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Here I respond to four critics of my book, What Is a Person?, seeking to find areas of common ground and crucial disagreement. Most importantly, I explore the question of whether all human knowledge is conceptually mediated, acknowledging that, no, indeed, there are likely forms of experiential knowledge that are purely and directly acquired without conceptual mediation.

[Extract] American sociology has not taken and does not take religion as seriously as it needs to in order to do the best sociology possible. Despite religion being an important and distinctive kind of practice in human social life, both historically and in the world today, American sociologists often neglect religion or treat it redtionistically. We explore several reasons for this negligence, focusing on key historical, conceptual, methodological, and institutional factors. We then turn to offer a number of proposais to help remedy American sociology’s negligence of religion, advance the study of religion in particular, and enhance sociology’s broader disciplinary capacity to improve our understanding and explanation of human social life. Our purpose in this analysis is to stimulate critical and constructive discussion about the significance of religion in human life and scholarly research on it.

Previous research on charitable giving has identified a significant relationship between political conservatism and greater financial giving to charitable causes. Yet that research has not adequately explored the important role of religion in that relationship, nor differences in financial giving targets (i.e., religious congregations, noncongregational religious organizations, and nonreligious organizations). Support for competing theories concerning political ideology, religious practice, and charitable financial giving is assessed using data from the Panel Study on American Ethnicity and Religion (PS-ARE). For both religious and nonreligious giving, the effect of political ideology is completely mediated by participation in religious and civic practices. These findings support recent arguments on “practice theory” in cultural sociology and suggest that it is less the effect of ideology than of active participation in religious, political, and community organizations that explains Americans’ financial giving to religious and nonreligious organizations.

How might the social scientific study of religion (SSSR) benefit from adjusting some of its journal article publishing standards and practices ? This article builds onfive presuppositions about the purpose and nature of good sociology in order to advance five specific proposals for changes in how we write, review, and make use of journal articles in the field. Those proposals concern the publishing of descriptive empirical research notes, meta-analysis review essays, detailed methodological information, arguments about causation, and analytical emphases on the substantive power of variables rather than mere statistical significance. The purpose and expected result of these proposed publishing adjustments is to increase the quality, value, and cumulative nature of the scholarship produced in the SSSR.

I thank my respondents for their feedback on my essay and David Yamane for providing the opportunity of this exchange to clarify issues and hopefully move forward our understanding of significant matters in our field. It is important, after considering the details of my respondents' reactions, first to step back to gain some larger perspective on the original nature and purpose of the essay in question. As to genre, my essay is a theoretical thought piece, intended to float ideas that may offer useful approaches and perspectives for future research in the field. I agree with the editor that such thought pieces deserve a hearing in our joumals, alongside more standard articles, because they hold the potential to contribute in their own way to our self-reflexivity as schol ars and creative reflection on alternative perspectives in our field. As to argu ment, to reiterate, I believe that the sociology of religion needs to develop a stronger empirical research program examining how religious beliefs and prac tices generate for adherents subjective experiences involving emotional respons es which help to reinforce people's commitment to those religions. Exactly how and why that happens (assuming the suggestion itself has any merit) is an open empirical question, but one that is currently neglected and I think well worth investigating more seriously in the future. The specific case that I took up in my essay as an example of how this might work was Christianity, a multifaceted case the argument about which could of course be developed and complexified well beyond what my short essay offered. I suspect that this proposed research agenda would also prove fruitful if applied to most other religions, although the specifics of the analytical stories to be told will no doubt vary by the religious tradition and sub-tradition being studied. As to style and tone, my essay was intentionally written with a strong feeling of sub jective experience and affect, in order to create something of an aesthetic corre spondence between the theoretical argument and the tenor of the prose. My pur pose was to give some sense of the phenomenological perspective embedded in my argument, which necessarily introduces subjectivity and affect into our under standing and explanation. This purposeful discursive move I made explicit in the seventh sentence of my essay's abstract, which stated, "I also reflect the subjec

Why has Christianity as a religious tradition survived for two millennia? What makes Christianity "work"? Many social scientific answers to related questions focus on structural forces shaping religion and on factors that explain variance across belief and practice. This article takes a dif ferent approach, seeking to explain the ongoing existence of the phenomenon itself before analyzing variance within it. The idea is to address basic causes of what exists as distinct from more superficial causes of variation within it. To do so, I take a phenomenological approach that focuses particularly on emotions, seeking to explicate the recurrent, characteristic, and subjective experiences of many Christians that help to explain their ongoing commitment to and involvement in the faith. I also reflect the subjective focus on emotions in the tone of the article, which introduces a strong sense of subjec tive experience and affect. By complementing typical sociological analyses of religious variance with this kind of causal analysis of its existence, this article seeks to expand our range of explanation and understanding in the sociology of religion.

