Before a bibliography of the sociology of religions can be compiled, the field to be covered must first be defined. The preface to this bibliography is therefore designed : to describe the field; to show the stages of investigation involved; and to outline the titles included in the present publication.
I. DESCRIPTION OF THE FIELDThe field of religion comprises, firstly, a &dquo;system&dquo; of beliefs or ideas, automatically entailing types of disciplinary, moral or sacred relationships; and secondly, &dquo;facts &dquo;, i.e., the activities of the men governed by these systems. For a system lives through the men who accept and support it.The initial &dquo;corpus&dquo; of doctrines, rites, and precepts includes explanation, development, adaptation, application-all of them socio-religious processes whose contingent character makes them fit subjects for sociological analysis. This analysis is not concerned with theological problems, but with social manifestations. It may be quantitative-statistical analysis of population, after the criteria ot religious adherence have been defined and established----or qualitative-evaluation of the vitality of forces and groups, from internal indices (the &dquo;communication&dquo; of the spirit informing the group within the structure of the religion), from the course followed in the processes of differentiation (relation between protests within the group and rupture, schism, or dissidence), or from the groups' relations with secular society (assessment of their hold upon one another). These interrelationships of a system and facts-which are the true subject of sociology-cannot in this case be studied, and still less, judged, without constant recourse to the historian's conclusions. No religious society can be explained by its present alone; its past as well belongs to religious sociology.
II. STAGES OF INVESTIGATIONAs one of the sciences of man, the sociology of religions does not need to aspire to the exactness of the natural sciences. It is, however, possible and indeed necessary to distinguish within a given religion, types of adherents, communities, cults and organizations-that is, geographic or social generalities, which, being capable of enumeration, provide material for a descriptive science. This descriptive enumeration constitutes sociography, the necessary, though not the only, basis for the development of research. These figures and descriptions, classified and referenced for various patterns of life, labour or leisure, provide material for monographs, which are the first stage in the real work of sociology.
