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Religion is permitted in China, but its practice is tightly regulated by the state. This paper uses individual‐level longitudinal data to investigate the association between religious regulation and religious outcomes in China. Measures of regulation are constructed from instances of state action against Christians as well as Christian perceptions of unfair treatment by the government. In summary, as regulation increases, an individual is less likely to identify with a religion and less likely to say that religion is important. For those individuals without religious identification in either wave, regulation is negatively associated with religious importance. Yet, for those individuals with identification in one or two waves, regulation is either unassociated or even positively associated with importance. These findings contribute to research on regulation of religion and religion in China. More broadly, they demonstrate the state can wield considerable power over people's private lives but also that this power has limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the annual meeting of the society of scientific study of religion at Vista International Hotel Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This year's theme of religious marginality encourages participants to go beyond core beliefs and practices of members of mainline churches to the expressions of interest or disinterest in religion that are less common religious experience, mixed intermarriage, unclear interpreting "don't know" responses to questions on belief, nonestablishment (religion among street people), or rejections of religion atheism and apostasy. List of topics related to this year's theme would include, denominational switching and conversion, sources of membership change in the mainline churches, apostates and returnees, new nones (apostates) vs. stable nones with no prior ties, inter-religious marriage and religion of children, divorce, religious socialization of children, religiosity and the life cycle, Inter-racial marriage and religion and the Black Church.

Despite prayer's central role in religious life, quantitative research on prayer typically focuses on its frequency without regard to the total amount, to why, to whom, or for what a person might be praying, nor how people feel when they pray. In this paper, we broaden our understanding of the prayer practices of American adults by focusing on their (1) quantity of prayer, (2) style of prayer, (3) purpose of prayer, (4) prayer target, and (5) emotional state during prayer. Using the Baylor Religion Survey (N = 1248), collected January–March 2021, we present frequencies and findings from factor analyses of key conceptual dimensions of prayer and then indicate how prayer dimensions correlate with each other and vary by basic religion and demographic variables. Our findings provide a detailed picture of these relationships and also provide researchers with best practices in how to measure the various dimensions of prayer in future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The negative relationship between religiosity and cognitive ability is well documented though most research on the connection between religion and cognitive factors has largely ignored how social positions like race and gender may inform the association. This paper explores how race and gender intersect with the association between religious factors and verbal ability. Using data from the General Social Surveys, I examine racial differences in the impact of religious identification, religious participation, and beliefs about the Bible on verbal ability. The analyses show that the association between religious factors and verbal ability varies significantly across racial groups, and points to some gender differences in the association between religious factors and verbal ability by race. The findings highlight the importance of an intersectional approach and suggest that psychological theorizing about the relationships between religion and cognitive ability is underdeveloped. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late 20th century, public discourse in Muslim‐minority countries has centered around the question of how to classify Muslims. In this paper, we compare the state, academic, and self‐classification of Muslims in two countries: the United Kingdom and Germany. We propose that the historical experience of anti‐Semitism makes religion a more salient master category to understand Muslims in Germany, while the history of both anti‐Semitism and anti‐Black racism largely resulting from colonial domination means that religion together with race are master categories used to understand Muslims in the United Kingdom. Through this multilayered ethnographic and historical analysis, we challenge taken‐for‐granted assumptions in both the political and academic milieu about what it means to be Muslim, emphasizing the importance of the interplay between sociopolitical categories and self‐identifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines religious change of immigrants from Poland, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Spain in the first years after their arrival in the Netherlands––one of the least religious countries in the world. Religiosity is measured by attendance, praying, and subjective religiosity. Multiple‐group latent growth models are estimated based on four waves spanning a total of 4 years (n = 3354 at Wave 1) to identify religious trajectories. Results show an initial increase in attendance that levels off and ultimately reverses and a steady decrease in subjective religiosity across all immigrant groups. A group‐specific pattern is visible on the praying dimension: Turks show an initial increase that levels off over time and then reverses, whereas the other groups show no substantial change. The analysis suggests that differences in opportunities to attend and exclusion experiences are unlikely to be the main drivers of the immigrants' religious trajectories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When U.S. respondents to soda surveys are asked to report their attendance at religious services, approximately 40% of Protestants and 50% of Catholics claim to attend church in any given week. These survey findings have been widely disseminated. They are prominently and broadly cited though out scholarly, popular and textbook writing on American religion. Such extensive interest makes it all the more important to investigate whether these rates give a true or a distorted picture of religious practice in the United States. A recent paper has shaken confidence in the self-reported church attendance rates. Using counts of actual attendees at religious services rather than self-reports, the study has argued that the true weekly U.S. church attendance rate is approximately half the rate implied by the self-reports. The line of investigation is continued by collecting count-based church attendance data from an additional 31 Catholic dioceses. Including 17 dioceses reported on in the original paper, one is able to calculate count-based church attendance rates in 48 U.S. Catholic dioceses.

