Joachim Wach

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Joachim Wach (January 25, 1898 – August 27, 1955) was a German religious scholar from Chemnitz, Kingdom of Saxony, who emphasised a distinction between the history of religion and the philosophy of religion.

He taught at the University of Chicago from 1945 to 1955 and, according to the University of Chicago Archives, use the methods of the social sciences to better understand religious thought. Developing the field known as the Sociology of religion, he maintained that the founder of a new religion experienced a revelation illuminating the way the world worked. He then began to acquire disciples who became a closely knit circle directed towards the founder with whom they each had intimate contact. The solidarity of this relationship bound the disciples together, and differentiated them from other forms of social organization. Membership in the group required a break with past life and its everyday pursuits in order to focus on the new knowledge to the extent that ties of family and kinship would be relaxed or severed.