Likewise, the moral commandments of all genuine religions are fundamentally identical. Their ethics is the ethics of unbounded love of man for God, for his fellow men, for all living creatures, and for the entire universe. In brief, in their intuitive system of reality — values and norms of conduct, religions remain true to themselves, undergoing little change, and depending little upon logic and empirical knowledge.

In their rational and empirical ideologies religions, as has been said, naturally depend upon logic and empirical science. Since these are incessantly changing, religions change also in these respects: in their theological rationalizations, in their cult and ritual, in their empirical activities and organizations. If a religion does not modify these logical and empirical elements in conformity with changes in logical and sensory knowledge (mathematics, logic, and science), it becomes obsolescent in these components and is eventually supplanted by a religion whose logical and empirical values and norms are up to date. The superconscious essence of the supplanting and the supplanted religion remains, however, essentially the same. Religion as a superconscious intuition of the Infinite Manifold is perennial and eternal; as a rationalized system of theology, as an empirical system of cult, ritual, and technical activities, it is incessantly changing.

There has been scarcely any great culture without a great religion as its foundation. The emergence of virtually all notable cultures has been either simultaneous with or preceded by the emergence of a notable religion which has constituted its most valuable component. The decline of any major culture or the end of one era and the beginning of a new era in its life history has again been marked by either the decline of its religion, or by a replacement of one religion by another. Only eclectic cultural congeries have been devoid of an integrated system of religion. Such cultural congeries have functioned mainly as material to be used by creative cultures. Without Confucianism and Taoism the Chinese culture is unthinkable; without Hinduism and Buddhism there would have been no great Hindu culture; without the Greek religion and philosophy Greek culture would have been impossible; without Mohammedanism there would have been no notable Islamic-Arabic culture; without Zoroastrianism the Iranic culture could not have achieved a high level. The same relationship applies to the Egyptian, Babylonian, Judaistic, and Western Christian cultures and religions.

If we wish to build a truly great culture, we must create or recreate one or several great systems of ultimate reality — values and norms of conduct for the various parts of the human race. Like different languages, each denoting the same objects in its own words and idioms, humanity may have different “religious languages,” each in its own way conveying the experience of the Holy, putting men in touch with the Infinite Manifold, and constituting the indispensable condition of the creativity of their culture and of a peaceful, altruistic social system.

Viewed in this light, the existing major religions, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Mohammedanism, Jainism and others, do not urgently need to be replaced by new religions or to be drastically modified. Their intuitive system of reality value (God, Brahman, Tao, etc. as an Infinite Manifold) and their conception of man as an end value, as a son of God, as a divine soul, as a bearer of the Absolute; these intuitions and conceptions are essentially valid and supremely edifying (in varying degrees for the different religions).

Similarly, their ethical imperatives, enjoining a union of man with the Absolute and an unconditional love of man for his fellows and for all living creatures, call for no radical change. Some of these norms, such as those of the Sermon on the Mount, are, indeed, incapable of improvement.

What is needed, therefore, concerns not the essence of the great religions but its revitalization and the modification of their secondary traits.

It is essential to recover a vital sense of the living ‘presence of God, of union with the Infinite Manifold, such as has been experienced by the mystics and other deeply religious persons. This experience should not be attended by the emotional outbursts and bodily convulsions typical of many present-day “revivals.” A large proportion of contemporary believers hardly ever enjoy such an experience. Their religiosity is chiefly a formal adherence to the prescribed ritual and cult, a mechanical repetition of traditional formulas, the mere outer shell of religion without its living flame. Hence their religious ideologies scarcely influence their overt conduct.

This reawakening of intense religious experience is inextricably connected with the actual application, in overt behavior, of the ethical norms of religion. The transformation of overt conduct in the direction of ‘practicing what one preaches’ is another fundamental change that must he effected by the leading religions. We have seen that in modem times there has appeared an unbridgeable chasm between avowed beliefs and standards, on the one hand, and their embodiment in actual practice on the other. Thus the adherents of Christianity overtly behave, as a rule, in the most un-Christian manner. Since they retain but the formal shells of their religion, devoid of its real substance, such a chasm is inevitable.

The revitalization of religion consists precisely in these two essential tasks:

(1) re-creation of a genuine religious experience;
(2) realization of ethical norms in the overt behavior of the believers.

A truly religious person, feeling vividly the presence of God, walks humbly and reverently on this earth and loves the other children of God and all living creatures to his utmost capacity.

These are the paramount needs of religious transmutation. Believers, especially religious leaders, must concentrate their efforts on these tasks instead of devoting most of their energy to the external shells of religiosity; their cult and ritual, [note 1] their institutional property and hierarchy, their rational theology and dogmas, their politics and their claims for the superiority of their own brand of religion over the others.

The sacredness of man as an end value and the ethical commandments enjoining love are limited in several religions to the circle of their own believers. This tribal provincialism, with its double standard of morality, should cease. Any true religion of the future must he universal in the sense that everyone, regardless of his race or nationality, creed, age, sex, or status, is regarded as a sacred end value.

Its logical and empirical aspects, which are incessantly changing and whose validity depends upon logical and empirical science, religions must bring into harmony with existing science and logic, dropping what is obsolescent. This concerns theological speculation and dogma, cult and ritual, and the technique of man’s spiritualization and moralization. Keeping abreast with logic and science in these subsidiary features, religion enters into harmonious co-operation with science, logic, and philosophy without sacrificing any of its intuitive truth revealed through the superconscious of its seers, prophets, and charismatic leaders. On the other hand, in its turn it supplements science, logic, and philosophy through its system of ultimate reality — values. In this way religion, logic, science unite to form a single harmonious team dedicated to the discovery of the perennial values and to the proper shaping of man’s mind and conduct.

For the realization of these objectives religions need not only to be familiar with existing techniques but also to create new, more fruitful, and more adequate techniques of religious and ethical transformation. (Cf. the next section of this work for an elaboration of this topic.) [note 2]

If the foregoing tasks are successfully performed, religion will contribute as never before to the creation of a society characterized by peace and harmony, happiness, and a sense of kinship with the Infinite Manifold.

Notes.

1. Sorokin’s comments here might be mistakenly understood to mean he does not appreciate the importance of religious ritual. Rather, I believe his point is that these should be understood not as ends in themselves, but as powerful tools that support and enhance the fuller spiritual life of the practitioner.

2. His later and more definitive analysis of techniques for altruistic transformation of society is found in Sorokin (1954/2002).

Bibliography

Sorokin, Pitirim. The Reconstruction of Humanity. Beacon Press, 1948.

Sorokin, Pitirim A. Social and Cultural Dynamics. Revised and abridged in one volume by the author, Transaction Books, 1957, 1985. (Originally published in four volumes, I–III, 1937; IV, 1941.)

Sorokin, Pitirim A. The Ways and Power of Love: Types, Factors, and Techniques of Moral Transformation. Boston: Beacon Press, 1954; repr. Templeton Foundation, 2002.  [ebook]

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