A "supply-side" theory of religion claims that ties between church and state inhibit religious mobilization. The theory also asserts that the weakening of church-state ties is the inevitable harbinger of broad religious pluralism. This paper investigates these claims using the relationship between the state of Utah and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the "LDS" or Mormon church) as a case study. Data demonstrate that the loosening of church-state ties in early Utah coincides with rising rates of religious activity and the emergence of religious pluralism, as supply-side theory predicts. However, these incipient trends were swiftly curtailed by renewed growth within Mormonism, which rebuts the theory's claims. The paper presents several reasons why Mormonism was able to circumvent the predicted effects of religious competition in Utah, and offers these as caveats for supply-side theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Branch Davidians were linked to the Seventh-day Adventist Church by their historical roots, the source of their members, their name (officially the Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventists), their identity, and their apocalyptic preoccupations, idiom, and paranoias. This paper examines the responses within Seventh-day Adventism to the sudden notoriety of the Branch Davidians. In so doing, it sheds new light on the Branch Davidian tragedy: Because Adventist leaders focused on distancing their church from the stigmatized Davidians, the confusion and misconceptions surrounding the latter's practices and apocalyptic theology were not clarified, and information and resources that might have helped government officials play a more constructive role during the siege were withheld. However, the official response was only one of several within Adventism to the Branch Davidian saga. The paper isolates three divergent responses, which are used as a vehicle for exploring long-term trends within Adventism - its increasing diversity and the strains flowing there from. The uncovering of these differing responses opens the way for an investigation of the pattern of diversity that emerges in a sect that is, in the terms of Stark and Bainbridge, reducing its tension with society and moving toward denominational status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decline of liberal Protestantism offers an important canvas upon which to portray a myriad of cultural and structural factors at work within religion, on the one hand, and organizations, on the other. Specifically, this paper argues that the decline represents the structural consequence of Protestantism's liberal cultural triumph on behalf of such values as individualism, freedom, pluralism, tolerance, democracy, and intellectual inquiry. As laudable as these values may be from other perspectives, they can be anathema to mobilizing and sustaining any organization that requires a loyal and disciplined membership. The paper puts religious "strictness" in a broader perspective and reviews several temporal models that specify the effects more closely. These are all at work within the most recent cycle of liberal cultural assertion followed by membership decline in the 1960s. The paper concludes with some strategic implications for the future as various "remnants' seek to stem the tide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, concerns are addressed regarding the validity of the Quest scale introduced by Batson (1976) and Batson and Ventis (1982). Some have wondered whether this scale might be more a measure of agnosticism, of anti-orthodoxy, of sophomoric religious doubt, or of religious conflict, if indeed, it is a measure of anything religious at all. We have reviewed the available evidence regarding validity, much of which has appeared in unpublished research reports, theses, dissertations, or convention papers, and thus has not been widely available. Based on the evidence, we have concluded that the Quest scale does indeed measure a dimension of personal religion very much like the one it was designed to measure: an open-ended, active approach to existential questions that resists clear-cut, pat answers, Concerns regarding the reliability of the Quest scale, which have proved more persistent, are addressed in a companion paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the issue of whether religiosity is really multidimensional as suggested by Glock and Stark and numerous other researchers. The "religiosity in 5-D" scales devised by Faulkner and DeJong (1966) to operationalize the Glock-Stark typology were completed by 873 students in 1967 and 656 students in 1970 at a small, private liberal-arts university in Florida. Each of the 5-D scales more than adequately met the minimum criteria of Guttman scaling in both data sets. The results of a factor analysis (varimax and oblique rotation) of the 23 items in both data sets indicated the predominance of the Ideological commitment factor which accounted for 78 and 83 percent of the common variance respectively. A second-order factor analysis confirmed the existence of one general factor. Our conclusion is that religiosity is not multidimensional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If religion is faith concerning man's fate, how can this faith find expression today? This is a historical question: for all that will follow about shedding received notions and holding tradition in abeyance, this tradition, this received notion of the relevance of history, of man's historicity, cannot be done without in assessing surrender and hence its relevance for religion. There are some expectations, in particular two, that the title of this paper may raise but that are false; they should be dissipated at once. One, there will be no discussion of the social aspects of religion. Nor will there be any comparison between the analysis of surrender and innumerable extant comments on related phenomena, such as religious or mystical experiences. In this late historical phase, when there even is a sense in which we might be past history, or might soon be past history, religion may well appear as the mood embraced in an effort to come to terms with two unanswerable questions-it is the phase in our history in which one knows that these questions are unanswerable.

