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 THE VIRTUAL RELIGION INDEX (Rutger University Department of Religion)...This site is designed to advance research in matters of religion. As a global forum that may be accessed instantaneously anywhere, the internet promises to surpass the impact of the printing press on the study of religion. Gutenberg made possible the family Bible. The WWW puts a global library of free information on the desk of anyone with a computer & telephone line.
Efficient use of these resources, however, requires cataloging. Many religion-related web pages offer lists of links to sites of related interest. Some are extensive & a few annotated. Still, important tools & texts are often published & stashed in out of the way corners of the web, like here. To locate them one needs something deeper than a list of bookmarks, yet more circumspect than a gopher.
This Virtual Religion Index is a tool for students. It analyzes & highlights important content of religion-related websites to speed research. Hyperlinks are provided not only to homepages but to major directories & documents within. Our purpose is not to circumvent tours of worthy sites, but to cut down the time spent on surfing & sorting of gopher searches. After all if you know what source has information you can use, chances are you will visit it more often. We offer this free service in hope that you will come here again & again. JUST CLICK ON THE LOGO ABOVE.
Text Adapted from the Virtual Religion Index web site.
North America: Decline & Fall of World Religions, 1900-2025
by Justin D. Long
| Name |
1900 |
1925 |
1950 |
1975 |
2000 |
2025
|
| Christians |
96.6% |
93.2% |
88.7% |
86.8% |
84.9% |
83.3%
|
| Nonreligious |
1.2% |
1.9% |
2.8% |
4.4% |
8.7% |
10.0%
|
| Jews |
1.9% |
2.1% |
2.4% |
2.9% |
1.9% |
1.8%
|
| Muslims |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.1% |
0.3% |
1.4% |
1.7%
|
| Buddhists |
0.0% |
0.1% |
0.1% |
0.1% |
0.8% |
0.9%
|
| Atheists |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.1% |
0.5% |
0.5%
|
| Hindus |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.4% |
0.5%
|
| Chinese folk-religionists |
0.1% |
0.1% |
0.1% |
0.0% |
0.3% |
0.3%
|
| Baha'is |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.1% |
0.3% |
0.3%
|
| New-Religionists |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.2% |
0.3%
|
| Sikhs |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.2% |
0.2%
|
| Ethnoreligionists |
0.2% |
0.1% |
0.1% |
0.0% |
0.1% |
0.1%
|
| Spiritists |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.1% |
0.1%
|
| Shintoists |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0%
|
| Taoists |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0%
|
| Jains |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0%
|
| Parsees |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
In this issue we continue our series by examining the rise and fall of world religions in North America, defined by the United Nations to include Bermuda, Canada, Greenland, St. Pierre & Miquelon and the United States. This regions population is growing at an average rate of 0.9%, adding 2.6 million people each year.
Christianity is the largest professed religion in the region, with 241 million members in AD 1990 growing to 262 million by the year 2000. However, its size hides its slow decline. Although Christianity adds 2.2 million members annually through births to Christian households, it also loses 164,700 members through defections to other faiths. Its net growth rate of 0.8%--slightly under the region's population growth rate--means it is losing its share of the total population.
Not all Christian traditions are in decline. Roman Catholics are growing both through births and conversions, thus increasing their share of the population. Independent and Non-white indigenous churches, growing at 1.6% per year, are outstripping the population growth rate at a healthy margin; they are adding nearly half a million members through conversion alone. Marginal churches are growing at 1.7%, adding 94,000 yearly through conversion and the balance through birth. Unfortunately, Protestants are in serious decline, losing 1 member through defection for every 2 gained through births.
There are some bright spots especially among the trans-tradition groupings. Evangelicals (those who are part of mainline traditional Evangelical denominations) are growing at 1.12%, adding 202,000 through conversion and 822,000 through births yearly. Pentecostals are the second-fastest growing bloc in North American Christianity, at 1.3% each year. Great Commission Christians (those interested in mission and evangelism) are growing at 1.06%, adding 123,000 members through conversion each year. Even so, they comprise just 25% of the population--far less than Christianitys total 85%.
Some might ask how can Great Commission Christians be growing so quickly when Protestants are in decline. The answer can at least be partially found in George Barna's July/August report. In an article entitled "Finding believers in the strangest places," Barna notes that much of the recent growth among the ranks of "born-again Christians" is attributable to Catholic and marginal groups. For example, some 26% of Mormons say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ, believing that salvation is theirs by virtue of having "confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior." The answer for this puzzle from Barna's research: it seems that in this case, post-modernism actually works in favor of Great Commission Christians. Most Americans, he reports, have little theological understanding. "Few Mormons, Catholics or Protestants are able to articulate the basic doctrines of their church. An individual Christian in any of these groups may hold theological views which may be valid, but are contradictory to his church's teachings."
