From Weber To Stark:An Assessment And Reflection On The "New Paradigm" Of The Sociology Of Religion

Stark’s new paradigm theory was born in the 1970s and gradually developed over the past twenty years into a complete theoretical model from the micro to the macro level.Once seen as a promising "universal" sociological theory of religion,it was the subject of much controversy at the time,with voices of support and criticism everywhere.However,as the debate intensified,the theory was forced to recognize its limitations,especially since the empirical evidence was confirming the opposite proposition,and it became clear that the new paradigm theory needed to change as well.But such a change was almost impossible at the time.Because it was at the center of various debates,it was difficult not only for its opponents to accurately grasp the true nature of the new paradigm,but also for Stark and others to be led by the nose by these debates for a long time,resulting in their own failure to respond effectively to these misconceptions.Now,twenty years later,with the fervor of the debate subsiding,we are finally able to take a more objective and sober perspective on the true meaning of the new paradigm theory.This paper is an opportunity to reassess and reflect on the new paradigm theory and to clarify the "old problem" of what the new paradigm is.The overall content is divided into two parts,firstly,the first part deals with the main elements of the new paradigm as it was perceived in the past,and then shows that these elements actually belong to a strong version of the new paradigm,while the other one,which has been neglected,is a weak version of the new paradigm.The weaker version of the new paradigm represents the more theoretical "humanism" that Stark pursues,which is particularly crucial in later Stark’s thought.The second part of the paper focuses on the new theoretical possibilities inherent in the weak version of the new paradigm.This paper is not only satisfied with presenting a complete picture of the theory of the new paradigm,but it is also important to respond to some of the debates faced in the past by means of the weak version of the new paradigm.Since the weak version of the new paradigm is not explicitly stated by Stark,we can only use some external theoretical resources to enrich the theoretical content of the new paradigm.In this paper,we have chosen Max Weber,a social theorist whom Stark regarded as a fellow new paradigm.With his division of action types,the weak version of the new paradigm achieves a more realistic portrayal of religious actors,which cannot be done solely by relying on the rational man assumption of the strong version of the new paradigm in the past.Moreover,such a weak version of the new paradigm does not produce "rejection" of many of the propositions presented in the strong version,so that the final version of the new paradigm is in a sense a revision of the new paradigm,and such a new paradigm is a result of this paper’s reassessment and paradigm shift of Stark’s new paradigm.