Seeking the Principles of Power and Danger

Church 180 is situated on Hunter Street, the main road through Newcastle’s central business district, and housed in The Royal, an old art-deco cinema. The building’s exterior is elaborate with several distinct sections of unique design, while its condition has somewhat deteriorated over the years. Aside from a small sign bolted to the wall that indicated the presence of a church, there is nothing external to the building that signals its use for religious services. I arrived an hour before the service and the only sign of activity was a coffee cart set up to the side of the main entrance, in an attached vehicle bay. Most people seemed to arrive on foot; however, given the nature of the street it is hard to find parking in the immediate vicinity. The cars that did arrive outside of the building were typical of the area, standard production-line family cars and some utility vehicles that all appeared to be in good condition and well kept. As the service time drew nea...

Of course, Hitler didn’t live long enough to rub shoulders with supporters of foucauldian discourse theory, feminist-standpoint epistemology or any form of ‘post-modern’ sociological analysis and the parallel does not invalidate their position. But, Rob Moore’s use of the quote in Towards the Sociology of The Truth was a delicious if somewhat cheeky deployment of the dictator’s views to attack epistemological relativism, which is self-undermining and damaging to the discipline of sociology if taken too seriously. As of now, I’m only a couple chapters into the work but I’ve found nothing to quibble with and find myself nodding and agreeing - perhaps, that’s a fault in and of itself but I’d recommend it to anyone interested in the sociology of knowledge, science or education.