The Lion will lay down with the lamb
I approached the subject of contemporary social theory with much interest, but also with much hesitation. My past education deals with, well that of education, biology, theology, cultures, and missiology. Though I know I must have traveled through the realms of social theory I must have done it indirectly and never did so directly. This is evident when I saw the name of Levi Strauss thinking only of the “501 button fly” and what they had to do with social theory. Who knew that there was another Levi-Strauss (first name was Claude) who was an anthropologist, social theorist, and a great proponent of the social theory known as structuralism?
I was introduce to Claude Lévi-Strauss and many other great thinkers in this week’s book Contemporary Social Theory –An Introduction by Anthony Elliott. Dr. Elliott demonstrates a tremendous grasp of both the subject and the leading writers in the field of Social Theory. In one of our previous books we came to terms with the fact that all of us are in some way theologians.[1] In Elliott’s book this week we have learned that we are all social theorist. Contemporary social theory as Elliot describes it and argues for, is “a kind of double enterprise: resourceful, high-powered and interdisciplinary project of the social sciences and humanities on the one hand, and an urgent critique of ideological thought and the discourses of reason, freedom, truth, subjectivity, culture and politics on the other.”[2] I don’t know about you, but that is quite a mouth-full and I don’t know if I have ever thought in those terms so as to be labeled a social theorist. But, give the field its due and let us investigate the claim that we are all social theorist to one degree or another.
Have you ever discussed politics, class divisions, society, meanings of languages, globalization, or postmodernity? My wife and I have been on an ongoing conversation for the past few weeks (with 4 kids, two of which are teenagers, and homeschooling you learn to do ongoing conversations) about the financial disparity between the most wealthy individuals, say the 1% of American society, and the rest of the US population. We discussed Karl Marx and his perceptions of the polarization of the rich and the poor and the failed attempts towards communism. We discussed that any society without morality will not function at its best and certainly not as God intended it to function. “There is a need for morality in any modern society to function well.” my wife was advocating. Later, I found almost the exact words in Elliott’s book as he introduced Emile Durkheim who saw and advocated for the significance of “morality in social development.”[3]
But I must here insert a definitions for society, since it is at the center of social theory. Though we may discuss and study all the different schools of social theory, structuralism, post structuralism, theories of structuration, postmodernity and globalization, at the heart of the issue in contemporary social theory is what is the nature of society. Elliott traces through history the attempts to define society that have arisen through the course of the twentieth century and into the early 2000’s.[4] Albeit, there really is to date no single definition of society that all of the social theorist can agree upon. Society, as defined by Elliott, after sifting through all the positive and negative suggestions comes to be, “an indispensable medium for the production of social relations, emphasizing the benefits of interpersonal relationships and the potential gains from intercultural communication.”[5]
Now back to the discussion as to whether or not we are all social theorist. Earlier today my seven year old entered into a discussion with my wife about having three wishes. Her first wish would be that the world would be made right. My wife asked her what that would look like to her. With a sudden since of seriousness, even a whisper in her voice, she looked directly at her mother and said, “Mom, the world will be made right when the lion lays down with the lamb.”
Even at her young age she understands that society, as she knows it, is not right. There is something that is out of joint and not allowing the lion to lay down with the lamb. Sure, she cannot discuss in the same terms that Lacan does with his mirror analogy, or how Habermas looks at the democratization of society, nor even the utopia and social transformation of Marcuse’s libidinal rationality, but she knows something is not right and her little brain is attempting to figure out how to make it right. She is in fact, giving an urgent critique of ideological thought and the discourses of reason, freedom, truth, subjectivity, culture and politics as she sees all of that functioning, or in her eyes, dysfunctionally operating in global society. So in some realistic way we are all social theorist trying to understand our society and how to live in it and make it a better place to live. I agree with my daughter, society, regardless of all the varied definitions, will all be put right when the lion does lay down with the lamb. I thank my little social theorist for reminding me of that school of thought.
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