Google “Roland Robertson” and you will immediately encounter the terms “globalization” (and “glocalization”).  Strict priority might be disputed, but if any single name is rightly associated with these concepts, it is his.

On the other hand, read his Wikipedia entry and you come away with the impression that the globalization work is all he ever did.  This is of course not so, and today I wish to speak to the import of some his earlier work (from the 1960’s and 1970’s), setting it in the context of its times as well as its impact on the ASR, in which he was heavily involved for much of his career and of which he was President in 1987-88.

Roland was born just outside Norwich […]

Gary Bouma was Australia’s pre-eminent sociologist of religion and a major contributor to sociology worldwide. A professor at Monash University, he held the UNESCO Chair in Intercultural and Interreligious Relations – Asia Pacific from 2005–21 and directed or participated in scores of national and international research projects on such topics as religious pluralism, religious tolerance, and religions’ role supporting multi-cultural societies. He authored or edited over 30 books and 360 articles, including the path-breaking Australian Soul (2006). He was the Chair of the Board of Directors for the 2009 Parliament of World Religions and also an ordained Anglican priest. To all these roles, he brought a deep commitment to social justice […]