Religion in Global Perspective: SSSR Presidential Panel KATHERINE MEYER President, SSSR; Program Director in Sociology National Science Foundation; Professor Emeritus of Sociology The Ohio State University EILEEN BARKER Professor Emeritus of Sociology with Special Reference to the Study of Religion London School of Economics HELEN ROSE EBAUGH Department of Sociology University of Houston MARK JUERGENSMEYER Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies; Global & International Studies, Sociology, and Religious Studies, University of California-Santa Barbara Global processes present a challenge for scholarly work on religion, necessitating new concepts, theoretical and analytical models, intellectual sensitivity, and imagination. This calls for focusing on (1) cross-border interpenetration of religious organizations, beliefs, and practices; (2) variations in the potential for religious beliefs and institutions to be transported; and (3) the use of multiple frames of reference to examine the dispersion of religious cultures and communities. A presidential panel presents the need for generating new research questions, improving measurement tools, and updating methodological techniques so that social scientists of religion accurately and authentically portray the nature and expression of religion in the 21st century. Keywords: globalization, global religion, migration, immigration. INTRODUCTION As the program for these meetings illustrates, a theme that runs through our days together in Baltimore is “Religion in Global Perspective.” Complementing the over 500 papers at these meetings that consider religious institutions, beliefs, practices, and individuals in various parts of the globe, comparisons of them, their interconnectivities, and their vitality, there is a large number of scholars here from 24 nations other than the United States. And there are U.S.-based scholars whose work on religion spans the globe. The body of over 600 scholars assembled here employs concepts and methods drawn from anthropology, economics, history, political science, psychology, religious studies, sociology, theology, women’s studies, and related social science disciplines. As Nancy Ammerman in her presidential address of 2005 noted, these meetings lay out before us research questions and data from multiple voices with great richness and urgency (Ammerman et al. 2006). The goal of today’s address is to further stimulate conversation about the theme of these meetings. And I asked three prominent scholars and friends to weigh in on what elements are important in a global perspective for the study of religion. (Clearly, the incongruity of addressing that question with only one voice, mine, was apparent to me from the start.) I begin by setting a stage for the conversation. Historical Context and Current Challenge Over the years, I have engaged in research on institutions that have a global reach. Studying conflict and change in the Catholic Church during the post-Vatican II decades with John Seidler Correspondence should be addressed to Katherine Meyer, National Science Foundation, Social Behavioral and Economic Sciences, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22230. E-mail: meyer.23@osu.edu Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (2011) 50(2):240–251 C  2011 The Society for the Scientific Study of Religion