Society for the Scientific Study of Religion

Council Meeting Minutes

1961

Meeting Dates and Location:

January 14, 1961     Hartford Seminary Foundation.
October 27-28, 1961    Harvard University


January 14, 1961

The Council met from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Hartford School of Religious Education of The Hartford Seminary Foundation. Present were Messrs. Clark, Dittes, Eister, Kallen, McCann, Parsons, Pemberton, Sprague, Whitman, and Williams.

Minutes of the meeting of October 28-29, 1960, were approved as previously circulated. The Treasurer's Report was approved, showing income for 1960 of $900 and expenses of $812.43, with a balance on hand December 31, 1960, of $209.05. The funds for the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion showed a balance for December 31, 1960 of $2900.20. The Treasurer was authorized to continue to make disbursements at his discretion.

It was voted to elect to membership 12 persons who had applied since October 29, 1960.

Publications Committee. Mr. Williams reported a number of deliberations and decisions by the Committee concerning details of format and of promotion for the Journal and received suggestions as to other avenues for promotion. Mr. Pemberton announced appointment of the following persons as members of the editorial board: James Luther Adams, Harvard University; Robert Bellah, Harvard University; James E. Dittes, Yale University; Harmon Holcomb, Colgate-Rochester Divinity School; Horace M. Kallen, New School for Social Research; Kenneth W. Morgan, Colgate University ; Thomas O'Day, University of Utah; Paul Pruyser, Menninger Foundation; Gibson Winter, University of Chicago. Consent from Mr. Bellah has not yet been obtained, as he is out of the country. Mr. Eister has been appointed book review editor and Mr. Williams managing editor. Mr. Pemberton announced plans for the contents of the first issue, and received comments and suggestion from members of the Council.

1962 Annual Meeting. The Secretary reported an invitation form Princeton Theological Seminary to hold the 1962 annual meeting in Princeton. No action was taken.

1961 Annual Meeting. Mr. Kallen reported the acceptance by Dr. Dorothy Lee to serve as program chairman and read some correspondence between her and Mr. Adams concerning plans for the meeting. By general consent the Council agreed that there should be a place on the program of each annual meeting for persons to present brief reports of their own empirical research and that such papers may be solicited both by general invitation and by the initiative of the program committee in extending individual invitations. It was noted that general calls for papers must be warded in a way so as to make it possible for the program committee to reject those it regards as unsuitable. Mr. Pemberton was instructed to communicate the Council's discussion to Dr. Lee and members of the program committee.

Related Organizations. Mr. Parsons described the organization and activities of the American Society for the Study of Religion, now in its second year. He explained that this is intended to represent a small group of active researchers and not as large a constituency as the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.

Mr. Whitman described the activities of the Religious Research Association of which he is President, an organization started at the same time as the SSSR. Now numbering about 200 members, its primary purpose is to provide communication between social scientists and officials of denominations and interchurch agencies. It publishes a journal, Review of Religious Research.

It was generally agreed that those organizations serve distinct functions and the SSSR should be open to points of cooperation. Such cooperation would include announcing each others meetings with the possibility in the future of joint or overlapping meetings, either regional meetings or annual national meetings.

Other Academic Organizations. Some discussion was given to the relation between SSSR and such organizations as the American Psychological Association and the American Sociological Society. The most prominent view seemed to be that social scientists interested in the study of religion would probably find occasion to use the meetings and other facilities of these organizations as seemed warranted and that the SSSR. It was announced, however, that the Secretary, with the assistance of Mr. Clark, plans to arrange a discussion meeting at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in New York in 1961 co-sponsored by a division of the APA and the SSSR.

Publication Activities. The Council approved the reprinting and distribution to members of the symposium "The Role of the Concept of Sin in Psychotherapy" sponsored by SSSR at the 1959 APA meeting in Cincinnati. The Council approved of the SSSR sponsoring a special edition of Pastoral Psychology on "The Psychology of Religion" to be edited by Mr. Dittes, at the invitation of the editors of Pastoral Psychology. Mr. Parsons reported development of plans for a new edition of the Encyclopedia for Social Sciences, for which the consultation of members of the SSSR is likely to be sought.

Nominating Committee. The President appointed the following persons as members of the nominating committee to make nominations to the annual meeting to fill vacancies beginning January 1962: Mr. Dittes, Chairman, Mr. Eister, Mr. Parsons.

