Why God?: Explaining Religious Phenomena

by Rodney Stark

Why is it that the majority of people, from all socio-economic, education, and ethnic backgrounds, ascribe to some sort of faith? What draws us to religion? What pushes us away? And what exactly is religion anyway?
Defining religion over the past century has, ironically, led to theories that exclude belief in God, proposing that all systems of thought concerning the meaning of life are religions. Of course, this makes it impossible to distinguish the village priest from the village atheist, or Communism from Catholicism.  Worse yet, it makes all religious behavior irrational, presuming that, for example, people knowingly pray to an empty sky.
Renowned sociologist of religion Rodney Stark offers a comprehensive, decisive, God-centered theory of religion in his book, Why Explaining Religious Phenomena. While his intent is not to insist that God exists, Stark limits religions to systems of thought based on belief in supernatural beings—to Gods.  With this God-focused theory, Stark explores the entire range of religious topics, including the rise of monotheism, the discovery of sin, causes of religious hostility and conflict, and the role of revelations. 
Each chapter of Why God?  builds a comprehensive framework, starting with the foundations of human motivations and ending with an explanation of why most people are religious. Stark ultimately settles what religion is, what it does, and why it is a universal feature of human societies.
Why God?  is a much needed guide for anyone who wants a thorough understanding of religion and our relationship to it, as well as a firm refutation to those who think religion can exist without the divine. 
 

Genres: Religion, Psychology, Nonfiction, Sociology

304 pages, Hardcover

Published April 30, 2017

About the author

Rodney Stark grew up in Jamestown, North Dakota, and began his career as a newspaper reporter. Following a tour of duty in the U.S. Army, he received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, where he held appointments as a research sociologist at the Survey Research Center and at the Center for the Study of Law and Society. He left Berkeley to become Professor of Sociology and of Comparative Religion at the University of Washington. In 2004 he joined the faculty of Baylor University. He published 30 books and more than 140 scholarly articles on subjects as diverse as prejudice, crime, suicide, and city life in ancient Rome. However, the greater part of his work has been on religion. He was former president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and of the Association for the Sociology of Religion. He also won a number of national and international awards for distinguished scholarship. Many of his books and articles have been translated and published in foreign languages, including Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Slovene, and Turkish.

Reviews

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book is an absolutely brilliant discussion of religion. Stark covers many aspects of religion, sharing insights and analysis based on reason, history and research. He debunks many modern scholarly concepts of religion with clarity and rationality.

I love Stark and look forward to reading his other works.

[Kurt Dershem · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stark is an accomplished and influential scholar of religion, but his ambition for this book - to provide a comprehensive account of the origin, development and decline of religious sects - is undermined by several fatal flaws. First, the good: Stark lays out his case (in the form of numbered propositions and definitions) with admirable clarity and concision. However, his use of examples to support his theses are highly selective. Stark makes categorical claims about the nature of religion, the virtues of monotheism, the connection between religiosity and morality, the motivation of atheists, etc. without providing sufficient evidence to support them. He insists (rather defensively) that he's simply reporting and drawing conclusions from the facts, denying the obvious influence of his own ideological commitments. Stark is dismissive of scholars (past and present) whose views differ from his own, often basing his critiques on extremely uncharitable interpretations of their work. Other scholars (like Phil Zuckerman) are completely ignored, presumably because their work contradicts some of Stark's strident claims. Stark's overconfidence is most obvious when he addresses topics outside his area of expertise, such as his analysis of Hindu and Buddhist beliefs, his reference to the so-called "war on Christmas" (which fails to acknowledge the role of the First Amendment in protecting minority rights), and his concluding remarks on the supposed necessity of an Intelligent Designer for life to have meaning. "Why God?" would be much more effective if Stark replaced his cranky editorializing with expanded arguments and additional evidence. As written, its thought-provoking social science is undermined by the author's obvious apologetical biases.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read a few articles by Dr. Stark over the years, mostly on the growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I saw this title on a colleague's shelf and decided to give it a try.
This book is, as Dr. Stark explains, his most recent attempt to develop a theory of religion from a sociological perspective. Thus, the book is full of definitions, propositions, and so forth that he anticipates will lead to further discussion, research, and so forth as sociologists continue to try to understand the persistence of religion in a world that has not become as secularized as many anticipated it would be by 2020. There are a number of interesting points in the book. For example, his main argument for the need for a Deity of some kind in a religious worldview is compelling. His argument for why monotheism tends to prevail over polytheism is interesting. His propositions regarding the decline of church attendance and affiliation in the United States (and elsewhere) is insightful. His discussion of the spectrum of religious organizations ranging from "sect" to "church" is intriguing. Another strength of the book is Stark's experience and wisdom that come from his long experience in the field--he can remember past theories and put them in their historical context and discuss their durability and/or shortcomings in light of how they have played out over many decades and/or centuries. This includes his own--he is regularly critical of his own previous research and attempts to explain religious phenomenon from a sociological perspective. He certainly deserves extra points for intellectual humility.
There are a few reasons I gave the book only three stars. First, and this is the biggest reason, it is pretty dry--high on substance, low on style. It isn't that it isn't clear; it just isn't always very engaging. Second, it is pretty focused on the United States. He brings in a few examples from other countries here and there, but it is based quite a bit on the American context. Third, it is pretty Christian-centric. While Stark makes a pretty convincing case for the success of monotheism (or at least henotheism), the reality is that many forms of polytheism are still succeeding in the world today (I know there can be arguments made for the polytheistic/monotheistic theologies of Hinduism, Buddhism, or other indigenous religions, but still...)
I'm glad I read the book, but it certainly might not be for everyone. You'd have to be really interested in learning more about the sociological perspective of religion in order to enjoy this book. Since I was, it was good.

[mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stark attempts to present a scientific examination of the reasons for the prevalence of religion in human cultures worldwide and throughout history. He starts out doing so by proposing that the basis for religion is the appeal by humans to supernatural beings for rewards not available by other means, e.g., life after death. I found this both reasonable and explanatory, as is much of what he proposes.

Stark represents himself as a sociologist and his studies as entirely research-based, stating explicitly that his own background as a Christian has nothing to do with his conclusions. I found this assertion difficult to credit. Besides his emphasis on the importance on gaining a good afterlife, a more prominent aspect of Christian theology than of most other religions, there is also his assertion that life must be meaningless if the universe was not purposely created by some being. It is this assertion that made me finally part ways entirely with the author; I am one of those who think that we humans create meaning in our lives and can do so without recourse to God.

[Joe Henry · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know where I got this book. I suspect that I may have picked it up from a free-for-the-taking cart at a church library. I read more than half of it before I finally gave up on it and decided to donate it to the public library here for their used book sale. If you want encouragement for reading it, see other reviews.

From the dust jacket: "Why God? dispels a huge collection of social scientific literature that attempts to reduce religion to delusion, neurosis, or some other form or irrationality. Rodney Stark is the distinguished professor of the social sciences and codirector of the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University and honorary professor of sociology at Peking University in Beijing." I will say that the book is well enough organized and is done with a scholarly method. I do like the way he formalizes his propositions, definitions, and deductions.

Stark takes a dim view of "liberal theologians" from Paul Tillich to John Shelby Spong, referring to them as atheists. When I read the promo blurbs on the rear cover, I was struck by one by a sociology professor at University of Texas at Austin: "Professor Stark...is not afraid of being wrong, and that makes him far more apt than his peers of getting it right." To me, it seemed like a bit of an odd recommendation. I was not convinced.

[Cheryl Petersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stark used history and sociology to explain the concept of God as evolving and how that evolution affects churches and religion.