At the core of this work, Schmalzbauer has shown that religious belief in the professions does not take something away, but has the ability to add a richer description and understanding of human reality. This is an insight that both religious scholars and nonreligious scholars alike can appreciate.
Elaine Howard Ecklund, Cornell University
Sociology of Religion
This ... Read morework reports the findings of Schmalzbauer's interviews with forty journalists and social science academics. The interviewees represented the Roman Catholic and evangelical Protestant faith traditions. They are also very public figures whose voices have incorporated their various faith traditions into their work places and public space. This research emerges from the author's interest in the role of religion in the public space as well as his interest in examining his on-going struggle 'to make sense of the role of Christian faith and the academic profession?' (p. xv).... This work adds to the field of sociology of religion as well as the broad field of religious studies. This piece is also helpful to those involved in the field of religious education which attempts to assist with lifelong interpretive processes. Historians of higher education will find interesting how educational institutions assist in developing inquiring minds.
Nelson T. Strobert, Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary
History of Education Quarterly
Schmalzbauer found a strong group of knowledge class professionals who have successfully avoided secularizing or privatizing their own faith.... Schmalzbauer concludes that there has been a welcome revival of religion in the academy, even in the social sciences, and that journalism is more accommodating to persons of faith than it was in the twentieth century.
William (Beau) Weston
The Cresset
Sociologist John Schmalzbauer investigates the role played by religious faith in two of the most secular and objectivity-obsessed professions: journalism and social sciences.... He concludes that despite a constant tension, both groups have made significant contributions to American society and have introduced a religious perspective into their professions without sacrificing their credibility.
Virginia Quarterly Review
Using religion as an example, Schmalzbauer (Sociology, College of Holy Cross) raises questions fundamental to personal behavior in a complex, secularized society: By what commitments should people live and, if necessary, die? Should those commitments arise out of informed, reasoned, and personal choices or be relatively unthinking responses to others' expectations. Focusing on a sample of evangelical Protestants and Catholics who are academics or professional reporters, the author asks how such persons can function in environments demanding objectivity, ethical neutrality, and toleration for a secular representation of reality.... Here is sociology at its most provocative best. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels and collections.
L. Braude
Choice
It is certainly true that the professions, including the media and academe, are dominated by people hostile to expressions of religious belief. Where did this hostility come from? And is it inevitable? John Schmalzbauer attempts to answer these questions, among others, in People of Faith, a valuable sociological survey. Mr. Schmalzbauer chronicles the way that religion has been an object of derision for journalists since H. L. Mencken's coverage of the Scopes trial in the 1920s and for academics since the mid-20th-century introduction of the fact-value distinction in scientific research. After reviewing the statistical and anecdotal evidence.... Mr. Schmalzbauer argues that the religious perspective is making something of a comeback.
Naomi Schaefer
Wall Street Journal
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