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This research examines the social actors and interactions that facilitate seminary students' sense of calling. Drawing from 36 in‐depth interviews with first year Masters of Divinity students, we introduce six ideal typical social others who play a formative role in the early stages of a call to ministry: instigators, exemplars, interpreters, affirmers, challengers, and codiscerners. Together, these findings demonstrate that the call to ministry, while deeply personal, emerges through social interactions that facilitate and make plausible a person's sense of calling and that sustain it over time. Extending Richard Pitt's conceptualization of the "horizontal call," this paper argues that social others help evoke and solidify—not merely legitimate—a personal sense of call. This research also highlights differences in the social structuring of call by gender. Despite considerable gains in the ordination of women, we find that many still face obstacles to experiencing and embracing a call to ministry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Reformed clergy across two different settings - the United States and Scotland in an effort to determine how theological orthodoxy is related to political participation. The paper demonstrates that (1) clergy in both settings tend to be politically active (2) the level of clergy political activity tends to be greater in the United States than in Scotland (3) the relationship between orthodoxy and political activity is complex, varying by the specific type of activity examined and (4) while theological orthodoxy and modernist clergy tend to differ in the nature of their political activities, there is no longer a major "gap" in level of political activity between the two groups of ministers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transformations within religious institutions and traditions often occur via conflict and internal social movements. Yet previous research on such phenomena has missed some important sociological insights because it has not incorporated methodological and theoretical resources from other sociological literatures dealing with social movements and organizational change and conflict. This paper presents a comprehensive critical review of extant research on intradenominational conflict and identifies and describes five shortcomings in this literature. As a corrective, we suggest that analysts focus on organizations and conflict events as units of analysis, pay more attention to ideal factors in conflict, examine relationships between internal and external variables, and compare conflicts across organizations and across time. These alternative methodological recommendations are related to three new theoretical directions in other sociological subfields: resource mobilization theory's focus on intermediate levels of social life, the "new institutionalist" emphasis on how organizational actors respond to their environments, and the recent work on the interplay of "schema? and "resources" in social structure. Such new directions address questions that were not accessible via earlier approaches. They also begin to build important bridges between the sociology of religion and other sociological subfields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I hypothesize and show evidence for a causal link between local land use systems and popular receptivity to ascetic, rationalist religions in sixteenth-century Germany, France, the Netherlands, and England. Rationalist religions typically received popular support in regions characterized by individual property rights in land and little communal control over agriculture. I argue that this social organization of agriculture gave rise to individualistic value systems, which had an affinity with rationalist, ascetic belief systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study has two goals. The first goal is to see if church-based social relationships are associated with change in self-esteem. Emotional support from fellow church members and having a close personal relationship with God serve as measures of church-based social ties. The second goal is to see whether emotional support from fellow church members is more strongly associated with self-esteem than emotional support from secular social network members. The data come from an ongoing nationwide survey of older adults. The findings reveal that having a close personal relationship with God is associated with a stronger sense of self-esteem at the baseline and follow-up interviews. In contrast, emotional support from fellow church members was not associated with self-esteem at either point in time. However, emotional support from secular social network members is related to self-esteem at the baseline but not the follow-up interview. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free riders can be a problem in large congregations. Many studies have shown that large congregations attract members who are less active and who contribute smaller sums of money. We extend this literature by studying the impact of denominational market share on free-riding behavior. We hypothesize that people who want the benefit of a church affiliation without contributing to its mission may be drawn to the more popular denominations in their region. For example, in an area dominated by Lutherans, membership in a Lutheran congregation may offer potential free riders more social acceptance and connections. However, where Lutherans are in a distinct minority, free riders may perceive less benefit in being Lutheran. If so, only those who are serious about being a Lutheran are likely to join and free-riding behavior should be less evident. Tests using data for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) congregations are consistent with our hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Up to one–third of Americans switch religions at some time during their lives. What are the predictors of this religious mobility? This article addresses this question using a modified rational choice framework to explain the development, maintenance, and change of religious preferences. Although classical rational choice theory assumes that preferences are stable, this article suggests that preferences are variable and that social interaction works to maintain or change an individual’s preferred religious choice. A cultural theory of preference formation is applied to allow for the social constraint rational choice theory often ignores. Findings suggest that childhood socialization does not cement religious preference, that formally joining a church while growing up acts to stabilize preferences, that lapsing in practice increases the likelihood of switching, and that “distinctive” denominations generate religious preferences that reduce individual switching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A nationally representative survey was conducted of adult Americans who were currently involved in prayer groups, Bible studies, or other religiously oriented small groups. The purpose of the study was to determine if these respondents had engaged in forgiving behavior as a result of being in their group and, if so, to ascertain which group activities were most likely to facilitate this behavior. Of the 1,379 respondents, 61 percent said their group had helped them to forgive someone, 71 percent said they had experienced healings of relationships as a result of their group, and 43 percent said they had worked on improving a broken relationship in recent months. Group activities generating "social capital" or "cultural capital" were mostly unrelated to these responses, while activities involving "emotional capital" and "spiritual capital" showed strong positive relationships. Further analysis suggests that forgiving behavior is especially facilitated by groups that emphasize prayer, sharing, and learning about forgiveness. The study also suggests that forgiving behavior may have such consequences as encouraging prosocial involvement, helping to overcome addictions, and promoting emotional well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous exploratory research among Flemish Roman Catholics has shown that church involvement and membership in voluntary organizations have a moderating effect on ethnic prejudice via the negative effect on anomie. This new study with a random sample of 1,650 Flemish Catholics largely confirms previous findings and provides new Insights. The moderating effect of church involvement on ethnic prejudice is explained by the negative effect of church involvement on utilitarian individualism and on the feeling of political powerlessness. It is argued that these effects can be ascribed to the humanistic values of "socio-cultural Christianity" as transmitted by weekly sermons and by the Christian social organizations and schools in Flanders (Belgium). Moreover, social integration into the community counters feelings of powerlessness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on regional differences in the way mainstream churches responded to the cultural upheaval. The first disestablishment occurred at the time of the nation's founding when it became understood that no Protestant church would be singled out for state recognition. The second disestablishment occurred during the years between the two world wars. The third disestablishment is the change in the church-culture relationship whereby persons are seen to be free to choose not only which religion will be theirs but also whether to choose any at all. Large increases in individualism took place both structurally, by diminishing local social relationships, and culturally, by alternative moral expectations in the family/sexual sphere.