One Hundred Years of Religion in Social Forces.

This article examines the role of religion as a central and enduring topic in the journal Social Forces (SF) over its first 100 years, highlighting its consistent focus on religion as a significant social force. Founded by Howard W. Odum, SF initially emphasized Christian institutions, particularly white Protestantism, but also featured early attention to tensions between science and religion and critiques of conservative religious views. From the mid-1920s to the 1940s, the journal shifted toward a more academic approach, broadening its scope to include diverse religious traditions and scholars, including Black, female, and non-Western voices. Since the 1960s, SF has prominently featured quantitative survey research on religion, debates on secularization, and studies of religion's influence on health, politics, and social behavior, while maintaining attention to intersections of race, class, and religion. Although recent decades show a slight decline in religion-focused articles, SF continues to serve as a key outlet for diverse and methodologically varied sociological research on religion and nonreligion.