Wade Clark Roof

Last updated

Wade Clark Roof (July 25, 1939 - August 24, 2019) was an American sociologist and academic. He was the J. F. Rowny Professor of Religion and Society at the University of California. He was a key figure in the founding of Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life. His research focused on American religious life. He won the Association for the Sociology of Religion's Lifetime Achievement Award for Contributions to the Sociology of Religion in 2018. [1] [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Roof grew up in the Sandhills region of South Carolina. Clark earned a bachelor of art degree from Wofford College in 1961, M Div. from Yale Divinity School in 1964 and an M.A. in 1969. He studied for his PhD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduating in 1971. [1] [3]

Career

He joined the University of California, Santa Barbara as J. F. Rowny Professor of Religion and Society in 1989. At the university, his research contributed significantly to the understanding of changing American religious life. His focus on sociology of religion and studies on liberal or mainline Protestantism brought him to intellectual limelight. His 1993 book: A generation of Seekers which focused on changing spiritualities amongst baby boomers was received with critical acclaim earning him appearances on national media. He later became a religion analyst with NBC, CBS and PBS. [4]

Roof retired in 2013. He won the Association for the Sociology of Religion's Lifetime Achievement Award for Contributions to the Sociology of Religion in 2018. In 2019, he was posthumously awarded  the Martin E. Marty Public Understanding of Religion Award presented by the American Academy of Religion. [5] [6]

Roof died on 24 August 2019. [7]

Books


Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Age</span> Range of new religious beliefs and practices

New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consider it a religious movement, its adherents typically see it as spiritual or as unifying Mind-Body-Spirit, and rarely use the term New Age themselves. Scholars often call it the New Age movement, although others contest this term and suggest it is better seen as a milieu or zeitgeist.

Religion in the United States is widespread and diverse, with the country being far more religious than other wealthy Western nations. An overwhelming majority of Americans believe in a higher power, engage in spiritual practices, and consider themselves religious or spiritual. Christianity is the most widely professed religion, with the majority of Americans being Evangelicals, Mainline Protestants, or Catholics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mainline Protestant</span> Older, more establishment Protestant denominations

The mainline Protestant churches are a group of Protestant denominations in the United States and Canada largely of the theologically liberal or theologically progressive persuasion that contrast in history and practice with the largely theologically conservative Evangelical, Fundamentalist, Charismatic, Confessional, Confessing Movement, historically Black church, and Global South Protestant denominations and congregations. Some make a distinction between "mainline" and "oldline", with the former referring only to denominational ties and the latter referring to church lineage, prestige and influence. However, this distinction has largely been lost to history and the terms are now nearly synonymous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin E. Marty</span> American Lutheran religious scholar (born 1928)

Martin Emil Marty is an American Lutheran religious scholar who has written extensively on religion in the United States.

Nancy Tatom Ammerman is an American professor of sociology of religion at Boston University School of Theology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert N. Bellah</span> American sociologist (1927–2013)

Robert Neelly Bellah was an American sociologist and the Elliott Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He was internationally known for his work related to the sociology of religion.

Robert John Wuthnow is an American sociologist who is widely known for his work in the sociology of religion. He is the Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor of Sociology Emeritus at Princeton University, where he is also the former chair of the Department of Sociology and director of the Princeton University Center for the Study of Religion.

Christian Stephen Smith is an American sociologist, currently the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. Smith's research focuses primarily on religion in modernity, adolescents and emerging adults, sociological theory, philosophy of science, the science of generosity, American evangelicalism, and culture. Smith is well known for his contributions to the sociology of religion, particularly his research into adolescent spirituality, as well as for his contributions to sociological theory and his advocacy of critical realism.

William "Bill" McKinney is the former President and Professor of American Religion of Pacific School of Religion (PSR) in Berkeley, California, the oldest theological seminary in the American West. McKinney is a sociologist of religion by training and also an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. (UCC) His research interests include Protestant congregational dynamics, and the recent history and prospects for Mainline Protestant denominations. At PSR from July 1986 to June 2010, McKinney was previously Dean of Hartford Seminary.

Workplace spirituality or spirituality in the workplace is a movement that began in the early 1920s. It emerged as a grassroots movement with individuals seeking to live their faith and/or spiritual values in the workplace. Spiritual or spirit-centered leadership is a topic of inquiry frequently associated with the workplace spirituality movement.

Dean R. Hoge was an American sociologist, who spent decades studying American Catholics, especially empirical surveys on the priesthood.

