Construction of a sociology of religious orders in the Dizionario degli istituti di perfezione

Begun a little after 1950, the DIP has had three editorial teams and three editorial programmes. We know practically nothing about what place the soci ology of religious orders was intended to have in the first project, since no records survive. The second project had a list of entries dealing with s ociohistorical themes, but none of them related to the sociology of religio us orders. The third editorial team decided from the outset to devote a sec tion entirely to the subject. In the course of the publication process (196 9-1971), the work was enriched by the contributions of sociologists from re ligious, secular and lay backgrounds.