Society for the Scientific Study of Religion

Business Meeting Minutes

1967

October 28, 1967     Atlanta, Georgia

AGENDA
SSSR BUSINESS MEETING

Saturday, October 23, 1967, 10:30 - 12:00 Noon
EXHIBITION HALL (First Section)

Chairman: President Peter L. Berger

  1. MINUTES OF 1966 BUSINESS MEETING - Allan Eister
  2. REPORT OF EXECUTIVE SECRETARY - Sernuel Z. Klausner

  3. REPORT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE - Walter H. Clark
  4. REPORT OF JOURNAL EDITOR - James E. Dittes
  5. REPORT OF TREASURER - Ralph W. Burhoe
    Proposal to increase Society dues
  6. DISCUSSION ON THE STRUCTURE AND PURPOSES OF SSSR-Norman Birnbaurn
  7. ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING 1968 and 1969 ANNUAL MEET1NG
*In the wake of the growth of the Society, questions have arisen regarding-


MINUTES
Saturday, October 28, 1967

Biltmore Hotel, Atlanta, Georgia


The l9th annual business meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (which was also the 27th meeting of the Society since its founding) was called to order in the Atlanta -Biltmore Hotel on October 28, 1967 at 10:30 A.M. Peter L. Berger presiding.

Minutes of the previous meeting of the Society were summarized by the Secretary and approved as they appeared in the form distributed at the outset of this meeting. (See mimeographed copy of 1966 annual business meeting minutes attached.)

During a brief report from the Executive Secretary, members were advised that there are now approximately 1800 members and 900 library subscribers to the Journal. Mr. Klausner invited comments from members concerning such matters as ways of increasing membership, whether or not annual meeting sessions should be extended from one and a half to two days and whether meetings ought to begin on Thursdays or on Fridays. Also whether multiple sections running simultaneously was a satisfactory format for the conferences. Several suggestions of a general nature were made from the floor-- e.g., Mr. Birnbaum proposed a table from which mimeographed copies of papers might be distributed during or in advance of the section in which they are read. Mr. Clark suggested the possibility of "Workshops" at times other than annual meetings provided members would be willing to take the initiative in organizing these with the help of the Executive Secretary. Mr. Hadden asked whether balloting might be done in connection with the sending out of dues notices.

Walter Clark then announced the results of recent balloting for offices of President, Vice President, and Councilmen as follows:

For President (1968 and 1969) Charles Y. Glock
For Vice-President (same term) Benjamin Nelson
For Councilmen (1968 through 1970) Andrew M. Greeley and Edgar W. Mills
For Councilman (to complete an unexpired term through 1969) Joseph Bram

James Dittes, Editor of the Journal, reported that there would be a delay in publication and distribution of the fall issue of the Journal. The latter, however, appears to enjoy a good reputation among scholars with approximately 160 mss submitted during the past year. Of these only about 10% could be accepted and many of the latter have had to be greatly compressed. He also described briefly the role and functions of his Editorial Consultants whom he has been using in lieu of a fixed Editorial Board. Paul Gustafson, Associate Editor of the Journal (in charge of book reviews) spoke briefly concerning the problems of selecting and getting reviewed books satisfying the ranges of interests of scholars in a multi-disciplinary society such as the SSSR and invited comments from member readers on matters such as whether reviews of 650 to 700 words each were long enough, whether occasional "double reviews" were desired, and related questions.

Ralph Burhoe presented the report of the Treasurer announcing a serious deficit in funds to cover outstanding debts of the Society--a discrepancy between income and outgoing expense in the past four years on the order of $20, 000 which came to light when the Society's financial record keeping was shifted from a cash to an accrual basis in 1966. Questions raised from the floor concerning how this situation could have been allowed to arise were answered to the satisfaction of members present, and the recommendation of the Treasurer that annual dues for membership be increased from $8.50 to $12.00 (and from $5.00 to $6.00 for student membership) was unanimously approved. This action, together with certain foundation grants received or anticipated would, the Treasurer indicated, enable the Society not only to meet the budget for 1967-68 which the Council has provisionally approved but also go far toward meeting the outstanding financial obligations of the Society.

Mr. Berger, reporting on other action of the Council, announced that plans were well under way for the 1968 Meeting of the Society to be held in Montreal, Canada, and that the Council had selected Boston as the site for the annual meetings in 1969. He also reported changes in Article I, Sections 1 and 2 of the By-Laws to make possible the establishment of a special membership status of "Fellows" in the Society. The latter action in interpreted as a significant move toward bringing membership policy in line with that of certain other learned and professional societies. Fellows in the SSSR will automatically qualify to become Fellows in the AAAS for example.

