RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE: TRANSCENDING SOCIAL BOUNDARIES AND CLOSING THE GAP BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND REALITY

It is one of the major functions of religion to anchor language in reality; Max Weber made that point years ago. Speaking of the artisan whose word was as good as gold, Weber described the Protestant Ethic as a set of beliefs and practices that anchored the promises of the artisan in the reality of conduct. No wonder that banks loaned money to the artisan; his credit was very good precisely because his words were as good as deeds. That is, the circulation of capital becomes more regular when language is rooted in reality; the resulting trust is conducive to long-term commitments in investment, accounting, and reinvestment. That is why, Weber argued, the Protestant Ethic was conducive to the spirit of capitalism.

Since this book is only an introduction to method in the sociology of religion, it would be impossible here even to try to analyze the variety of practices that enable religion to anchor language in reality. The support that religion gives to promises is only one example of the way religion undergirds language. Another is the way religion makes it possible for groups which are separated by huge barriers of property and social distance to speak to one another. Religious prophecy can help language to cross the barriers that divide the rich from the poor, the notable from the ordinary, those at the center from those on the margins of society.