"Mormons are more likely to accept the total accuracy of Scriopture than were typical Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans or Presbyterians. They were also more likely to hold an orthodox biblical view of God, to have a sense of personal responsibility to evangelize, and to believe that Satan is real, and to reject the idea that Jesus sinned while on earth... By contrast less than half of all Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians and Lutherans were found to be 'absolutely committed' to the Christian faith..." (Barna Report, reviewed in Christian Thoughts & Trends, Feb. 1998).
But why are the numbers of Great Commission Christians so low? 25% out of 85% is not a very large number. Part of this, suggests the head of the Assemblies of God Home Mission (Intercultural Ministries) in a recent sermon in Richmond, Va., is due to our "policy of protection." "We spend hundreds of millions of dollars on Christian programming, Christian broadcasting, Christian radio... all of which is directed at Christians. We spend very little on Christian outreach. We have a policy of protection... of preserving what we have." In so doing, we forget that we have to reach out to increase.
The effort can be compared to a farmer who owns one hundred acres and plants wheat on them all. Then, he pours 70% of his water and effort into 30 acres. The wheat grows up, some of it strong and healthy, some of it rotted from all the water it receives. Meanwhile, the wind comes up and some of the water sprays over into 10 of the surrounding acres. Here, too, some of the wheat grows up strong and healthy. The rest of the wheat dies out from lack of water. So it is with our efforts. There are some converts from non-Christians who "happen to be flipping channels and run across _x_ television program..." or who "happen to be walking by the church and hear the music and wander in..." but by and large only Christians benefit from our efforts.
And so it is that non-Christians are being "watered" by other faiths, and those non-Christian religions are doing extremely well. Smaller religious blocs have a higher growth rate: 800,000 Bahais (2.46%), 156,000 Spiritists (1.81%), 850,000 Chinese folk-religionists (1.11%), 740,000 Asian New Religions (2.2%), and 520,000 Sikhs (2.66%). At 4%, the 400,000 ethnoreligionists are the fastest growing bloc of religions in North America.
However, its the big world religions that are really showing their muscle. Although they only number 0.8% of the total population, 2.4 million Buddhists at 2.75% are growing nearly three times as fast as Christianity, likely reaching 3.2 million by 2025. Likewise, 6 million Jews, though losing member through conversion, are gaining more through births, and will reach 6.6 million members by 2025. Muslims are growing only a bit slower than Jews, and will have roughly the same population by 2025. The 1.2 million Hindus are the second-fastest growing religion in North America, at 3.38%. They will reach 1.8 million members by AD 2025.
Not surprisingly, Christianitys two biggest competitors are not religious at all. From 1 million in 1900, the nonreligious have grown to 26 million today, and are maintaining a growth rate of 1.1% (mostly through births to nonreligious homes). Even more startling, atheists have grown from 2,000 in 1900 to 1.4 million today, and are maintaining a growth rate of 2%. Neither one of these show any sign of slacking off in the near future.
The fact is, in North America every other religion is gaining converts while Christianity is losing them. Perhaps one of the central reasons is the notable lack of concern of Christian churches for evangelism and mission. Our policy of preservation may not be very much protection at all. It's time to come out from behind those rose-colored stained glass windows, open up the fortresses, and urge Christians to have a balance in their programs--one-third of their effort directed at their own members, one-third directed at their nearby non-Christian neighbors, and one-third directed in mission to the unevangelized in World A.
Source: http://altreligion.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adherents.com
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TANAKH: HEBREW SCRIPTURES
The Tanakh
Though the word "Bible" is commonly used by non-Jews -- as are the terms "Old Testament" and "New Testament" -- the appropriate term to use for the Hebrew scriptures ("scripture" is a synonym used by both Jews and non-Jews) is Tanakh. This word is derived from the Hebrew letters of its three components:
Torah: The Books of Genesis (Bereshit), Exodus (Shemot), Leviticus (Vayikrah), Numbers (Bamidbar) and Deuteronomy (Devarim).
Nevi'im (Prophets): The Books of Joshua, Judges, I Samuel, II Samuel, I Kings, II Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habukkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. (The last twelve are sometimes grouped together as "Trei Asar" ["Twelve"].)