The Society for the Scientific Study of Religion was formed to advance research in the social scientific perspective on religious institutions and experiences. The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion is published by the society to provide a forum for empirical papers in the topic area.

Guy Benton Johnson Jr. was an American sociologist and professor emeritus of the University of Oregon's Department of Sociology.

Roger Finke is a Professor of Sociology and Religious Studies at The Pennsylvania State University and Director of the Association of Religion Data Archives. He is a former president of the Association for the Sociology of Religion.

"Spiritual but not religious" (SBNR), also known as "spiritual but not affiliated" (SBNA), or less commonly "more spiritual than religious" is a popular phrase and initialism used to self-identify a life stance of spirituality that does not regard organized religion as the sole or most valuable means of furthering spiritual growth. Historically, the words religious and spiritual have been used synonymously to describe all the various aspects of the concept of religion, but in contemporary usage spirituality has often become associated with the interior life of the individual, placing an emphasis upon the well-being of the "mind-body-spirit", while religion refers to organizational or communal dimensions. Spirituality sometimes denotes noninstitutionalized or individualized religiosity. The interactions are complex since even conservative Christians designate themselves as "spiritual but not religious" to indicate a form of non-ritualistic personal faith.

Adam Possamai is a sociologist and novelist born in Belgium and living in Australia. Possamai is professor in sociology and the Deputy Dean in the School of Social Sciences and Psychology at Western Sydney University, New South Wales, Australia. He is the former Director of the Religion and Society Research Centre (RSRC) He is married to Alphia Possamai-Inesedy, and lives in the south-western suburbs of Sydney with his family.

The relationship between the level of religiosity and the level of education has been studied since the second half of the 20th century.

In the sociology of religion patchwork religion indicates situations when individual or religious movement forms its own worldview from heterogeneous elements, taken from different religions or individual religious experience. Collected from these elements, this religious world view reminds of a patchwork quilt with a unique pattern. Similar social concepts are syncretism, bricolage and sheilaism.

New religious movements in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States have a history going back to the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Plekon</span>

Michael Plekon is an American priest, professor, author, sociologist and theologian. He has published more than a dozen books, as well as hundreds of journal papers, book chapters and reviews on faith and holiness. His works include religious social history, social theory and its connections with theology, the works of Søren Kierkegaard, contemporary Eastern Orthodox theology and theologians of the Russian emigration and saints. Living Icons, was one look at persons of faith in the Eastern Church. His research and publications have continued to explore persons of faith, seeking identity and God in their spiritual journeys. These volumes include Hidden Holiness, Saints as They Really Are, and The World as Sacrament These studies examine persons of faith struggling for social justice and for ways of rediscovering holiness in ordinary life. He is especially interested in the encounter with God in the everyday.

References

  1. 1 2 "Trailblazing sociologist of religion Wade Clark Roof dies at 80". August 26, 2019.
  2. ↑ Todd, Michael (August 29, 2019). "Chronicler of a Generation's Spirituality: Wade Clark Roof, 1949-2019".
  3. ↑ "Wade Clark Roof: Founding Director | Walter H. Capps Center - UC Santa Barbara". cappscenter.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2024-06-13.
  4. ↑ Markuly, Mark S. (2002). "Wade Clark Roof. Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 323 pages. $16.95 (Paper); $50.65 (Cloth)". Journal of Religion and Society. ISSN   1522-5658.
  5. ↑ "AAR 2019 - 2019 Martin E. Marty Award: Wade Clark Roof". aarweb.org. Retrieved 2024-06-13.
  6. ↑ Steinfels, Peter (1993-05-30). "Conversations/Wade Clark Roof; Charting the Currents of Belief For the Generation That Rebelled". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-06-13.
  7. ↑ "Sociologist Wade Clark Roof dies at age 80". The Christian Century. Retrieved 2024-06-13.
  8. ↑ "Religion Book Review: A Generation of Seekers: The Spiritual Journeys of the Baby Boom Generation by Wade Clark Roof, Author HarperOne $20 (294p) ISBN 978-0-06-066963-8". PublishersWeekly.com.
  9. ↑ "Spiritual Marketplace". July 22, 2001 – via press.princeton.edu.
  10. ↑ Neuhaus, Richard J. (January 1, 1988). "American Mainline Religion: Its Changing Shape and Future by Wade Clark Roof and William McKinney New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1987. 279 Pp. $27.00 ($10.00 Pb)". Theology Today. 44 (4): 520–521. doi:10.1177/004057368804400412 – via SAGE Journals.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.