Respectfully submitted,

James E. Dittes
Secretary

Council members are invited to submit statements of expenses incurred in connection with this meeting.

October 27-28, 1961

The Council was called to order at 12:30 P.M., October 27 in the Guest Dining Room of Harkness Commons, Harvard University. Present were Messrs. Adams, Clark, Eister, Friess, Kallen, McCann, Pemberton, Sprague, Williams, and (after 1:20) Parsons.

President Kallon introduced Horace L. Friess as the nominee for president, to begin a two-year term January 1, 1962.

The minutes of the meeting of January 14, 1961 were approved as previously distributed to members.

On behalf of the program committee Mr. Sprague reported that he and Mr. Eister had selected nine of twenty-four papers which had been submitted, and that they regarded many others as worthy of reading to the meeting; Mr. Adams spoke of the work of Mrs. Dorothy Lee in Arranging for invited speakers. In commenting on the program, members spoke of the value they found in including opportunity for small discussion groups in any program.

For the publications committee, Mr. Williams reported on promotional activities to date. It was suggested that individual members of the Society should be reminded and encouraged to solicit subscriptions and memberships from their libraries and colleagues, and it was generally agreed that such a reminder should be made in a special mailing to members of the Society. Mr. Adams and Mr. Dittes agreed to cooperate in making the Journal known to various abstracting and indexing agencies.

It was voted to create a membership committee, to be appointed by the president, with power to elect members to the Society. Newly elected members are to be announced periodically. (President Kallen subsequently appointed Mr. Klausner and Mr. Dittes to serve as a membership committee.)

It was agreed to create three other standing committees: Finance, Program, and Publications. The chairmen shall be elected by the Council, and members shall be appointed by the chairmen in consultation with the president. If the chairmen are not members of the Council, they shall be invited to attend meetings of the Council. Subsequently in the Council meeting, it was voted to elect Peter Berger as program chairman for 1962, J. Paul Williams as chairman of the publications committee, and Walter H. Clark as chairman of the finance committee. As members of the finance committee the following persons were designated, Paul Pruyser, Elizabeth Nottingham, and Prentiss Pemberton.

It was voted to designate 409 Prospect Street, New Haven ll, Connecticut, as the legal place of business of the Society until such time as this place of business shall be changed.

It was voted to recommend to the membership of the Society the following constitutional amendment: to make Article IV read as follows:

It was voted that, if the membership of the Society approves the amendment at its annual meetings in 1960 and 1962, the election of two councilors in the late fall of 1962 shall be conducted by a mail ballot, and that the nominating committee shall nominate more persons for the office than there are vacancies.

The Council recessed at 1:30 P.M. and resumed meeting in the Mallory Smith Dining Room of Harkness Commons at 12:30 P.M. October 28. Present at this meeting were also Miss Nottingham and Messrs. Klausner and Nelson.

A recommendation from Charles Glock was considered and it was voted that the Society should participate in sponsoring a special session, with participation by invitation, on the sociology of religion, September 9 and 10, 1962, in conjunction with the meetings in Washington of the International Sociological Association. It was specified that such approval and participation did not imply use of funds of the Society nor distraction from other activities of the Society. Allan Eister was designated as the agent of the Society on any committee making arrangements for the special session. He was also designated as official delegate to the meeting. It was recommended that he and Mr. Glock seek the counsel of Miss Nottingham, Mr. Nelson, Wilson Kolb, and Arnold Nash.

It was voted to hold the 1962 annual meeting October 26 and 27 in New York City. Preference was generally expressed for the facilities of the Inter-Church Center for these meetings. It was also suggested that the New School for Social Research and Columbia University were possible host institutions. The proposal of Peter Berger to develop the 1962 program around the theme "The Nature of Modern Religious Consciousness" was discussed and generally approved. Several specific suggestions were made on particular parts of the program. It was assumed that within the scope provided by this theme, a good representation of volunteered empirical papers would be found.

The question of regional representatives and regional meetings was discussed. It was agreed to refer to the president and secretary and ask for recommendations concerning new appointments and regional activities.

Paul Gustafson was elected representative for the North Central Region (pro tem).

It was agreed that a directory of members and their professional interests was desirable. Implementation was referred to the secretary and the membership committee. The question of arranging for foreign affiliated memberships was discussed and referred to the membership committee.

Meeting adjourned at 1:30 P.M.

Respectfully submitted by

James E. Dittes, Secretary-Treasurer