GE-422 Introduction to Sociology

Every minister works among families, groups, markets and nations. Learn how sociology sees society, and how to use its tools in your church and community.

Following Common Ground, with the OpenStax textbook beside it, this course teaches sociology's main concepts, theories and methods. It starts with the sociological imagination: how personal troubles connect to public issues. It then looks at groups, inequality, religion and social change, and ends with debated questions about gender, wealth and the family. You read it all with three Christian lenses: what is true by God's gift to all, where sin bends things, and how Christians help to set them right.

What you will study

• The sociological imagination and research methods
• Culture and socialization: how we learn a way of life
• Social interaction and groups
• Social stratification: how inequality is built and kept
• Religion as a social institution
• Social change and modernization
• Debates on gender, sexuality and the family
• Poverty, wealth and economic systems

Course materials

• Common Ground, a WWES textbook
• Introduction to Sociology 3e, an OpenStax textbook