American sociology has long documented and theorized persistent inequalities between religious communities in the United States; in addition, socioeconomic inequalities between religious groups have played an important role in many sociological theories about religion and society. Since the publication of numerous important works published in the mid-20th century, however, the social stratification of American religion has been a curiously understudied topic. This research note is an attempt to update our descriptive knowledge about socioeconomic inequalities between American religious groups. Using General Social Survey data to track educational, income, and job status inequality over a 16-year period, from the early 1980s to the late 1990s, we find that socioeconomic inequality in the American religious system has been quite persistent and stable, suggesting that significant mobility within this system in the mid-20th century may be declining, thus producing a more stable system of stratification.

A large body of empirical studies shows that religion often serves as a factor promoting positive, healthy outcomes in the lives of American adolescents. This research note reports findings of one test of a “network closure” explanation of these religious effects. It uses the national Survey of Parents and Youth (1998–1999) data to examine the relationship between religious participation and five measures of network closure. The findings support the hypothesis that participation in American religious congregations increases network closure between the parents of youth and their children's friends, their children's friends' parents, and their children's teachers.

A large body of empirical studies shows that religion often serves as a factor promoting positive, healthy outcomes in the lives of American adolescents. Yet existing theoretical explanations for these religious effects remain largely disjointed and fragmented. This article attempts to formulate a more systematic, integrated, and coherent account of religion’s constructive influence in the lives of American youth, suggesting nine key factors (moral directives, spiritual experiences, role models, community and leadership skills, coping skills, cultural capital, social capital, network closure, and extra-community links) that cluster around three key dimensions of influence (moral order, learned competencies, and social and organizational ties). Several decades of social scientific studies have shown that religion is often a factor in the lives of American adolescents, influencing their attitudes and behaviors in ways that are commonly viewed as positive and constructive. Across a number of areas of concern, various measures of religiosity are typically associated with a variety of healthy, desirable outcomes. This article is an attempt to theorize systematically why religion might have such an influence in the lives of American adolescents. Within the relevant bodies of literature, individual publications normally suggest causal mechanisms explaining their particular findings. Altogether, these many studies are very helpful, but as a whole they present the contemporary researcher with a disjointed and fragmented account for religious influences in the lives of American teenagers. In the following pages, I attempt to synthesize some of what we know from these and other informative studies into a more coherent, systematic account of how and why religion exerts significant positive effects on American youth.

Sociologists know surprisingly little about the religious lives of adolescents in the United States. This article begins to redress that unfortunate lack of knowledge by examining descriptive findings on adolescent religious participation from three recent, reputable national surveys of American youth. We present descriptive statistics on three fundamental aspects of youth religious participation: religious affiliation, religious service attendance, and involvement in church youth groups. We also examine the influences of gender, race, age, and region on these religious outcomes. This descriptive inquiry should help to heighten broader understanding of and to lay down a baseline of essential information about American adolescent religious participation. Further research is needed to investigate the social influence of different kinds of religiosity on various outcomes in the lives of American youth. We know relatively little about the religious lives of American adolescents. The vast majority of research in the sociology of religion in the United States focuses on American adults, ages 18 and older. And few scholars of American adolescents in other fields pay close attention to youth’s religious lives. As a result, our social scientific knowledge of the religious affiliations, practices, beliefs, experiences, and attitudes of American youth is impoverished. 1 This is a problem for many reasons. American adolescents between the ages of 10‐19 represent about 14 percent of all Americans (adolescents ages 10‐24 represent 21 percent), an ageminority population deserving scholarly attention as much as any other group. Indeed, American adolescents may deserve extra scholarly attention by sociologists of religion. Adolescence represents a crucial developmental transition from childhood to adulthood and so can disclose a tremendous amount of knowledge about religious socialization and change in the life course. Adolescents are a population that many religious organizations, both congregations and parachurch ministries, particularly target in order to exert influence in their lives. Adolescence and young adulthood is also the life stage when religious conversion is most likely to take place. Adolescence furthermore provides a unique opportunity to study religious influences on family relationships and dynamics, peer interactions, risk behaviors, and many other outcome variables. Finally, adolescence provides an ideal baseline stage for longitudinal research on religious influences in people’s lives.

