Religion in America

Pearce, Lisa D.; Gilliland, Claire Chipman

doi:10.2307/j.ctv125jrzp

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Building on theoretical insights from the "complex inequality" and "intersectionality" literatures, a growing number of sociologists propose that scholars must take seriously the profound connectedness of American religion with race and class, among other forms of inequality (Edgell 2017, Wilde 2018, Yukich & Edgell 2020. Wilde & her co-authors (Wilde 2018, Wilde & Glassman 2016, Wilde & Tevington 2017, see also Braunstein 2021, Pearce & Gilliland 2020, Chap. 2, O'Brien & Abdelhadi 2020 have called this approach "complex religion."…”

Section: Complex Religionmentioning

confidence: 99%

American Religion in the Era of Increasing Polarization

Perry

2022

Annu. Rev. Sociol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Americans are increasingly polarized by a variety of metrics. The dimensions, extent, causes, and consequences of that polarization have been the subject of much debate. Yet despite the centrality of religion to early discussions, the analytical focus on America's divides has largely shifted toward partisan identity, political ideology, race, and class interests. I show that religion remains powerfully implicated in all dimensions of American polarization, and sociologists must once again make religion more central to their analyses. After outlining research on American polarization, focusing on the role of religion, I survey findings within the burgeoning literatures on cultural transformation processes, (White) Christian nationalism, complex religion, and Americans’ attitudes toward science in order to underscore the centrality of ethno-religious identities, religious demography, and religious institutions for both shaping and exacerbating various forms of polarization. Lastly, I propose an agenda for elucidating religion's ongoing role in understanding polarization beyond public opinion research at the macro-, meso-, and micro-levels. Though polarization research has been dominated by political scientists, leveraging religion in our analyses—not merely as a sui generis variable, but as a site of complex social behavior—facilitates novel sociological contributions to these literatures via our relative attention to multiple levels of analysis, theoretical eclecticism, and methodological fluidity. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Sociology, Volume 48 is July 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

show abstract

Section: Complex Religionmentioning

confidence: 99%

American Religion in the Era of Increasing Polarization

Perry

2022

Annu. Rev. Sociol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In the United States, theological schools are important hubs of religious institutionalization designed to support and cultivate the spirituality of their students (Porter et al 2019), and are currently undergoing dramatic changes in their vision and identity following population declines in formal religious affiliation and adherence (Aleshire 2021). For example, the population share of adherents to major Protestant denominations, with which many theological schools are connected, has shrunk by roughly half since the 1970s, and the number of Americans with no religious affiliation has increased from 6 to 20 percent in the same period (Pearce and Gilliland 2020). In such spaces, religious deconstruction can be both a defining project and an existential threat, as in the oft-heard maxim that "seminary is where religious people go to lose their faith".…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Spirituality of Deconstruction in United States Theological Schools

Manglos-Weber,

Alvarez Hurtado,

Wang

2024

Religions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Building on a movement within the sociology of religion to better situate studies of spirituality in relation to contexts, practices, and power relations, the current study examines shifts in spiritual practice associated with “deconstruction” among graduate students within theological education. We rely on new interview data with a cohort of 30 students at time 1 (2020) and follow-ups with 22 of those students at time 2 (2022), comparing students at four different types of schools (Mainline Protestant, Evangelical Protestant, Catholic, and Black Protestant), and oversampling for students of historically minoritized identities. After identifying patterns in the spirituality of deconstruction, including trends toward embodiment, attunement to the natural world, social activism, and syncretism, we examine how these students perceive the responses of their theological schools to students’ deconstructing spirituality. We especially note a pattern of ambivalence, where certain aspects of the institution (especially some individual faculty and administrators, and student affinity groups) support and model deconstruction for their students. We argue that the spirituality of deconstruction may, therefore, function to both challenge and regenerate institutionalized contexts of religion in an overall setting of institutional decline.

show abstract

American Religion in the Era of Increasing Polarization

Perry¹

2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Americans are increasingly polarized by a variety of metrics. The dimensions, extent, causes, and consequences of that polarization have been the subject of much debate. Yet despite the centrality of religion to early discussions, the analytical focus on America’s divides has largely shifted toward partisan identity, political ideology, race, and class interests. I show that religion remains powerfully implicated in all dimensions of American polarization, and sociologists must once again make religion more central to their analyses. After outlining research on American polarization, focusing on the role of religion, I survey findings within the burgeoning literatures on cultural transformation processes, (white) Christian nationalism, complex religion, and Americans’ attitudes toward science in order to underscore the centrality of ethno-religious identities, religious demography, and religious institutions for both shaping and exacerbating various forms of polarization. Lastly, I propose an agenda for elucidating religion’s ongoing role in understanding polarization beyond public opinion research at the macro-, meso-, and micro-levels. Though polarization research has been dominated by political scientists, leveraging religion in our analyses—not merely as a sui generis “variable,” but as a “site” of complex social behavior—facilitates novel sociological contributions to these literatures via our relative attention to multiple levels of analysis, theoretical eclecticism, and methodological fluidity.

show abstract

Religion in America

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

American Religion in the Era of Increasing Polarization

American Religion in the Era of Increasing Polarization

The Spirituality of Deconstruction in United States Theological Schools

American Religion in the Era of Increasing Polarization

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About