Ketuvim (Writings): The Books of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel (although not all that is included in the Christian Canon), Ezra and Nehemiah, I Chronicles, and II Chronicles.
It should be noted that the breaking of Samuel (Shmuel), Kings (Melachim) and Chronicles (Divrei hayamim) into two parts is strictly an artifact of the Christian printers who first issued the books. They were too big to be issued as single volumes. Because every one followed these de facto standards, the titles of Volume 1 and Volume 2 were attached to the names. The division of the Tanakh into chapters was also done by medieval Christians, and only later adopted by Jews.
Also, many Christian Bibles have expanded versions of several of these books (Ester, Ezra, Daniel, Jeremiah and Chronicles) including extra material that is not accepted as canonical in Judaism. This extra material was part of the ancient Greek translation of the Tanakh, but was never a part of the official Hebrew Tanakh. Jews regard the additional material as apocryphal. Among Christians, there is a difference of opinion. Catholics regard this material as canonical, while many Protestant sects regard this material as Apocrypha. What is and is not regarded as Apocrypha varies among the many Christian sects.Click here for the complete text of the Tanakh.
THE CHRISTIAN BIBLE
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One Womans Partial and Idiosyncratic Guide to Recent Literature in Sociology of Religion
Prepared by Nancy T. Ammerman
For the Northeast Regional Faculty Conference on Religion and American History November, 2001 Yale University
In the fall of 2001, a group of historians of American religion gathered from around the New England region, as they do each year, at Yale University. They asked me to talk to them about "what historians ought to be reading in sociology of religion." With such a wide-open invitation, I felt free to talk about the field as I see it, and the following list reflects my own take on how one might think about the issues and topics that have been at the forefront of the field. Because these were historians, I tried to think about questions that have been addressed over time, looking for how sociologists are contributing to our on-going understanding of how American religion has evolved.
Two guidelines further limited and shaped the list. First, I chose primarily monographic literature books that give an extended treatment, rather than more specialized and limited articles. There are, however, a few key exceptions you will note. Likewise, I chose primarily material that has been published in roughly the last 10 years. Clearly there are many classics that any student of the field ought to read, but for this list I wanted to bring people up to date, assuming that Weber, Marx, and Durkheim (and probably Neibuhr and Berger) were already on their shelves. Again, there are a few key exceptions, especially a few older items that might not previously have been thought of as required classics.
So, this list attempts to do two things. It provides a relatively short list of topics and issues that sociologists of religion have been thinking about. And for each, it provides a relatively short list of books that can give the reader an introduction to the findings and debates that have been informing us. Enjoy! I. Theoretical Debates
 Secularization
Rational Choice Theory
Practices and Narratives - 'Lived Religion'
II. Current trends and Hot Topics
Baby Boomers
New Religious Movements
 The Margins
The Cutting Edges?
Women
Religion and Family
Religion, Politics, Change, and Civil Society
New Christian Right
III. The Changing Religious Landscape
The Black Churches
Changing American Catholics
Diverse and Changing Jews
The New Immigrants
Congregations
IV. Older Religious Organizations and Groups
Issues of Change and Conflict
I. The Theoretical Debates
Secularization
Beckford, J. (2000). "'Start Together and Finish Together': Shifts in the Premises and Paradigms Underlying the Scientific Study of Religion." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 39(4): 481-96.
Berger, P. L. (1969). The Sacred Canopy. Garden City, New York, Anchor Doubleday. Buy it now
Berger, P. L. (1992). A Far Glory: The Quest for Faith in an Age of Credulity. New York, Free Press.
Casanova, J. (1994). Public Religions in the Modern World. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Buy it now
Smith, C. (1998). American Evangelicalism: Embattled and Thriving. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Buy it now
Sociology of Religion 60(3) (Fall, 1999) special issue with contributions from several key players in the debates.
Warner, R. S. (1993). "Work in Progress toward a New Paradigm for the Sociological Study of Religion in the United States." American Journal of Sociology 98(5): 1044-93.
Rational Choice Theory
Bruce, S. (2000). Choice and Religion: A Critique of Rational Choice. New York, Oxford University Press. Buy it now
Iannaccone, L. R. (1990). "Religious Practice: A Human Capital Approach." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 29(3): 297-314. Find this on the web
Iannaccone, L. R. (1991). "The Consequences of Religious Market Structure: Adam Smith and the Economics of Religion." Rationality and Society 3(2): 156-177.
