Philip Stephen Gorski is an American sociologist, interested in both the

sociology of religion Sociology of religion is the study of the beliefs, practices and organizational forms of religion using the tools and methods of the discipline of sociology. This objective investigation may include the use both of quantitative methods (surveys, ...

and

historical sociology Historical sociology is an interdisciplinary field of research that combines sociological and historical methods to understand the past, how societies have developed over time, and the impact this has on the present. It emphasises a mutual lin ...

Career

Gorski gained an A.A. from

Deep Springs College Deep Springs College (known simply as Deep Springs or DS) is a private, selective two-year college in Deep Springs, California. With the number of undergraduates restricted to 26, the college is one of the smallest institutions of higher educat ...

in 1983, his B.A. from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1986. and his Ph.D. from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

in 1996.
(accessed 6 November 2012) His advisor was sociologist of religion Robert Neelly Bellah. He worked at the

University of Wisconsin, Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

from 1996 until joining

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

in 2007, where he is co-director of the Center for Comparative Research alongside Julia Adams.
accessed 6 November 2012) Gorski has authored or co-authored three books, edited or co-edited three books, and published numerous articles. He was one of the editors of the journal '' Sociological Theory (journal), Sociological Theory''. In 2011 he was awarded the Lewis A. Coser Memorial Award for Theoretical Agenda Setting by the Theory Section of the

American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fif ...

''The Disciplinary Revolution''

In his 2003 book, ''The Disciplinary Revolution: Calvinism and the Rise of the State in Early Modern Europe'', Gorski offers a new explanation for the rise of a strong, centralized

nation-state A nation state is a political unit where the state and nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than "country", since a country does not need to have a predominant ethnic group. A nation, in the sense of a common ethnicity, may in ...

in certain areas of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

in early Modernity, when other areas were not so successful. Gorski rejects two of the dominant explanations, which are the bellicist explanation, which sees military growth as key to the emergence of strong states, and the

neo-Marxist Neo-Marxism is a Marxist school of thought encompassing 20th-century approaches that amend or extend Marxism and Marxist theory, typically by incorporating elements from other intellectual traditions such as critical theory, psychoanalysis, or exi ...

explanation, which sees economic factors as key to the explanation. Instead, Gorski points to the strong influence of religion in the formation of strong states. Specifically, Gorski sees

Calvinism Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John C ...

as crucial to the emergence of the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

as strong, centralized states, because of its emphasis on discipline and public order. The effects of Calvinism could be seen in social welfare, crime rates, in education, in military effectiveness, in financial responsibility, and many other parts of Dutch and Prussian social life, all of which increased their ability to form bureaucratic states. Where in the Netherlands the effect of Calvinism was from the ground upward, as most of its population was indeed Calvinist, in Prussia—where most of the population was

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...

and only the royal house was Calvinist—the effect was from the rulers downward (to some extent through the

Pietist Pietism (), also known as Pietistic Lutheranism, is a movement within Lutheranism that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christianity, Christian life, including a social concern for ...

Lutheran movement, which was influenced by Calvinism).

Influence of white Christian nationalism

With co-author, Samuel L. Perry, in 2022, Gorski traced a history of white Christian nationalism from the late seventeenth century to contemporary times, in order to demonstrate its previously unrealized influence upon democracy, violence, responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, the USA election of 2020, and the 2021 insurrection at the USA Capitol in Washington, D.C. The thesis of the book, ''The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy'', is that the ethno-nationalism of white Christian nationalism works in concert with Christian libertarianism by combining white Christian nationalism with white Christian individualism and, that recognition of that influence is supported by data published contemporaneously.Cummings, Mike,
Yale sociologist Phil Gorski on the threat of white Christian nationalism
', Yale News, March 15, 2022, with an extensive interview The extent of the threat to American democracy is examined.

Books

* Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, "The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy", (

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

, 2022), with a foreword by Jemar Tisby * Philip S. Gorski, "American Babylon: Christianity and Democracy Before and After Trump", (London:

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law ...

, 2020) * Philip S. Gorski, "American Covenant: A History of Civil Religion from the Puritans to the Present" (Princeton:

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

, 2017) * Philip S. Gorski, (ed.), ''Bourdieusian Theory and Historical Analysis'' (Durham, North Carolina:

Duke University Press Duke University Press is an academic publisher and university press affiliated with Duke University. It was founded in 1921 by William T. Laprade as The Trinity College Press. (Duke University was initially called Trinity College). In 1926 ...

, 2013) * Philip S. Gorski, David Kyuman Kim,

John Torpey John Christopher Torpey (born August 22, 1959) is an American academic, sociologist, and historian best known for his scholarship on the state, identity, and contemporary politics. Torpey is currently a professor of sociology and history at the ...

, and Jonathan VanAntwerpen (eds.), ''The Post-Secular In Question'' (New York:

NYU Press New York University Press (or NYU Press) is a university press that is part of New York University. History NYU Press was founded in 1916 by the then chancellor of NYU, Elmer Ellsworth Brown. Directors * Arthur Huntington Nason, 1916–19 ...

, 2012) * Philip S. Gorski, ''The Protestant Ethic Revisited'' (Philadelphia:

Temple University Press Temple University Press is a university press founded in 1969 that is part of Temple University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). It is one of thirteen publishers to participate in the Knowledge Unlatched pilot, a global library consortium approach ...

, 2011) * Philip S. Gorski, Charles Camic, and David Trubek (eds.), ''Max Weber’s Economy and Society: A Critical Companion'' (Stanford, California:

Stanford University Press Stanford University Press (SUP) is the publishing house of Stanford University. It is one of the oldest academic presses in the United States and the first university press to be established on the West Coast. It was among the presses officially ...

, 2005) * Philip S. Gorski, ''The Disciplinary Revolution: Calvinism, Confessionalism and the Growth of State Power in Early Modern Europe'' (Chicago:

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including '' The Chicago Manual of Style' ...

, 2003) * Andrei S. Markovits, and Philip S. Gorski, ''The German Left: Red, Green and Beyond'' (New York and Cambridge:

and Polity Press, 1993)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gorski, Philip S. American sociologists Yale University faculty Harvard University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Deep Springs College alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people)