This paper contends that the social scientific study of religion him long labored under a chafing constraint and a misleading premise. It suggests that our primary focus should he on the sacred, and that religion is just one among many possible sources of the sacred .Defining religion "substantively" but the sacred functionally helps to revolve a long-standing tension in the field Broadened conceptions of the sacred and of "sacralization" help to defuse the conflict among the two very different versions of secularization theory the "all-or-nothing" versus the "middle range "Meanwhile, a conceptual typo logy of the sacred pivots around tile intersections of two distinctions (compensatory vs confirmatory and marginal vs institutional,) Tins generates four distinct scenarios the sacred as integrative, the sacred as quest, the sacred as collectivity and the sacred as counter-culture The paper concludes wit/i three admonitions for research in the area [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in the United States has been following a well-defined trajectory from sect toward denomination for the past century: it has reduced tensions with its surrounding environment by removing antagonisms between itself and the state and other religious organizations and as its members have become less peculiar in their lifestyles and beliefs and more integrated into society. However, over the past 30 years it has received an influx of immigrants from counties of the developing world who, generally, are more sectarian in their beliefs and behavior and more confrontative of other religious groups than is the typical American Adventist today. This process is especially advanced in some metropolitan areas such as New York, where Adventism has been transformed from a church of Caucasians and African Americans to a body where nine out of 10 members are now "new immigrants? This paper poses the question of whether the influx of immigrants will reverse the trajectory of Adventism in North America, making it generally more sectarian. After considering data gathered primarily in metropolitan New York, it concludes that the flow of immigrants has resulted in a temporary slowing of the movement from sect toward denomination at the local level where the immigrants are concentrated, but that the process of immigrant assimilation ensures that the dominant trajectory will continue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars broadly agree that no persuasive general theory of religion exists. Recently, however, new efforts at producing one have appeared. These range from wishful-thinking theories to rationalist and linguistic ones, but they increasingly emphasize cognition. This paper reviews several current approaches and summarizes my own cognitive theory: that religion is a form of anthropomorphism. Earlier writers who have seen anthropomorphism as basic to religion have disagreed about its nature and causes. Most explain it as comforting or as extending what we know to what we do not. Neither explanation is sound. Instead, anthropomorphism stems from a necessary perceptual strategy: facing an uncertain world, we interpret ambiguous phenomena as what concerns us most. That usually is living things, especially humans. Thus we see the world as more humanlike than it is. Religions, this paper holds, are systems of thought and action building in large measure upon this powerful, pervasive, and involuntary tendency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several recent studies suggest that in analyzing the effects of religion on the economic and demographic behavior of families, attention should be paid not only to the wife's affiliation but also to the husband's. The present paper synthesizes this research: it reviews the mechanisms through which differences between the spouses' affiliations influence marital stability, female employment, and fertility, as well as the empirical findings on these relationships. It also provides additional evidence on the linkage between the religious composition of unions and fertility behavior, based on data from the 1987-88 National Survey of Families and Households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Glock and Stark theoretical framework on Christian beliefs and anti-Semitism implies that orthodox religious beliefs perpetuate secular anti-Semitism via particularism and religious anti-Semitism. Several critics have argued that the major weakness of this study is its failure to examine explanatory variables other than religious beliefs. This paper addresses these issues using data from a 1990-91 national Dutch survey. Although the results tend to support the assumption that nonreligious variables are far more important to the explanation of anti-Semitism and, too, that they attenuate the impact of Christian orthodoxy, the effects of the latter are by no means spurious. The most important conclusion of this paper is therefore that there still is, in Holland at least, a religious factor at work, albeit a modest one, generating anti-Semitic beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the belief in and reverence for superhuman beings cannot be understood as the chief distinguishing characteristic of religious phenomena. The consideration of Buddhism has always been central to the discussion of what religion is, and this paper focuses on the limitations of the human-superhuman dichotomy as it might be used to apply to Buddhist traditions. The argument makes three points: a) There are important sects of Buddhism that do not rely on reverence for superhuman beings, and the concept "superhuman" is difficult (if not impossible) to use in cross-cultural studies because of cultural variations in what it means to be human; b) the insistence that "philosophies" should be systematically distinguished from "religions" is arbitrary and culturally biased; and c) Buddhist doctrines that assert that reality is ultimately "nondual" provide the conceptual context for understanding superhuman beings in Mahayana, and this conceptuality is not consonant with superhuman definitions of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, concerns are addressed regarding the reliability of the Quest scale introduced by Batson (1976) and Batson and Ventis (1982). After briefly reviewing the evidence, we have concluded that, although the Batson and Ventis (1982) six-item Quest scale seems to have acceptable test-retest reliability, it has poor internal consistency. To remedy this problem, a new 12-item version of the Quest scale is herein proposed. This 12-item version has satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach's alphas in the .75 to .82 range) and, equally important, is highly correlated with the original six-item Quest scale (correlations in the .85 to .90 range). We recommend that both the new 12-item scale and the six-item version be