Iannaccone, L. R. (1994). "Why Strict Churches are Strong." American Journal of Sociology 99(5): 1180-1211. Find this on the web
Jelen, Ted. (2002). Sacred Markets, Sacred Canopies: Essays on Religious Markets and Religious Pluralism. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Buy it now
Sherkat, D. E. and C. G. Ellison (1999). "Recent Developments and Current Controversies in the Sociology of Religion." Annual Review of Sociology 25: 363-394.
Stark, R. and R. Finke (2000). Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion. Berkeley, Cal., University of California Press. Buy it now
Young, L. A., Ed. (1997). Rational choice theory and religion: summary and assessment. New York, Routledge. Buy it now
Practices and Narratives: Popular Religion, Rituals, Practices, Spirituality, Material Culture "Lived Religion"
Ammerman, N. T. (1997). "Organized Religion in a Voluntaristic Society." Sociology of Religion 58(2): 203-215. Find it on this site
Becker, P. E. and N. L. Eiesland, Eds. (1997). Contemporary American Religion: An Ethnographic Reader. Walnut Creek, Cal., AltaMira Press. Buy it now
Hervieu-Leger, D. (2000). Religion as a Chain of Memory. New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers University Press. Buy it now
Warner, R. S. (1997). "Religion, Boundaries, and Bridges." Sociology of Religion 58(3): 217-238.
Wuthnow, R. (1998). After Heaven: Spirituality in America since the 1950s. Berkeley, University of California Press. Buy it now
Wuthnow, R. (2001). Creative Spirituality: The Way of the Artist. Berkeley, Cal., University of California Press. Buy it now
II. Current Trends and Hot Topics
Baby Boomers
Hoge, D. R., B. Johnson, et al. (1994). Vanishing Boundaries: The Religion of Mainline Protestant Baby Boomers. Louisville, Westminster/John Knox. Buy it now
Hoge, D. R., W. D. Dinges, et al. (2001). Young Adult Catholics: Religion in the Culture of Choice. Chicago, University of Notre Dame Press. Buy it now
Roof, W. C. (1993). A Generation of Seekers. San Francisco, Harper San Francisco. Buy it now
Roof, W. C. (1999). Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion. Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press. Buy it now
New Religious Movements
-- The Margins
Hall, J. R. (1987). Gone from the Promised Land: Jonestown in American Cultural History. New Brunswick, Transaction. Buy it now
Hall, J. R. (2000). Apocalypse Observed: Religious Movements and Violence in North America, Europe and Japan. New York, Routledge. Buy it now
Lewis, J. R. (1994). From the Ashes: Making Sense of Waco. London, Rowman & Littlefield.
Palmer, S. J. (1994). Moon Sisters, Krishna Mothers, Rajneesh Lovers: Women's Roles in New Religions. Syracuse, Syracuse University Press. Buy it now
Robbins, T. and S. Palmer (1997). Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem: Contemporary Apocalyptic Movements. New York, Routledge. Buy it now
Saliba, J. A. (1995). Understanding New Religious Movements. Grand Rapids, Mich., William B. Eerdmans Publishing. Buy it now
Wright, S. A. (1995). Armageddon in Waco: Critical Perspectives on the Branch Davidian Conflict. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Buy it now
-- The Cutting Edges?
Berger, H. A. (1999). A Community of Witches: Contemporary Neo-Paganism and Witchcraft in the United States. Columbia, S.C., University of South Carolina Press. Buy it now
Miller, D. E. (1997). Reinventing American Protestantism. Berkeley, University of California Press. Buy it now
Neitz, M. J. (2000). "Queering the Dragonfest: Changing Sexualities in a Post-Patriarchal Religion." Sociology of Religion 61(4): 369-392.
Wilcox, M. M. (2001). "Of Markets and Missions: The Early History of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches." Religion and American Culture 11(1): 83-108.