Norman Birnbaum, member of the ad hoc committee on the intellectual purposes and long-range goals of the Society was then invited to report on a meeting of that committee held in New York City last January and to chair the informal discussion to which the present meeting now turned.

Members of the ad hoc committee present at this exploratory meeting in New York were, in addition to Peter Berger, Norman Birnbaum, Daniel Callahan, Walter Clark, Horace Friess, James Gustafson and Samuel Klausner, ex officio. Mr. Birnbaum reported that at this January meeting the committee had considered such matters as whether or not SSSR should undertake to perform an accrediting study of religion, what place the SSSR holds or should hold in the broader spectrum of associations, societies and other organizations concerned in any way with religion and the study of religion, and what "identity" the members of SSSR might accept as appropriate for this Society.

In the course of the discussion, Walter Clark was invited to review briefly the earliest objectives which he and Professor J. Paul Williams had had in mind when they called together a group of scholars in 1949 at Boston University. The decision to call such a group together was an outgrowth of the meeting of Mr. Williams and Mr. Clark when the latter spoke at Mt. Holyoke College of the need for greater understanding of "religion" by social scientists and when Mr. Williams identified a complementary need among teachers of religion for more understanding of the theories and methods of social science.*

*Note added by the Secretary y of the Society: Out of this grew first a circle of eight or so and then an increasingly larger number of scholars, mostly at colleges and universities in the northeast but also including scholars associated with other kinds of organizations such as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Bureau of Survey and Research of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. and others as well as some "independent" members.

Beginning in 1951 the group, which was informally identified as the "Committee for the Scientific Study of Religion" and linked by correspondence and mimeographed communication through Walter Clark as Secretary, started holding meetings twice each year (in the fall and in the spring) for one- or two-day periods. These were held regularly at first in the Harvard Faculty Club and then alternately at Harvard and at the Columbia University Men's Faculty Club. In April 1959 the spring meeting of the Society was held at the University of Chicago, marking the l0th anniversary of the association and the fall 1959 meeting was held at Yale Divinity School, Thereafter, except for regional meetings held jointly with RRA, meetings of the Society have been held only annually, and the trend toward hotel sites rather than university campus meeting places began to be set, meanwhile the organization took the name Society for the Scientific Study of Religion in 1956 and decided to undertake publication of a Journal in 1960, the first issue to appear in the fall of 1961. The Society was incorporated in Connecticut in October 1963 and the Council at this time decided to employ its first Executive Secretary:

Out of the discussion several issues seemed to be being resolved, while others remained clearly open. Sentiment appeared to be strong for maintaining breadth of membership across disciplinary lines and across a wide range of organizations (and of backgrounds of non-affiliation) from which members might come, There was particular interest in maintaining communication between scholars whose primary interests were theological or in some sense "religiously committed" and those who regard themselves primarily as approaching religion from some more "scientific" or objective stance. Professor Morton King expressed the opinion, apparently held also by others, that "the Society should continue to be a forum for inter-disciplinary sharing and stimulation on the broadest possible basis consistent with its emphasis on scholarly rigor." He suggests that " 'scientific' can and should continue to be defined so as to avoid the extremes both of narrow empiricism and of eclectic hodge-podge.quot; Above all disciplines--"humanstic" and "scientific" there is a common core of criteria of scholarly excellence by which we should be guided including concern for accuracy and precision in observation, for thorough and systematic; analysis of whatever we observe, for conceptual rigor, for seeking generalizations which can order phenomena and which are developed and tested on the basis of sound methods. It was urged that perhaps smaller regional meetings held on college and university campuses after the manner of earlier meetings of the Society might help keep alive the opportunities for cross-disciplinary confrontation which members say they find so stimulating and valuable a part of the Society's approach.

The question of what might be an appropriate balance or "mix" as between "consumers" and "producers" of research on religious phenomena and the question of how far the Society ought to go in trying to bring together "amateurs" and "professionals" were raised but left open. The President suggested that comments and opinions from members on these and related matters would be welcomed by the Council and should be forwarded through the office of the Executive Secretary.

Following a brief valedictory statement from Peter Berger expressing gratification and hope in the growth of the Society and his pleasure in having been associated with it in the role of President, the meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Allan W. Eister
Secretary