New book the culmination of world-wide contributions

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This article was published 03/12/2023 (544 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Steinbach author said a book for which he edited and wrote the introduction and a pair of chapters, is not one that will be in a book store near you.

It’s not one you’ll see people reading at the beach or clamoring for their local library to add it to their collection.

In fact, he doesn’t expect anyone to read it through from beginning to end.

But all the same, Dennis Hiebert is proud of the newly published book called The Routledge International Handbook of Sociology and Christianity.

“This is not for the general public,” he admitted as the 450 page plus hardcover sat on the table in front of him. “This is for scholars, for PhD students who are trying to pick a dissertation topic, and this is the starting point.”

For the 71-year-old University of Manitoba sociology professor, who still actively takes part in triathlons, it was a wonderful project.

Hiebert is well known in Southeast Manitoba for his work with Providence University College. He founded the athletic program in 1975, ran it for 13 years and then went back to university for his second masters degree and PhD. This is in addition to a pair of bachelors degrees.

Born and raised in Steinbach, Hiebert considers himself semi-retired, doing sessional work at the University of Manitoba since leaving Providence in 2022.

For Hiebert, his love of sociology, simply defined as the study of social life, social change and the social causes and consequences of human behaviour, can be summarized in a quote from French novelist, literary critic and essayist Marcel Proust.

“The real voyage of discovery consists, not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

Hiebert described sociology as one of the broadest disciplines among the social sciences.

In fact the American Sociological Association defines 53 subdisciplines of sociology.

This book itself is a handbook of sociology and Christianity.

“You can take the standpoint of the sociologists and look at this thing called Christianity and analyze it, or you can take a standpoint of a Christian and look the social science of sociology and analyze it,” he said, explaining this is a mix of both.

And while he’s an expert educated in sociology, Hiebert won’t refer to himself as an expert on Christianity.

“I wouldn’t call myself a Christian scholar or a scholar of Biblical studies or theology, but I’ve spent my whole life listening to Biblical scholars,” he said.

When in August 2020, Routledge, the largest publisher of humanities and social sciences in the world asked for his help in editing this new handbook, Hiebert said he was stunned.

“I was excited, I was flattered, I was honoured,” he said. “I wasn’t sure of how to go about it.”

And Hiebert’s no stranger to the world of publishing.

He’s published two of his own books in the past and is the editor of the biannually published Journal of Sociology and Christianity.

His most recent book was published in 2020, an expansion of three of his essays called Rationality, Humility and Spirituality. His first book came out in 2013, called Sweet Surrender: How Cultural Mandates Shape Christian Marriage.

But this was an entirely different project, one that would involve contributors from all over the world.

“They made it clear from the outset that they wanted this to be international,” he said. “They didn’t want this to be Americans and Europeans talking to each other.”

That meant Hiebert had to cast a wide net when looking for contributors as well as flexibility when it came to his vision.

He started out recruiting contributors proposing nine different units, receiving 65 proposals.

This was later changed to five sections with seven chapters each.

Sections cover the history of Christianity and sociology, contemporary theory, social institutions, social change and applied sociology and Christianity.

Hiebert accepted first drafts, sent out revisions and suggestions and repeated the process until the final draft was available.

The book was finalized in March of this year, but not before Hiebert stepped up to add two chapters of his own.

“After the whole process I would say the book is stronger than it was with the original 35,” he said.

The book also has some local flair with the book cover designed by Kayla Hiebert of Chez Koop.

A chapter was also contributed by Val Hiebert, a University of Manitoba professor with Steinbach roots.

Hiebert admitted finding authors from around the globe was difficult as neither Christianity nor sociology are equally distributed around the world.

“I guess my biggest disappointment is that I didn’t get anything from South America,” he said. “But there is a chapter, an American specialist on liberation theology, which is a phenomenon in Latin America.”

Authors came from an assortment of countries including Canada, U.S., Russia, Italy, Spain, Taiwan, U.K., Australia, Norway, India, Greece, Kenya, Sweden, Indonesia, and Serbia.

The book’s purpose is more to summarize information on a variety of topics, rather than impart new wisdom.

“Because it’s intended for the reference section of libraries, as a starting point, as a jump-off point, the chapters really just summarize all the research that has already been done on that topic and then it sites the source,” he said.

“Nobody will read the whole thing,” he added with a chuckle. “I would say the educated average reader could still benefit and enjoy topics that they are familiar with.”

Hiebert’s contributions include a chapter called The Cultural Turn Away from Religion to Spirituality in the Global North.

“Religion has acquired a bad name by now, it’s almost a pejorative term,” he said. “People are reluctant to identify as religious in public, but they will happily identify as spiritual.

The final chapter in the book, also written by Hiebert is titled The Recurring Christian Debate about Social Justice, and writing this chapter came with new insights for Hiebert.

“What surprised me is the debate about it, whether it’s Christian or not,” he said. “There are a lot of conservative Christians who just vehemently protest the current cultural turn towards social justice.”

“The call of God to do something in this world about structural evil is what social justice is all about,” he added. “Certain theological traditions obviously have denied the existence of structural evil and they maintain, they continue to insist Christianity is all about individual redemption and salvation.”

Summing up Christianity in any way is a tough task.

“Christianity can be so profoundly different wherever you go,” he said. “It’s not just Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism and Protestantism but it’s all the denominationalism and the sectarianism and the politicization of Christianity.”

There are new discoveries in sociology as well.

Hiebert said throughout the entire 20th century, it was thought that modernism equals secularization and the gradual disappearance of religion.

That’s not subscribed to anymore.

Hiebert said religion is reasserting itself in the public realm.

“That whole view was new to me and interesting to me and in some ways encouraging,” he said.

“There’s a limit to which people will yield to rationality because life cannot be reduced to the rational.”

The Routledge International Handbook of Sociology and Christianity is available on Amazon or by contacting the publisher.