Wuthnow, R. (1994). Sharing the Journey. New York, Free Press. Buy it now
Women (especially in conservative traditions)
Brasher, B. E. (1998). Godly Women: Fundamentalism and Female Power. New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press. Buy it now
Brusco, E. E. (1995). The Reformation of Machismo: Evangelical Conversion and Gender in Colombia. Austin, University of Texas Press. Buy it now
Davidman, L. (1991). Tradition in a Rootless World. Berkeley, University of California Press. Buy it now
Gilkes, C. T. (2001). "If It Wasn't for the Women...": Black Women's Experience and Womanist Culture in Church and Community. Maryknoll, N.Y., Orbis Books. Buy it now
Gillespie, J. B. (1995). Women Speak: Of God, Congregations and Change. Valley Forge, Penn., Trinity Press International. Buy it now
Griffith, R. M. (1997). God's Daughters: Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission. Berkeley, Calif., University of California Press. Buy it now
Kaufmann, D. (1991). Rachel's Daughters. New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press. Buy it now
Manning, C. (1999). God Gave Us the Right: Conservative Catholic, Evangelical Protestant, and Orthodox Jewish Women Grapple with Feminism. New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press. Buy it now
Religion and Family
Bartkowski, J. P. (2001). Remaking the Godly Marriage: Gender Negotiation in Evangelical Families. New Brunswick, N.J., Rutgers University Press. Buy it now
Becker, P. E. (2001). Articles linked at www.hirr.hartsem.edu/research/research_religion_family.html
Klassen, P. E. (2001). Blessed Events: Religion and Home Birth in America. Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press. Buy it now
Religion, Politics, Change, and Civil Society
Aho, J. A. (1990). The Politics of Righteousness: Idaho Christian Patriotism. Seattle, University of Washington Press. Buy it now
Demerath, N. J., III and R. H. Williams (1992). A Bridging of Faiths: Religion and Politics in a New England City. Princeton, Princeton University Press.
Harris, F. (1999). Something Within: Religion in African-American Political Activism. New York, Oxford University Press. Buy it now
Pattillo-McCoy, M. (1998). "Church Culture as a Strategy of Action in the Black Community." American Sociological Review 63: 767-784.
Skocpol, T. (2000). "Religion, Civil Society, and Social Provision in the U.S." Who Will Provide? The Changing Role of Religion in American Social Welfare. M. J. Bane, B. Coffin and R. F. Thiemann. Boulder, Colo., Westview Press: 21-50.
Smith, C. S. (1996). Disruptive Religion: The Force of Faith in Social Movement Activism. New York, Routledge. Buy it now
Verba, S., K. L. Schlozman, et al. (1995). Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge, Harvard University Press. Buy it now
Williams, Rhys H. Ed. (1997) Cultural Wars in American Politics: Critical Reviews of a Popular Myth. New York, Aldine de Gruyter. Buy it now
Wolfe, A. (1998). One Nation, After All. New York, Viking. Buy it now
Wuthnow, R. (1998). Loose Connections: Joining Together in America's Fragmented Communities. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press. Buy it now
Wuthnow, R. and J. H. Evans, Eds. (2002). The Quiet Hand of God: Faith Based Activism and the Public Role of Mainline Protestantism. Berkeley, Cal., University of California Press. Buy it now
New Christian Right
Green, J. C., J. L. Guth, et al. (1996). Religion and the Culture Wars: Dispatches from the Front. Lanham, MD, Rowman & Littlefield.
Green, J. C., M. J. Rozell, et al., Eds. (2000). Prayers in the precincts : the Christian right in the 1998 elections. Washington, D.C., Georgetown University Press. Buy it now
Harding, Susan F. (2000). The Book of Jerry Falwell: Fundamentalist Language and Politics. Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press. Buy it now
Smith, C. (2000). Christian America? What Evangelicals Really Want. Berkeley, Cal., University of California Press. Buy it now
III. The Changing Religious Landscape
The Black Churches
Billingsley, A. (2000). Mighty Like a River: The Black Church and Social Reform. New York, Oxford University Press. Buy it now
Kostarelos, F. (1995). Feeling the Spirit: Faith and Hope in an Evangelical Black Storefront Church. Columbia, SC, University of South Carolina Press. Buy it now
Lincoln, C. E., L. Mamiya. (1990). The Black Church and the African American Experience. Durham, Duke University Press. Buy it now
McRoberts, O. M. (2000). Saving Four Corners. Diss., Sociology, Harvard University.
Morris, A. D. (1984). The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change. New York, Free Press. Buy it now
Nelson, T. J. (1997). "He Made a Way Out of No Way: Religious Experience in an African-American Congregation." Review of Religious Research 39(1): 5-26.