used in future substantive research that seeks to assess the way in which a quest dimension of religion facilitates or inhibits personal adjustment and positive social behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I question Stark's and Bainbridge's (1985) characterization of the Bible Belt view of southern religion as a myth. The origins of the Bible Belt are examined in this paper. Using a conceptualization of the Bible Belt thesis based on a "captive region" view of religion, I expected clergy to be over represented in the South. Data on full-time clergy were analyzed by region during the 1890-1930 period. When urban/rural background was controlled, consistent evidence in support of the Bible Belt thesis appeared. The lack of clergy over representation in the rural South may be explained by the importance of part-time clergy, which were not counted. In addition, the data offered no support for the application of the captive region view of religion to the black experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on intrinsic and extrinsic religion has been troubled by conceptual diffuseness and questionable scale validity. Hunt and King have proposed greater specificity in conceptualization and measurement in future work. This paper attempts to specify and measure a single crucial dimension identified by Hunt and King, namely ultimate versus instrumental religious motivation. Two validation studies were done utilizing persons nominated by ministers as having either ultimate (extrinsic) or instrumental (extrinsic) religious motivation. A new 10-item intrinsic Religious Motivation Scale is proposed, and measurement problems are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to develop a testable theory of secularization. The first requirement of this theory is to specify the limitations of structural-functional analysis. One of these limitations is its adherence to questionable norms for the measurement of religion. In moving beyond structural-functional analysis of secularization as a process, the choice is made to define the secular in terms of Parsons's theory of action. This theory suggests the possibility of a secular, as well as a religious normative orientation. These two normative orientations contain such dimensions as scope, intensity, and a posture toward social change. The theoretical development of this paper is related to major analyses of American society and calls into question some of the assumptions underling the theory of action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a typology of organized religion that grows out of the conceptions of the Ultimate espoused by Christian religious bodies and relates to these conceptions the patterns of social organization of these bodies. The attempt is to discover a typology that adequately accommodates the theological and confessional character of religious bodies, on one hand, and their social structures and behavioral patterns, on the other. The paper offers three major types: Familial, Democratic, and Dominical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The full time religious professional in a religious collectivity occupies a strategic position in the social system in which he is professionally involved. The multifarious tasks in which he engages are to be seen as due, in part, to the diffuseness of his responsibilities, a diffuseness which is characteristic of leadership roles in any social system. The coordinating and harmonizing facets of any leadership role demand this kind of generalized or diffuse role definition. While this diffuseness is characteristic of any leadership role in any social system, goals or objectives of the social system which sustains the full time professional religious leader are themselves more diffuse and less amenable to rational evaluation than are the goals of most organizations in this society. In its own understanding, the church exists to cure souls, to save souls, and/or to witness to God's saving act in Jesus as the Christ; hence, as conceived internally, its ultimate goal transcends moral, cognitive and emotive goals or objectives, although dimensions of each goal are involved in the objectives of the social system that constitutes the church and in the theological understanding that informs these goals.

This paper describes the theology or, more accurately, the cosmology of a particular version of Maya religion in highland Guatemala. This version is consciously drawn from the ancient Maya tradition, especially the Pop Wuj (Popol Vuh), often called the Mayan Bible, but it incorporates other ideas and elements as well, including such modern ideas as inclusivity and freedom of membership. Thus while not directly influenced by liberation theology, it offers a potential alternative to it in its synthesis of the traditional and the modern. As in most indigenous religions, it considers the natural world to be sacred, and emphasizes the strong connections between the natural and the supernatural, between earth and the cosmos, and between the living and the dead. But it also presents a moral vision and a path of liberation from the harmful trends of ecological destruction and social disintegration that are such a part of the contemporary world. Finally, although it is deeply rooted in the local, it is also oriented toward the larger world, as its message and its practice are open to anyone, irrespective of nation of origin, ethnicity, or residence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although most scholars find that religious involvement is negatively related to depression, questions still remain regarding how individuals benefit from such involvement and evidence from nationally representative samples is rare. In this paper, I expand upon previous research by considering three types of general religious involvement (attendance at religious services, religious salience, and spiritual help-seeking) and three types of effects (linear, curvilinear, and stress-buffering). Using Americans' Changing Lives (House 1989)--a large, nationally representative, and longitudinal data set--I find a U-shaped effect of religious salience on depression, no significant independent effect of service attendance, and a positive effect of spiritual help-seeking. I also find that spiritual help-seeking and religious salience exhibit significant stress-buffering effects, but that these occur only when individuals experience multiple negative life events, and not when they experience any single type of discrete event. The theoretical implications of these effects are discussed, both as they contribute to research on the life stress paradigm and research on the psychology of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the social scientific study of religion has seen the accumulation of numerous case studies, comparative work involving substantial numbers of