report on my absence: social capital, embodied ideas, precision of expression

While Mary lead the class I was off to San Francisco to attend the annual, national meetings of the American Academy of Religion along with thousands (yes thousands) of other scholars of religion.  Even in a great city like San Francisco, where the sessions are spread over blocks rather than all in one convention center and one does go outside, the event has odd effects on one's sense of reality.  Sitting in a sub-divided ballroom listening to papers for hours on end is punctuated with odd glimpses of people one has not spoken to or thought of for years among the vast book displays as well as by shared meals with dear friends seldom seen.  There is a bit of the junior high/middle school dynamic in each encounter: quickly one must discern the appropriate status scale and calibrate one's response appropriately.

When a former classmate hailed me to put in a good word for a job applicant I thought of the ways in which social capital is not only generated by such organizations and "old school" ties, but also about how it is spent.  Perhaps I thought of that because I'd been to a session about Robert Putnam's new book, the very well received American Grace, co-authored by David Campbell.  It was not so much about social capital, but our old friend Alexis de Tocqueville did come up in the discussion several times.  Here I'm not going to rehearse the argument of the book, which is fascinating and largely regarded as solid; neither am I going to summarize the interesting, appreciative, yet challenging responses by a political theorist, a sociologist, and a theologian.  Rather two points:

1) I was reminded how much more engaging it is to merely listen in on conversations between real people in person than to read even a finely written article.  In part this is simply the energy produced by incarnate human beings in a room; and even more it is the interactive, responsiveness which demonstrates that knowledge and understanding are socially produced.  Frankly, it was remarkable to watch Robert Putnam listen to comments on his work and then stand up to respond with some passion and autobiographical references. 

2) I was wishing that those real live people would not resort to short-hand phrases.  "Nones" as short-hand for persons who declare no formal affiliation with a religious group.  At least that is where the term originated.  It did not mean that those persons had no religious ideas or spiritual practices or moral standards.  But, when we use the word "nones" without the original context, the meaning expands and becomes less useful.  Similarly when we speak of tolerance without an object, a fine characteristic is made vague.  It seemed to me, a listener in the audience, that more precise use of language would have given the conversation greater clarity.