Changing American Catholics
DAntonio, W.V., et al. (2001). American Catholics: Gender, Generation, and Commitment. Walnut Creek, Cal.: Altamira. Buy it now
Dillon, M. (1999). Catholic Identity: Balancing Reason, Faith and Power. New York, Cambridge University Press. Buy it now
Schoenherr, R. A. and L. A. Young (1993). Full Pews and Empty Altars: Demographics of the Priest Shortage in the United States Catholic Dioceses. Madison, University of Wisconsin Press. Buy it now
Diverse and Changing Jews
Diamond, E. (2000). And I Will Dwell in Their Midst: Orthodox Jews in Suburbia. Chapel Hill, N.C., University of North Carolina Press. Buy it now
Heilman, S. C. (1999). Defenders of the Faith: Inside Ultra-Orthodox Jewry. Berkeley: University of California Press. Buy it now
Lazerwitz, B., J. A. Winter, et al. (1998). Jewish Choices: American Jewish Denominationalism. Albany, NY, SUNY Press. Buy it now
Wertheimer, Jack. (2000) Jews in the Center: Conservative Synagogues and Their Members. New Brunswick, N.J., Rutgers University Press. Buy it now
The New Immigrants
Ebaugh, H. R. and J. S. Chafetz (2000). Religion and the New Immigrants: Continuities and Adaptations in Immigrant Congregations. Walnut Creek, Cal., Altamira Press. Buy it now
Numrich, P. D. (1995). Old Wisdom in the New World: Americanization in Immigrant Theravada Buddhist Temples. Knoxville, Tenn., University of Tennessee Press. Buy it now
Walbridge, L. S. (1997). Without Forgetting the Imam: Lebanese Shi'ism in an American Community. Detroit, Wayne State University Press. Buy it now
Warner, R. S. and J. G. Wittner (1998). Gatherings in Diaspora: Religious Communities and the New Immigration. Philadelphia, Temple University Press. Buy it now
IV. Older Religious Organizations and Groups
Issues of Change and Conflict
Ammerman, N. T. (1990). Baptist Battles: Social Change and Religious Conflict in the Southern Baptist Convention. New Brunswick, New Jersey,Rutgers University Press. Buy it now
Chaves, M. (1997). Ordaining Women: Culture and Conflict in Religious Organizations. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press. Buy it now
Lehman, E. (1993). Gender and Work: The Case of the Clergy. Albany, NY, State University of New York Press. Buy it now
Wallace, R. (1992). They Call Her Pastor: A New Role for Catholic Women. Albany, State University of New York. Buy it now
Wellman Jr, J. K. (1999). "The Debate over homosexual ordination: Subcultural identity theory in American religious organizations." Part of a special issue on debates over homosexuality in Review of Religious Research 41: 184-206.
Zikmund, B. B., A. T. Lummis, et al. (1998). Clergy Women: An Uphill Calling. Louisville, Westminster/John Knox. Buy it now
Congregations
Ammerman, N. T. (1997). Congregation and Community. New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press. Buy it now
Becker, P. E. (1999). Congregations in Conflict: Cultural Models of Local Religious Life. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Buy it now
Chaves, M., M. E. Koneiczny, et al. (1999). "The National Congregational Study; Background, Methods, and Selected Results." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 38(4): 458-476.
Cnaan, R. A. (1999). The Newer Deal: Social Work and Religion in Partnership. New York, Columbia University Press.
Douglass, H. P. and E. d. S. Brunner (1935). The Protestant Church as a Social Institution. New York, Harper and Row.
Eiesland, N. (2000). A Particular Place: Urban Restructuring and Religious Ecology. New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press. Buy it now
Warner, R. S. (1988). New Wine in Old Wineskins. Berkeley, University of California Press. Buy it now
Warner, R. S. (1994). "The Place of the Congregation in the Contemporary American Religious Configuration." American Congregations: New Perspectives in the Study of Congregations. J. Wind and J. Lewis. Chicago, University of Chicago Press: 54-99. Buy it now
Wellman Jr, J. K. (1999). The Gold Coast Church and the Ghetto: Christ and Culture in Mainline Protestantism. Champagne, Ill., University of Illinois Press. Buy it now
Wind, J. P. and J. W. Lewis, Eds. (1994). American Congregations: Portraits of 12 Religious Communities. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Buy it now
Wuthnow, R. (1997). The Crisis in the Churches: Spiritual Malaise, Fiscal Woe. New York, Oxford University Press. Buy it now
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THE QU'RAN
THE FOLLOWING WORKS FROM MY PERSONAL COLLECTION ARE AVAILABLE TO MY STUDENTS FOR FURTHER READING AND/OR CLASS PRESENTATIONS.
Science, Life, and Christian Belief. Malcolm A. Jeeves & R. J. Berry. Grand Rapids, MI: BakerBooks, 1998. 305 Pages.
The Dream and the Tomb: A History of the Crusades, by Robert Payne. NY: Stein and Day, Publishers, 1984, 421 Pages.
