Citation

Martin D. Sociol. Relig. 2004; 65(4): 341-356.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Association for the Sociology of Religion)

DOI

10.2307/3712318

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The object is to compare the language of Christianity with the language of the politician and the academic, taking into account the logic of the religious, the political and the academic roles. These roles have different kinds of freedom and constraint attached to them, with the political role the most constrained and the academic role (along with the role of media commentator) the least. Christian language is considered both as fused with the ideological structures of power, in state and church, and as partly disentangled from power by secularization. A contrast is drawn throughout between the universal moral space of Enlightenment and the particular moral exigencies of specific types of role.