Citation

Garrett WR. Sociol. Relig. 1974; 35(3): 167-180.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1974, Association for the Sociology of Religion)

DOI

10.2307/3710647

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Social theorists have encountered considerable difficulties in dealing with the troublesome phenomenon of religious transendence in their effort to generate a scientifically cogent understanding of religious ideas and behavior. This paper groups the various approaches of major theorists to the transcendent religious phenomenon under three types which are described as scientific reductionism, symbolic functionalism, and phenomenological numinalism. A critical evaluation of each type reveals that only the last type, phenomenological numinalism, is capable of taking seriously the numinal or transcendent element in religion while simultaneously protecting the scientific objectivity of the observer.