This lecture on “Points of Departure: On Religions and Social Transformations,” by John Torpey, Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center, will be given Thursday, April 11th, 2013, 4-6 pm, 509 Knox Hall, Columbia University, New York City, USA.
The distinguished British sociologist of religion David Martin has argued, above all on the basis of the global spread of Pentecostalism, that we are living through a period comparable in significance to the Protestant Reformation. This lecture seeks to evaluate that claim by examining a number of other major “points of departure” in human history, most of them associated with the birth of major world religions. Professor Torpey will seek to identify patterns in these other episodes that might help us set our own time in a broader perspective and hence to make better sense of it. More information about Professor Torpey and the event is available at the website.