Encyclopedia of Religion
and Society

William H. Swatos, Jr. Editor

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BOURG, CARROLL JULIAN
(1928-) Then Jesuit Carroll Bourg earned the Ph.D. at Brandeis University in 1967, writing on the contrast between the critical and historical tradition of sociological thought, on the one hand, and contemporary theory, on the other. His examination of the 1960s civil rights and ecumenical movements showed the relevance of a critical sensitivity and historical vision. He advocated the latter for sociology using the term sociology as participation .

Bourg taught briefly at Boston College and Woodstock College, left the Jesuit order, married, and took up a position at Fisk University, where he worked until retirement in 1996. He served as editor of Sociological Analysis (1973-1980), in many respects defining the character of that journal, which holds under its current title, Sociology of Religion . He was President of the Association for the Sociology of Religion in 1980.

Bourg's thoughtful and conceptually oriented writings reveal a continuing interest in a participatory sociology, the Jesuits, the participatory endeavors of youth, the compass of sociology as a discipline, religion, and the well-being of the elderly. The social scientific study of religion has benefitted from a series of his book reviews (some 17 between 1981 and 1996), which reflect an insightful and broadly informed intellect, and from his participation in published symposia on civil religion and on the work of theologian Harvey Cox.

Anthony J. Blasi

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