cases is rare. In the absence of an accepted agenda for field research, field studies contain information relevant to the study at hand, but do not add systematically to a cumulative database. By contrast, field studies in anthropology may contain idiosyncratic information relevant to the author's interests, but an existing research agenda defines information researchers are expected to include, which has produced an expanding cross-cultural database. In this paper, we propose elements of a research agenda for the study of religious movements, including information related to movements' organizational history and context, mobilization, organization, governance, and outcomes. While this preliminary agenda is subject to refinement by others, it provides a starting point for the accumulation of comparable cases, and a basis for the comparative study of religious movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The collapse of Soviet Communism has brought about sweeping revivals of religion in most of Eastern Europe and the Soviet successor states. This astonishing change in religious activity appears ideal for further testing of the supply-side theory of religious change. In this paper I investigate whether the dramatic religious revival in Hungary can be explained using a supply-side framework. I begin with a brief sketch of the history of religion in 20th-century Hungary in order to place current data in the proper context. Next, I present data from national surveys of Hungary and eyewitness accounts to assess the causal relationship between religious restrictions and religious activity as predicted by supply-side theory. Then I investigate secularization accounts of religious activity in Hungary and conclude that the supply-side thesis best fits the available data. Finally, I indicate the leveling off of the Hungarian revival due to decreased religious competition and posit future expectations concerning religious activity in Hungary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies the concept of identity to the white racialist or separatist movement, typically referred to as the white supremacist movement in many mainstream publications. While similar racial identity and shared perceptions of the meaning of racialism bind the movement together, there are other important concerns that potentially divide the movement but also have served to attract members to it. One of these potentially divisive areas, the differences in religious views, is explored here through an analysis of the white separatist literature and interviews with movement members. Three belief systems of movement members--Christian or Israel Identity, Church of the Creator, and Odinism--are examined. All three contribute to strengthening the racial identity of white racialists, but are at the same time potentially antagonistic to each other. It is suggested that this religious divide will be a key issue in influencing the future development of the movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the Shakers' and using census' data, this' paper quantitatively examines' influences' on religious' commitment and the way these influences' differed between new and veteran members'. Whereas' personal characteristics (age, sex, nativity, and occupation) were the primary sources' of influence on the commitment of veteran members', new recruits' were also influenced by interpersonal and organizational factors (kinship ties', social bonds', and membership in leading groups'). The differential effect of influences on commitment illustrates the nature of the commitment process in a religious' commune. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper uses the fortunes of religion in the Nordic and Baltic States to identify weaknesses in the .supply-side model of religious behaviour promoted by Stark Finke and lannaccone. Changes in religious observance in the Nordic countries over the twentieth century, and comparisons between them, contradict a number of supply-side propositions Comparisons between the Baltic states similarly show no support for supply-side claims Instead both clusters suggest that the fate of religion owes more to its links with ethnicity, national consciousness and national conflict and to the theology and ecclesiology of the religion in question than to issues of state regulation.; [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research suggests an angry God image is a narrative schema predicting support for more punitive forms of criminal justice. However, this research has not explored the possibility that racialization may impact one's God image. We perform logistic regression on Wave V of the Baylor Religion Survey to examine the correlation between an angry God image and the belief that police shoot Blacks more often because Blacks are more violent than Whites (a context‐specific form of cultural racism). Engaging critical insights from intersectionality theory, we also interact angry God image with both racialized identity and racialized religious tradition. Results suggest that the angry God schema is associated with this form of cultural racism for White people generally as well as White Evangelicals, yet for Black Protestants, belief in an angry God is associated with resistance against this type of cultural racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging research shows the COVID‐19 pandemic has made substantial changes to the religious climate of several nations. Surprisingly, China, the outbreak center of the pandemic, has been scarcely researched. Our study investigates how the COVID‐19 pandemic has evoked new religious disaster responses and provided psychological coping mechanisms during the pandemic. We also explore how the pandemic explains surprising rates of religiosity in China. Scholars have long proposed that religious resurgence in China has been a result of individuals seeking stability in turbulent times. We bridge parallel Literatures in these areas and treat the pandemic as a natural experiment for evaluating religious behavior over time as conditioned by heightened risk perception. Utilizing a difference‐in‐differences estimation strategy with panel data, our study reveals that the pandemic has led to a significant increase in religiosity in China, particularly in religious areas most affected by the pandemic. We propose that even in a highly regulative religious environment, with most of its population being religiously unaffiliated, religion is a significant resource for coping in China. We take an innovative approach to demonstrate this by utilizing online search data. Our research speaks to the sociology of religion, the social psychology of risk perception, and makes application to emerging research on the unfolding COVID‐19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research tends to find a positive relationship between religiosity