Sociological Theory

A critical survey of the foremost paradigms in contemporary sociological theory. The course emphasizes the historical intellectual location of major theoretical traditions, especially the works of Durkheim, Marx, and Weber. Contemporary schools of thought include functionalism, conflict, and rational choice theories, symbolic interactionism and dramaturgical analysis, phenomenology and ethnomethodology, structuralism, feminist theories, and postmodernism. For each, special attention is given to how to evaluate theories and how theoretical paradigms are linked to empirical research within the frame of a Christian worldview.