Abstract
Soka Gakkai is one of the world’s fastest-growing religious movements and Italy figures among the western nations where this religious group has been most successful. This article aims at explaining this success-story: why has Soka Gakkai, and particularly its Italian affiliation, grown so rapidly in recent years? This research question gives the opportunity to assess the applicability of the economic theory of religion to the growth of new religious movements. Hence, in order to explain the expansion of Soka Gakkai, this work begins with an examination of the adaptive strategies developed by a Japanese organization in the Italian religious market. It is claimed, however, that a rational choice explanation cannot stand on its own and that we must take into account the dynamics of pre-contractual solidarity that promote trust, especially when the expected benefits promised by this organization to its adherents do not materialize. Moreover, these solidarity dynamics generate intense emotional gratification that works as a highly motivating incentive to sustain members’ commitment and to prevent them from dropping out. This pre-contractual solidarity is actively produced and continuously reproduced by means of ritual interaction along the lines suggested by Collins’s theory.
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Notes
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Introvigne and Stark (2005) have documented the recent partial “deregulation” of the Italian religious economy, especially after the new agreement between the national government and the Catholic Church in 1984. This agreement has stimulated an increasing competition between Catholics and other religious groups and, according to Introvigne and Stark, it may be indirectly responsible of a recent religious revival in Italy. However, in spite of the increase of religious groups in Italy during the past decades, their members remain still a definitively marginal portion of the Italian population and the Catholic Church preserves some important competitive advantages over the other religious groups.
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This integration seems even more promising if one considers that R. Stark himself is ready to give a place in his theoretical model to the notion of “religious ritual” and to recognize that “our definition of religious ritual was informed by Collins’s definition of interaction rituals” (Stark & Finke, 2000: 107). However, Stark reduces greatly the potential for the application of Collins’s theory (see “The metamorphosis of the utilitarian believer”), because he prefers to restrict the notion of religious ritual to the formal ceremonies of religious groups. On the other hand, Collins (2004: 49) has forcefully argued that ceremonies are only a small portion of social rituals: formality and stereotyped activity are indeed unnecessary ingredients of ritual interaction.
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This applies not only to the area of residence of the members, but also to their age, since I have visited groups of mainly young, adult, and older people. Furthermore, by visiting groups located in different areas, I could also experience some differences related to the different socioeconomic contexts. However, the observed similarities among the discussion groups seem to override to a considerable extent the variations associated with these factors.
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I should stress that, while the second part of this article is explicitly inspired by Collins’s analysis of interaction rituals, it is based on my own understanding of his theoretical model that Collins might not see as entirely appropriate. Moreover, we should keep in mind that Collins (2004: ch. 4, 2005) does not view rational calculation as a realistic micro–model – a claim that many scholars working with rational choice theory also would concur with (Ferejohn & Satz, 1994; Lindenberg, 1992). Indeed, Collins’s analytical strategy tends to reduce as much as possible the space left to “cold” instrumental motivation (Barone, 2005; Collins, 2005).
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This is necessarily an extremely simplified account of doctrinal differences within Buddhism. For a discussion of the remarkable diversity of the practices and beliefs of the several Buddhist traditions, but also of the many commonalities and continuities among them, see Lopez (1995).
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Stark and Finke (2000) note that after wars, revolutions, natural disasters, and other dramatic collective events, NRMs are more likely to emerge. They suggest that this is mainly due to a destructuring of the network of social relationships, that favors a fluidification of the religious economy. They argue that, under normal circumstances, most people do not convert nor re-affiliate because they wish to preserve their social relationships, therefore they do not risk their attachments by embracing non-conventional religious beliefs. In other words, religious conformity is simply explained as a rational investment in one’s own social capital. Thus, when collective crises alter substantially social networks, conversion becomes less costly.
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For a long time, SG membership statistics have made reference to families, rather than to individuals.
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The following discussion is mainly concerned with the micro-theory of religious behavior, much more than with its macro-level implications (i.e., “the religious economy model”), that have attracted most attention in current debates (Iannaccone, 1994; Stark, 1997). Needless to say, the micro-level is closely intertwined to the functioning of the religious economies (see par. 4). I do not mean this sketchy description as a full theoretical presentation of this perspective: I only wish to “isolate” some of its leading theoretical principles and to apply them to my case study. Finally, I deal mainly with Stark’s formulation of this approach: we should keep in mind that, although it shares most core assumptions with the other rational choice models of religious behavior, some non-negligible differences are also present.
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To be sure, the metaphor of the religious economy model is not meant to be offensive. This perspective simply suggests that people are also able to make purposeful and meaningful choices with respect to their religious beliefs. Its advocates are only interested in “explaining the human side of religion” (Stark & Finke, 2000), but they deliberately refuse to express any explicit or implicit judgment on the validity of religious beliefs (Stark & Finke, 2000: ch. 1). In this exchange model, all that matters is that people believe that gods exist and place demands on humans, but the validity of this belief is of no relevance for this theory.
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This means that workers can easily join the meetings after work, also because they will often have the opportunity to find a discussion group that meets near their workplace. At the same time, young people and adults do not “waste” their whole evening for the meeting, while the elderly have the possibility of returning back home early.
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I leave aside in this work the internal disputes that characterized this religious movement for a short time in recent years and that seriously risked harming its positive reputation, as documented by Macioti (2002). While also from my interviews there is evidence of some discriminatory and authoritarian practices against some SG members during the period 2000–2001, these practices have been now completely abandoned and those who promoted them have been gradually marginalized. Not surprisingly, these events caused many members to leave SG, or to invoke more transparency in dealing with internal dissent.
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Similar conclusions are reported by Wilson and Dobbelaere (1994) in the case of Great Britain and by Hammond and Machacek (1999) for the United States. These studies also confirm the low-tension orientation towards the mainstream culture and they find evidence of organizational tactics to ensure legitimacy to SG. It is clear, for example, that in the United States also SG has adopted a low-visibility approach, including recruitment strategy based almost exclusively on “warm contacts.”
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We should note that Stark (2001: 621) is ready to recognize the existence of religions presenting impersonal entities, rather than gods with consciousness and desires. The former, however, do represent a rather problematic and uncomfortable bargaining partner for humans, according to his own exchange model. Suffice it to quote Stark and Finke’s (2000: 97) general definition of religion as consisting of “very general explanations of existence, including the terms of exchange with a god or gods.” Stark (2001: 621) further claims that “conceptions of supernatural are irrelevant to the moral order unless the supernatural is conceived of as a being – a thing having consciousness and desires” and that “participation in religious rites and rituals will have little or no independent effect on morality.” Again, the case of SG does not accord well with his claim. As earlier mentioned, SG does not endorse a traditional morality but at the same time it actively promotes postmodern values. Moreover, the involvement in its collective rituals plays a crucial role for the internalization of these moral instances (see par. 5).
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In this article, the term “collective effervescence” ought to be understood with specific reference to Collins’s theoretical model, while in the context of Durkheim’s work it would be better referred to social groups that are bigger than those examined here.
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In the light of our discussion concerning the expressive and integrative functions of religious groups dynamics, it may be of some interest to mention Finke’s observation that distinctive teachings on diet, sexual morality, and so on are important also because they reinforce group identity and discourage non-group involvement, while at the same time encouraging interaction with group members, which contributes to strengthen internal solidarity (Finke, 2004:21). Stark (1987) also noticed that maintaining dense internal network relations is one of the essential prerequisites for the success of new religions.
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Barone, C. A Neo-Durkheimian analysis of a new religious movement: The case of Soka Gakkai in Italy. Theor Soc 36, 117–140 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-007-9023-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-007-9023-3