and political participation. Explanations of this relationship have focused mostly on religiosity‐generated organizational resources (e.g., civic skills), while paying less attention to psychological resources. We simultaneously examined different aspects of religiosity (belief, behavior, and belonging) and political participation (electoral and nonelectoral) in a structural equation model with two psychological resources as mediators: (1) "transcendent accountability"—seeing oneself as responsible to God or a higher power for one's impact on other people and the environment, and (2) "religiopolitical awareness"—perceiving the influence of one's religion and/or spirituality on one's political views and activities. Results from analyzing survey data from a US representative sample showed that transcendent accountability and religiopolitical awareness, whether together or awareness only, mediated positive relationships between religiosity (belief, private and public behaviors, and membership) and political participation (voting and other political activity), highlighting key psychological motivators of political participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research shows most Western societies became less religious over recent decades. But we know much less about the rest of the world. Is the non‐Western world also becoming less religious, as some varieties of secularization theory would lead us to expect? Using 1981‐to‐2020 World/European Values Survey data from 103 countries, this study describes, and uses mixed‐effects models to rigorously estimate, religious trends in eight world regions and five former Soviet and Eastern Bloc (FSEB) subregions. Results indicate that religious decline occurred in Latin America, Central and Baltic Europe, and (recently) in the Mideast and North Africa. But there is little evidence of such decline elsewhere in Asia, Africa, or the FSEB—despite the broad reach of many modernizing social trends. These findings do not lend support to a strong version of secularization theory but may be consistent with some versions of the idea that modernization can make people less religious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different aspects of religiosity have been found to be positively related to physical, psychological and social well-being. Several scholars have suggested that religious beliefs, religious communities, and perceived divine support may provide individuals with a sense of coherence, which in turn has positive effects on individual well-being. This "coherence hypothesis" is in fact the inverse of the Durkheimian concept of anomie. This paper specifies and tests a structural model of social control, social support, religious participation, religious orthodoxy, and perceived divine support, in relation to perceived exteriority and constraint among adolescents. The results indicate that parental support and religious participation increases the perceived exteriority and constraint of the social world, while parental rule setting, religious orthodoxy, and divine support do not have an independent effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to further empirical and conceptual understanding of collective forms of disengagement from new religious movements I describe empirically the events and social forces giving rise to factionalism, group defection, and schism within the Los Angeles Hare Krishna community following the death of the movement's founder I also describe the emergence, mobilization efforts, and ultimate failure of an incipient sectarian organization founded by dissident Hare Krishna members. Social psychological and structural approaches are analytically integrated to account for differing modes of collective disengagement and the fate of "movements of exit" (Hirschman, 1970) The paper concludes with a number of theoretical implications suggested by this ethnographic study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an attempt to construct a typology of progressive Catholics using data obtained from a survey of the delegates to the 1980 National Pastoral Congress of English Catholics eighteen months after the Congress. Progressivism is regarded as the espousal of the new elements of religious ideology and pastoral emphases which have emerged since the Second Vatican Council.
Following earlier attempts using smallest space analysis and factor analysis, this paper describes the use of cluster analysis to identify distinct groups of individuals and discriminant analysis to identify the separate dimensions which distinguish between the clusters. Seven dusters ware identified in terms of six discriminant functions. An analysis of the social and religious characteristics of the seven types indicated that there was no simple unidimensional scale of progressivism. The paper concludes with some suggestions for a more comprehensive classification of progressive Catholics which might be explored in the case of other or more representative samples.
This paper set out to construct a typology of progressive Catholics using data from a survey of delegates to the National Pastoral Congress. Following preliminary investigations using smallest space analysis and factor analysis, cluster analysis was employed to identify seven types of respondents with characteristics defined by six discriminant functions which were found to be theoretically meaningful. The social and religious characteristics of the seven dusters indicate that they may be regarded as seven distinct types of progressive. The typology that resulted from this study (Table 3) indicates that only seven of a possible 64 combinations are relevant for this particular sample. There is no reason to suppose that this would be the case for other samples, such as a nationally representative sample of English or American or Australian Catholics. However, on the basis of the present research, a number of key... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of socio-economic achievement is elaborated through an analysis of data from eight NORC surveys, combined to create a sample of members of six religio-ethnic groups. Correlational analysis indicates findings similar to earlier studies. Using Methodists as the comparison group, Scheffe tests indicate that Jews differ in education, occupational achievement and income, Episcopalians in occupational prestige, and Baptists in education and income, but no significant differentials existed for Irish and Italian Catholics. Further analysis using decomposition suggests that traditional Jewish emphasis on education is an important factor in explaining these differences, but that the factors included in the model explain only a small part of the Baptist and Episcopalian differentials. It is suggested that religious values and religious perspectives are important considerations in understanding these findings.