Peruvian liberation theologian Gustavo Gutierrez’s massive work, Las Casas: In Search of the Poor of Jesus Christ, should not be read as a defensive or retreating move for liberation theology in the face of two decades of opposition. Rather, it is best understood as a creative and strategic counteroffensive to advance liberation theology in terms that the Vatican can only find difficult to counter. Nevertheless, liberation theology struggles with the difficulty of intellectually justifying itself on nondependency and non-Marxist grounds. In any case, the struggle for the work of liberation in Latin America continues.

Research on volunteering behavior has consistently found a positive relationship between religion and volunteering. Using a sample of churchgoing Protestants (N=1,738)from the Religious Identity and Influence Survey we examine the specific influences of religiosity, religious identity, religious socialization, and religious social networks on local volunteer activity in church programs and non-church organizations, as well as general volunteering tendencies. These influences are presented within the theoretical framework of religious capital. Logistic regression techniques were applied to determine the strength of the contribution of these influences while accounting for basic background factors. Findings suggest that churchgoing Protestants are influenced by all measures to some degree, but religiosity (specifically participation in church activities) remains the strongest influence. Significant religious influences overall are most pronounced within the context of church-related volunteering which suggests that churchgoing Protestants exhibit a strong sense of community identity through their local churches. A discussion of these results and their implications for volunteering follows.

This chapter explores American adolescents’ thoughts, beliefs, and feelings about and experiences of religious faith and spirituality, drawing from interviews of 267 teens in 45 states. In most cases, teenage religion and spirituality in the US can be seen as a reflection of the world of adult religion, especially parental religion. Few teenagers are rejecting or reacting against the adult religion into which they are being socialized. Rather, most are living out their religious lives in very conventional and accommodating ways.

Latin America is undergoing a period of intense religious transformation and upheaval. This book analyzes some of the more important new discoveries about religious movements in the region. It examines important shifts such as the expansion and politicization of Protestantism, the ongoing transformation of the Catholic church, the growth of Afro-Brazilian religions, and the genuine pluralization of faith.

Much has been made of religious influences on a variety of human behaviors and outcomes. However, some researchers choose to attribute religious influences to selection effects or underlying personality traits. They suggest scholars should pay more attention to what underlies religiosity than what effects it may have. This manuscript engages the fundamental debate about the real influence of religious participation and salience in people's lives. We consider in this study the implications of selection effects for studies of religious influences, first by examining previous research evidence, and second by our own exploration of the effects of religion on three diverse outcomes during adolescence -family relations, health, and delinquency. The evidence suggests that two common measures of religiosity are indeed subject to selection processes, but that this does not appear easily to alter or diminish their independent effects. There is also evidence for a strategic inclination to be more religious, but this too fails to mitigate religious influences. Finally, skepticism in the form of reciprocal effects appears more plausible than selection effects.

Which Americans remain in the religious communities and traditions within which they were raised? Which move to different traditions within their own religion, switch to different religious traditions altogether, or become non-religious entirely? And what social factors influence these outcomes and processes? This article engages the extant literature on religious retention and switching by using measures of religious tradition self-identification, instead of denominations, and by highlighting the dissimilarity of social factors predicting retention and switching for different traditions. Analysis of the 1996 Religious Identity and Influence survey shows that different social factors influence different groups of people in diverse religious traditions in dissimilar ways. The discussion attempts to theorize these findings.

A large body of empirical studies shows that religion often serves as a factor promoting positive, healthy behaviors and outcomes in the lives of American adolescents. This research note reports findings of one test of a moral order explanation of these religious effects. I use the national Survey of Parents and Youth (1998-99) data (N=1,073) to examine the relationship between parental religious participation and measures of parental moral expectations and supervision of youth ages 10 to 18. The findings support the hypothesis that parental religious participation increases parental moral expectations and supervision of their adolescent children.

