Smith on The sacred project of American sociology

"not many sociologists are as sociological about themselves as they are about the world around them.  They can carefully train their sociological scopes on everyone and everything beyond themselves, yet fail to see and name the basic true character of the [sacred] project that animates and directs their own professional endeavors. . . .  The only need . . . for any sociological analysis or debunking is to expose for transformation anything outside of sociology that gets in the way of realizing the sacred aspirations of that project.  That and only that is what the critical sociological eye is meant for."

     Christian Smith, The sacred project of American sociology (Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 2014), 175-176, italics mine.