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Emile Durkheims Analysis of Religion: A Functionalist Perspective
What Durkheim was attempting to analyze were several interrelated religious issues. Why, he asked, do religious beliefs persist worldwide, including the industrially developed countries of Europe, in the wake of tremendous advances and changes in levels of societal literacy, industrial production, and massive social change?
One way of looking at religious phenomena is that as knowledge increases and more scientific advances are made, religion will gradually fall away and become an insignificant part of peoples daily lives. Yet, that has not happened nor does it seem likely to happen. Why do people continue to believe in Gods? What functions does religion serve in society? As a functional sociologist and theorist, Durkheim analyzed religion as a way of bring about group solidarity, as a means of unifying people in a common worldview through the use of symbols and rituals, and as a way of answering very basic and essential human questions that are timeless.
Durkheim was analyzing what ALL religions have in common, from the smallest hunting and gathering societies to the industrialized countries of Europe. He was not simply analyzing world religions, such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, but all forms of religions.
This is what Durkheim concluded in his analyses of the forms of Religion worldwide:
Religion is simply NOT just a set of superstitious tales or stories about ghosts, goblins, spirits, and gods.
All Gods represent something real, that is, they have a basis in Social Facts or Social Realities as defined by the particular group under study. To them, God exist.
What all religions have in common is that they comprise the Sacred (as opposed to the secular or what he referred as the Profane), they utilize Sacred Symbols and Rituals, in which what is important is the Form of the Ritual, and the Symbols they represent. Remember, his question was, what do all religions have in common.
Gods are perceived as Transcendent, Omniscient, All-Powerful, Holders of Life and Death, and Terrifying Powers that reward and punish people for bad and good behavior and actions. These are all Social Facts, as perceived by worshippers, and ultimately Morality. There can not be Morality with the Group or Society.
There is only one Entity or Reality that performs the same functions as God, and that is Society. God, wherever found, is a Reification (that is, held up as a living and concrete supernatural being or spirit or power) of SOCIETY. In social reality, according to Durkheim, there is a God because there is Society. They are one and the same for the following reasons.
We carry constructions of God within us and God is external to us. This is the same construction we have of Society.
Everything we have, language, symbols, perceptions of self, religious values, etc., we have acquired from Society, through its norms, values, beliefs, and morality.
Our sense of who we are comes from our perceptions of what others appear to think of us.
It is Society that gave us life and the essential needs. We did not invent anything but we were socialized to use all the culture and other valuables available to us from Society. From Society through our families, religion, economics, government, etc.
We are human because of Society. Society also has the power to kill us or to banish us.
Although most people do not realize or understand this, they do not have to, because the Social Fact is that Religions exist because Gods exist and Gods exist because Societies exist, and we as members of social groups could not exist without Societies (Groups, Symbols, Morality, Languages, Culture). We literally could not be human beings without Society, which is all-powerful and transcendent. Society was here before us and will be here after we die. It provides all the means necessary for groups of people to function as human beings. So do Gods to the Believers.
The organization and complexity of any particular Religion is a reflection of its Societys political, social, and economic structures. Moreover, because Conflict is also a universal unpleasant fact, Religious beliefs have systems of good and bad Gods, angels, prophets, etc.
There are several points to keep in mind that are important in Sociology regarding Durkheims analyses:
1. It is one way of analyzing the sacred symbols and rituals of Religions, but not the only one.
2. One reason we still study Durkheims analyses is that they have stood the test of time. Religion does have mechanisms for bringing about group solidarity, important for the cohesiveness of groups.
3. God is a Social Fact because Sciety is a Social Fact.
4. This is an example of the Sociological perspective, in which some of the relevant, interesting, and exciting work is the everyday and mundane social lives of people, in which we analyze social processes that the vast majority of people take for granted.
5. The reward for the believers in Gods is emotional security and a profound sense of belonging in the group with the added reassurance of good standing in the group and all the rewards that come with such good standing, in this life and the next.
6. Durkheims analytical framework, Functionalism, is concerned with what cause social cohesion and social solidarity. To understand how Gods and Religions cause Conflict, we need to use another perspective, the Conflict perspective, and we will do that when we get to the chapters on gender, race, stratification, and the family.
ADDENDUM: OUTLINE OF LECTURES ON DURKHEIM'S ANALYSIS OF RELGION: A FUNCTIONALIST STUDY.
1. One View....God is a Supreme Reality, a Transcendent and Terrifying Omniscient Power with Unlimited Power to Reward and Punish.
