Lighting The Path For Religious Research

As I discuss with my colleagues the early and extraordinary success of Baylor's Institute for Studies of Religion, which conducted the recent scholarly research about religious beliefs reported on the following pages, two questions surface repeatedly. I would like to share the collective answers that have emerged in response.

How do we account for all this recent scholarly interest in religion? 
When I was a graduate student, my discipline did not consider religion to be a major part of society. From the view of many sociologists, in modern secular societies, religion would become increasingly marginalized as an archaic institution whose "functions" were no longer needed by the increasingly rational, empirical and objective citizenry. That view has changed. We now have growing evidence that Americans are a remarkably, significantly religious people. The most recent ISR/Gallup survey shows that almost nine in 10 Americans believe in God. More than seven in 10 pray at least once a week. Almost half attend worship services at least once a month. The predictions of a secular society with religion relegated to the cultural margins have not materialized. The United States remains much more religious than most western nations, and the influence of faith on political, economic, and social issues is growing. 
Globally, major religious shifts such as the diffusion of Christianity and Islam in Asia and Africa are redefining our world in complex ways that require research and scholarly investigation. We now recognize that many of the world's problems exist in a religious context and solutions to those problems must include an understanding of religion as well. Thus, it is easy to see why interest in understanding religion is growing not only in the sociology department at Baylor, but across multiple disciplines on our campus and around the world.
Can Baylor really play a leading role in scholarly research on religion?
It's true that many major research universities are moving toward leadership roles in religious research: Princeton, Southern California, Texas, Notre Dame, Purdue, Arizona, North Carolina, and California-Berkeley come to mind. Still, Baylor has more sociology of religion faculty and graduate students than any of those universities. Currently, some of our faculty are better known than others, but the quality and quantity of all our scholars in this field are considerable. Of even greater significance, however, is that interest in the causes, consequences, and nature of religious belief and behavior resides not only in Baylor's sociology department, but provides interdisciplinary links among many of our best scholars in economics, psychology, classics, religion, English, philosophy, education, political science, history, and social work. 
It's not by accident that some of Baylor's best scholars are interested in religion; it is by design. Just as we would expect agricultural research to be strong at a land-grant university, or math and engineering at a technical university, research on religion is likely to be more widespread at a faith-based university like Baylor. This doesn't mean that our research is done differently than it would be at a public, secular university, but it does mean that, at Baylor, we are more likely to do research on issues of faith because faith matters to us. Leadership in religious research is expected of Baylor; stronger still, it is required of Baylor by our mission and vision.

Larry Lyon, BA '71, MA '72 (University of Houston), PHD '75 (University of Texas), is vice provost for Institutional Effectiveness and dean of the Graduate School.