Keynote Address
Session
Keynote
Location
Newbold Auditorium
Start Date
14-5-2015 7:30 PM
End Date
14-5-2015 8:30 PM
Presentation Abstract
How might empirical social research and Christian faith commitment relate to each other? In particular, how can and should Christian faith affect social research scholarship? This talk combines a theoretical response to those questions with an illustration taken from my Science of Generosity Initiative. Following Nick Wolterstorff, I distinguish between Christian (or any other religious) faith functioning as (1) and interest-governing principle versus as (2) an acceptance-governing principle, when it comes to the doing of academic research and scholarship. I then show how Christian faith might be understood as functioning in both of these ways in my research on the paradox of generosity.
Keynote Address
Newbold Auditorium
How might empirical social research and Christian faith commitment relate to each other? In particular, how can and should Christian faith affect social research scholarship? This talk combines a theoretical response to those questions with an illustration taken from my Science of Generosity Initiative. Following Nick Wolterstorff, I distinguish between Christian (or any other religious) faith functioning as (1) and interest-governing principle versus as (2) an acceptance-governing principle, when it comes to the doing of academic research and scholarship. I then show how Christian faith might be understood as functioning in both of these ways in my research on the paradox of generosity.
Acknowledgements
Christian Smith is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame. Smith received his MA and PhD from Harvard University in 1990 and worked as a Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill prior to his appointment at Notre Dame.
One of Smith’s current research projects is the “Science of Generosity” project, which aims to “stimulate scientific research on the practice of generosity in human life and society.” The project was established in 2009 with a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation, and grew out of Smith’s book Passing The Plate: Why American Christians Don’t Give Away More Money (Oxford 2008). More information can be found at http://generosityresearch.nd.edu/.