2. Another View....Irrational Superstitions about things that do not exist; archaic, irrational beliefs about an invisible world made up of spirits, ghosts, and spirits. Or as Karl Marx put it, the Opiate of the Masses.
Here we see how Durkheim, a Functionalist Sociologist, analyzed elementary forms of Religion around the World within a Framework of Religion as a Cohesive and Unifying Social Reality.
3. To Durkheim, the KEY was not particular beliefs, but the RITUALS performed at these Sacred gathering and communions of participants.
While Beliefs are Important, they are not important in their own right, but as SYMBOLS OF SOCIAL GROUPS.
RITUALS...only the Forms and Arrangements change from society to society, the Rituals persist.
ANALYSIS: WITHOUT RITUALS AND SUMBOLS, SOCIAL GROUPS WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE.
4. COMMON BASIS OF RELIGIOUS BELIEFS: Rituals and Beliefs that Represent Something Real. It is not that People have been in error all these eons, nor that people have made a very serious error in Reasoning because Religious Beliefs represent something Real. To People, these Gods are Social Facts; perceived as Fact by Social Definition of a Reality. And these Gods represent something much more powerful than Individuals.
5. So, What is it that all Religions around the World have in Common? Two things...Certain Sacred Beliefs Held by All Adherents and Certain Social Group and Collective Rituals. The Sacred World or Reality is dangerous and Extremely Important; it must be approached seriously and with deferrence. It is the Rituals that counts and they must be performed the correction way, and Rituals are Meaningful ONLY if performed correctly.
6. Hence, to make Durkheim's long long analysis short, there is only ONE Reality that has all the attributes of the DIVINE, and that is SOCIETY AS A REAL THING, A PRESENCE THAT EXISTS WITHIN US BUT ALSO WITHOUT US AND THE RITUALS AND THE SACRED SYMBOLS ACTUALLY GLORIFY AND DEFITY THE SOCIAL GROUP THAT CREATES EVERYTHING ESSENTIAL FOR US TO SURVIVE, THE SOCIETY.
THIS IS THE FUNDAMENT SOCIAL FACT THAT RELIGION EXPRESSES TO ITS PEOPLE, THAT GOD IS A SYMBOL OF SOCIETY, WHETHER THE PEOPLE REALIZE THAT OR NOT. HENCE, GOD IS NOT AN ILLUSION. GODS EXIST INTERNALLY AND EXTERNALLY. GODS ARE GREATER THAN INDIVIDUALS. SO IS SOCIETY. SOCIETY, LIKE GODS, GAVE US OUR LIVES. SOCIETY, LIKE GOD, CAN PUNISH AND KILL US OR REWARD US.
AND LIKE SOCIETY, WE HAVE HIERARCHIES OF GODS, LESSER GODS, EVIL BEINGS AND GODS, ETC., TO REFLECT THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS OF THE DIFFERENT LEVELS OF SOCIAL STRUCTURES IN SOCIETIES. THAT IS WHY THERE IS EVIL AND HELL, HEAVEN AND MORALITY. MORALITY CANNOT BE BUT SOCIAL BY DEFINITION.
THE REWARDS TO PEOPLE FOR CONFORMING AND BEING ADHERENTS OF GODS IS THAT THEY RECEIVE EMOTIONAL SECURITY, STRONG SENSE OF BELONGING, FEELINGS OF STRENGTH AND UNITY, PURPOSE IN LIFE, MEMBERSHIP IN GOOD STANDING, AND HEAVEN WHEN THEY DIE. TO DIE A SINNER IS TO BE EXCLUDED FROM THIS COMMUNITY TO BE CONDEMNED IN SOME SORT OF HELL. THE SYMBOLISM OF RELIGION MIRRORS THE SOCIAL WORLD.
WE CAN SEE THE SAME MECHANISMS AND SYMBOLISM IN SPORTS AND SPORTS TEAMS, POLITICAL PARTIES, SUPPORT SYSTEMS, ETC. THESE PRINCIPLES CAN BE APPLIED TO ALL KINDS OF GROUPS.
PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THIS IS NOT THE ONLY WAY THAT SOCIETY CAN BE ANALYZED, THAT IS, HOW SYMBOLS AND SOCIAL SOLIDARITY STRENGTH SOCIAL GROUPS, SOCIAL ORDER, AND COHESIVENESS.
LATER THIS SEMESTER, WE WILL SEE HOW CONFLICT THEORISTS ANALYZE RELIGION AND SYMBOLS.
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