Sociolo~sts know surprisingly little about the reli~~us attitudes and practices of adolescents in the Un/t.ed States. This article be~rts to redress that laek of knowledge by examining descriptive findings on adolescent religiosi~ and attitudes toward religion from two recent, reputable national surveys of American :youth. We present descriptive statistics on three fundamental aspects of subjective youth reli~osiO (importance of reli~on, frequency of pra~er, boro again status) and four measures of youth attitudes of alienation toward reli~ ( agreemem with ~rents, approval of churches, desired influence of churches, financial donations to churches ). We also examine the irrfluences of gender, race, age, and re~n on most of these reli~~us outcomes. This de.scriptive irutuiry should help to increase understanding of and to help lay down a baseline of essential descriptive information about American adolescent reli~osit'y. Further research is needed to investigate the social in… of different kinds of reli~osity on various outcomes in the lives of Arnerican youth.

Americans vary widely in their ideas about causes of and solutions to poverty, and differ as well in what compassion to the poor should look like. Few researchers have examined the complex issue of compassion. Most who have suggest that conservative Protestantism has lagged behind Catholicism and more liberal Protestantism in generosity or commitment to the poor. This article examines the giving habits of Americans to organizations which help the poor and needy, using religious and political measures to test the conventional view that devout Catholics and liberal Protestants are the friends of the poor, and that politically conservative Christians are indifferent or hostile toward them. The results suggest that religion and religiosity do increase giving to the poor, but that there is no support for the conventional wisdom about conservative Protestants. Indeed, the evidence suggests theological and political conservatives are currently more generous in this particular form of charitable giving.

This article examines the relative prominence of religion in the American South, in light of two contemporary phenomena: increased interregional mobility in the United States, and the rise of American evangelicalism. We investigate the effects of regional migration and non-migration on church attendance and importance of faith in the South as compared to the rest of the country. Results show that religiosity increases when people move to a region of high religious commitment, and decreases when one moves to an area where religious commitment is lower. The evidence suggests that the South maintains its religious distinctiveness for natives, but the prospects of maintaining as strong a religiosity for those who migrate out of the South are low. These findings call into question Mark Shibley's thesis (1996) about the sources of the resurgence of American evangelicalism.

Over the past fifty years, numerous public opinion surveys have indicated growing support for physician-assisted suicide, euthanasia, and right-to-die legislation. This pro-euthanasia trend, how-ever, goes against fundamental Judeo-Christian principles that have traditionally been the bulwark against the acceptance of euthanasia. Using Chaves's (1994) definition of secularization as the declining scope of religious authority, we examine to what extent people are likely to reject traditional sanctions against euthanasia and approve physician-assisted suicide. We find that the odds of the nonreligious approving physician-assisted suicide are three times greater than the religious ; yet, only self-identified evangelical and liberal Protestants are significantly different from the nonreligious in attitudes towards physician-assisted suicide. We suggest that secularization does not uniformly affect all religious groups. Although in some traditions, people's euthanasia attitudes are not congruent with the positions of their religious authorities, in other traditions, most notably evangelicalism, religious authority appears to remain strong.

This article examines the demographic characteristics and political attitudes and behaviors of Nicaraguan evangelicals, Roman Catholics, and nonreligious. Analysis of data from a nationally representative 1990 Gallup survey - conducted showy after the national election in which the revolutionary FSLN was swept from power by the opposition - shows that Nicaraguan evangelicals were stronger supporters of the leftist Sandinistas than was the Catholic majority. These findings challenge the conventional wisdom of earlier literature that Latin American evangelicals are inherently apolitical, other-worldly, or right-wing. These findings underscore the theoretical importance of accounting for prevailing political opportunity structures and social class interests in understanding the varied political commitments and behaviors of Latin American evangelicals.

Evaluation de l'impact des communautes ecclesiales de base latino-americaines (CEBs) et du protestantisme sur la consolidation de la democratie en Amerique latine avec une attention particuliere portee sur leur role dans la transformation de la culture politique dominante du corporatisme moniste. A court terme, les CEBs representent une force significative pouvant renforcer la democratie a la difference du protestantisme latino-americain. A long terme les CEBs peuvent rencontrer des freins au renforcement democratique alors que le protestantisme peut emerger comme force significative pour favoriser la democratisation