This paper will review research since 1960, and will seek to define the relationship among several social structural determinants of status within each of several religio-ethnic groups. Our guiding hypothesis is that religious values and beliefs interact differently with other variables across these groups in shaping socioeconomic achievement, and decomposition will be used to specify the effects of background factors on achievement among various religio-ethnic groups. The findings reported in this paper are consistent with those of earlier research concerning religio-ethnic differences in education, occupational achievement and income. Scheffe analysis indicated that the hypothesized differences in the relationships among the determinants of socioeconomic achievement are only partly supported. Not only did Irish and Italian Catholics not differ from Methodists on any of the measures used, but Episcopalian and Baptist differentials were smaller than those of Jews. Jews exceed Methodists in income, occupational prestige, and educational achievement,... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines indiscriminate proreligiousness as a construct which holds important implications for the scientific study of religion Approaches by researchers relevant to the construct are critically reviewed. As an alternative, our research team developed two scales directly measuring personal and congregational aspects of indiscriminate proreligiousness. The scales were refined using factor analytic methods and were empirically validated on samples of church members and church-going students. Both scales demonstrated evidence of content validity, internal consistency, construct validity, generalizability, and utility. A number of empirical and theoretical questions about the antecedents and consequents of indiscriminate proreligiousness are raised.
This paper examines indiscriminate proreligiousness as a theoretical construct which holds important implications for the empirical study of religion. More specifically, approaches by researchers relevant to the problem of indiscriminate proreligiousness will be critically reviewed. An alternative to these efforts to understand and deal with indiscriminate proreligiousness, one which involves the direct measurement of the construct, will then be presented and examined empirically. These findings simply provide initial support for these direct measures of indiscriminate proreligiousness. Additional studies are necessary to examine these constructs among other samples using other validation operations. Particularly important are investigations which test the relationship between indiscriminate proreligiousness and the accuracy of their religious reports. These studies may help answer a critical question: To what extent is indiscriminate proreligiousness a source of error in our attempts to obtain accurate estimates of religious practices, experiences, and attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Operationalizing religion in terms of both its official manifestations and an interrelated quasi-religious meaning system, the present study analyzes the impact of religion on the quality of life for adherents of one of society's alternative lifestyles, the Back-to-the-Land Movement Data from a mailed questionnaire returned by 510 (66.2 percent response rate) are presented Back-to-the-landers, often part-time and self-employed professionals practicing semi-subsistence agriculture on small parcels of land, have an elaborate worldview that justifies their counter-cultural lifestyle on the basis of ecological wholeness, simple living and self-reliance. Both simple correlations and multiple regression models are explored in order to assess the impact of official and unofficial religion, back-to-the-land behaviors and background factors on measures of quality of life. Generally, the measures of unofficial religion, termed quasi-religious meaning systems, are the strongest predictors of quality of life
In short, this paper focuses on these two aspects of religiosity as they relate to QoL. In addition, according to the criterion of the ability to explain variance, both religious measures will be compared with a number of other behavioral and background variables to assess their relative importance.
Religious belief has rarely been the primary focus of attention in QoL research, although there is both empirical and theoretical evidence for its importance as a predictor of life satisfaction and happiness (Hadaway, 1978; Hadaway & Roof, 1978; McNamara & St. George, 1979; Moberg, 1984). The analysis of this paper's empirical data attempts to make a comment on the question of the relationship between religion and QoL, as well as describe in a substantive manner the nature of the quasi-religious meaning systems that appear to sustain the back-to-the-landers in their alternative lifestyles. Contextualizing quasi-religious meaning systems within the alternative... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experiences of Mennonites who move from rural communities to urban areas are not unlike those of other people who have had similar experiences. What is unique, however, are the conceptual adaptations which this sample of Mennonites have made. This paper reviews the major influences which have loosened individual commitments to Mennonite rural communities. It then examines the conceptual adaptations made by a sample of Mennonites living in one metropolitan area, as they attempt to maintain their identities. Key processes in their adaptations are the revised definitions of "community" and "service." Associated processes are the high degree of involvement in philanthropic projects and the use of psychological terminology which appears to bridge the gap between a heightened importance assumed by the self in an urban setting, and images of what it means to be a Mennonite.
This paper continues this field of inquiry. It examines the way in which a group of Mennonites, formerly from rural areas, incorporate the social realities of urban life into their rural-based religious beliefs. In many respects their experiences are similar to others who have moved from rural communities to urban areas. However, what makes these people somewhat unique is that they continue to identify themselves as Mennonites and their processes of adaptation are not so much ones of trying to be accepted in the urban world as they are attempting to make the urban world acceptable to their beliefs. Further, these processes are ones that came about only after the individuals in this study made the choice to leave their rural communities. They came as individuals to the city, but having come, they sought religious community.
While the native Mennonites in this sample have already taken a major step toward the values of individualism, they have maintained a sufficient identity with their Mennonite heritage to experience the tensions inherent in practicing their beliefs in an urban... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the financial activities, ideological foundations and goals of three new religious movements The movements are: 3HO Foundation, Divine Light Mission and Vajradhatu Research methods include participant observation, taped interviews, analysis of movement literature and examinations of group financial records. Results indicate that worldly success has become a religiously significant venture for at least two new religious movements Within these groups there is a high degree of successful entrepreneurial and professional activity There is also organizational and ideological support from the movements' leadership to the membership to become rich. Several interpretations are offered including historical precedent, sect-church transformation, institutionalization, a search for legitimacy and leadership influences Resource mobilization is argued to be the most effective theoretical approach Accordingly, movement direction is determined by rational leadership decisions in a practical attempt to realize projected goals and to promote group maintenance and survival.
In this paper we have demonstrated that a trend exists toward individual worldly success within at least two new religious movements. These two groups, 3HO Foundation and Vajradhatu, have developed an ideological orientation that supports worldly success as a religiously significant venture and thereby sees no contradiction between the spiritual and the earthly realm. The variety and the success of the money-making ventures undertaken by members of these two groups is especially noteworthy considering that the groups themselves only began 14 years ago.
We have argued that the turn to worldly success by the new religious movements did not result from a transition from a sect ideal-type to a church ideal-type nor did it result from institutionalization. Our evidence indicates that the transition was initiated by rational leadership decisions in response to changing social and... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After reviewing research by Roof, Mol and Kaill, this paper examines relationships among the following explanatory variables theological conservatism, localism, authoritarianism/dogmatism, and civil liberalism. Using data drawn from members of three Protestant denominations in Australia, it is found that, of these four variables, theological conservatism is the best predictor of frequency of church attendance, degree of involvement in other church activities, views about ecumenism, attitudes to change in church structures and practices, and moral conservatism But the other three explanatory variables are each more useful than theological conservatism in predicting degree of concern for social justice and degree of approval for church activism on social, political and economic issues The four explanatory variables are all fairly weak predictors of political-economic conservatism. It is argued that the affects attributed to localism, authoritarianism/dogmatism or lack of civil liberalism can be explained by a more general concept, breadth of perspective Modifications to Roof's theory are suggested it is hypothesized that at least among Protestant church members, the impact of breadth of perspective decreases, and the salience of theological orientation increases, as the proportion of the total population which regularly participates in church-oriented religion decreases.
This paper provides a critique and extension of studies undertaken by Roof (1976 and 1978), Mol (1969 and 1971) and Kaill (1971). Each of these studies deals inter alia with the relative importance of theological orientation and of some other variable in the explanation or prediction of church members' attitudes and behaviors.
It is clear that Roof's theory needs considerable qualification in the light of the data reviewed in the present paper. In particular, I would now hypothesize that at least among Protestant church members,[6] the impact of breadth of perspective decreases, and the... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The understanding and interpretation of the presumed "secularization" of Britain and other European nations is clouded by a lack of adequate information regarding the substance and timing of religious change. This paper represents the first systematic effort to collect and analyze existing survey data on religious belief in Britain from the late 1930s to the present. Overall, the results show an increase in general scepticism about the existence of God, the related erosion of dominant, traditional Christian beliefs, and the persistence of nontraditional beliefs. A theoretical perspective is needed that recognizes the often corrosive effects of modern life on the transmission of religious beliefs and the continued popularity of worldviews which presume a transcendent referent, however broadly defined.

This paper intersects two recent trends in social movement research: rediscovery of the centrality of both ideology and religion to understanding social movements. Using two recent national surveys, we assess the extent to which three religious beliefs and one religiously linked belief are related to ideological support for the animal rights movement in the general public. Among both women and men, the belief that God is in nature and a religiously linked opposition to science facilitate support for animal rights, counter- acting the negative impact of greater church attendance. However, biblical literalism and a "gracious" image of God have little effect on acceptance of animal rights. We conclude by considering implications of these results for subsequent research on religion and ideological support for social movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research is just beginning to appear about the effects of Soviet repression on the churches and religious beliefs of the countries which constituted the former Soviet Union. Data from an opinion survey conducted in 17 countries of Western and Eastern Europe in 1991 allow some preliminary observations of a baseline nature about church membership and religious values in these countries. In this paper I compare church membership and religious belief across age categories among Western and Eastern Germans, Hungarians, and Poles. The data show variant patterns of religious affiliation and belief among each of the churches of Central Europe. State repression of churches has substantially affected church membership in Eastern Germany. There is some evidence of a secularization effect among Hungarian Protestants. Polish church membership has been less negatively affected by the years of communism. Mean levels of religious belief for each of these countries show further evidence of these country-specific patterns. Further research is needed to uncover the longer lasting trends in religious affiliation and belief in these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]