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The article presents an announcement of the annual meeting of Association for the Sociology of Religion, to be held from August 15-17, 1996 in New York. The theme for the meeting, that is understanding religion and society, invites the public to take stock of the connections between religion and other social institutions--the economy, medicine, education, the family, politics and the state, among others--in the U.S. and around the globe. This program welcomes papers on any topic or issue in sociology of religion including religious values, career choices and economic behavior, economic theories of religious behavior, cultural production and religious change within the world system, postmodernism, deconstuctionism and the sociology of religion and other related topics. The chairperson for the program would be Christopher G. Ellison, sociologist, Department of Sociology, University of Texas, Austin. Deadlines for submission of session proposals, abstract, papers due for McNamara student paper award and papers to conveners and discussants are given.

This paper analyzes religious socialization as it relates to schooling success. propose and test a multilevel model of involvement in church activities as providing integration and motivation toward schooling success among metropolitan U.S. public high school sophomores. Results indicate that respondents' participation in church activities is related to heightened educational expectations, and that these more intensely religious students score higher on standardized math/reading tests; even while controlling for variables that often show religious effects to be spurious. The hypothesis that church involvement's effect varies by ecological context - it being a better predictor for students in poorer neighborhoods than average or wealthy neighborhoods - was not supported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent examinations of the influence of fundamentalist Protestant orientations an educational attainment have brought new life to debates over the material consequences of culture. In this paper we examine how parents' fundamentalist orientations influence their children's educational attainment. We use data from the Youth Parent Socialization Panel Study to demonstrate the influence of parents' fundamentalism on children's attainment. We divide the sample to show how the influence of parents' fundamentalism varies by gender of the child and by the youth's fundamentalism. We find that fundamentalist parents hinder the educational attainment of their nonfundamentalist children, while they actually are more supportive of male Fundamentalist children's educational attainment than are non fundamentalist parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper exposes a serious shortcoming in the methods by which social scientists typically analyze the relationship between formal education and religious belief. Those who think about this relationship commonly imagine its producing quite disparate patterns of effect. Two of the most prominent of these are characterized by the contrary images of "erosion" and "fissure." The problem is that conventional statistical techniques are generally ill-suited to distinguishing between these disparate effect patterns, and so I propose a method of logic modeling that is better able to do so. I illustrate and prove the utility of this method using data drawn from the 1988 and 1993 General Social Surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the Multivariate Belief-Motivation Theory of Religiousness is presented. This theory integrates the religious domains of motivation, belief, and problem-solving style within one framework for the prediction of psychological adjustment. Religious problem-solving style is incorporated in. a mediating role. Motivation, belief, and problem-solving style are operationalized respectively in terms of intrinsic/extrinsic religiousness, concept of God, and religious coping style. Trait anxiety is used as the criterion variable. The theory was evaluated for 161 students attending four Christian Protestant colleges. The results supported the necessity of differentiating religiousness into both motivation and belief in order to predict and understand religious coping style and anxiety. Religious problem-solving style mediated the relationship between belief and anxiety. However, both motivation and problem-solving style contributed unique portions of the variance in anxiety, which suggested that motivation was not entirely mediated by problem-solving style. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The major question addressed in this paper is why people have a favorable attitude toward the moral majority The theoretical model predicted that moral majority support would be positively related to having a Christian Right orientation, to being opposed to change, and to watching religious television; in turn, it was predicted that the latter three variables would be negatively related to modernity characteristics. Data came from a stratified, staged-random sample of residents of the SMSA containing Muncie, Indiana, the Lynd's "Middletown" (N = 281). It was found that moral majority support had three independent sources: 1) persuasion via religious television, 2) a cultural fundamentalist attitude stressing continuation of the status quo, and 3) advocacy of the Christian Right perspective. Two of these factors are negatively related to modernity variables suggesting long-term decline in support for the moral majority.
Our major conclusion is that support for the moral majority has three independent sources: 1) persuasion via religious television by moral majority advocates, 2) a cultural fundamentalist attitude that desires continuation of the status quo, and thus leads to support for the traditionalist dogma of the moral majority, and 3) the appeal of the moral majority to those who have a Christian Right perspective which calls for the domination of politics by their version of Christianity. Two of these factors are negatively related to modernity variables, suggesting long-term decline in support for a movement such as moral majority. That is to say, assuming that people will become more educated and more cosmopolitan, and given the relations displayed in Diagram 2, it would follow that in the future fewer people will accept either the Christian Right Index or the status quo orientation, both of which are sources of support for the moral majority. On the other hand, if education or cosmopolitanism declines, an increase in support could be expected. The... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike the study of politics, economic development, education, and other dimensions of modern society, little quantitative cross-national research has been done on religion, probably because the necessary data has seemed lacking Yet a promising source of available data exists data on religious book publishing which is recorded annually by the United Nations These data provide an indicator of societal religious commitment for at least 43 countries covering the past quarter century. This paper discusses the quality and validity of these data, showing that they correlate well with several dozen other sources of data of more limited scope As a measure of secularization, these data appear related in the expected direction to quantitative, cross-national indicators of modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While sociologists have long argued that higher education has a secularizing influence, recent research emphasizes the moderating role of social contexts in the relationship between social class and religion. I extend this line of research by examining sources of cross-national variation in the association between higher education and religiosity using survey data from more than 46,000 respondents in 39 nations. Multilevel models of a religiosity scale show (1) in the aggregate, higher education has a moderate, negative effect on the religiosity scale, (2) this effect varies considerably across nations, and (3) the negative effect of higher education on religiosity is most robust in relatively religious nations. These results demonstrate the importance of national contexts in moderating the effect of education on religiosity. The results also support a cultural diffusion argument that suggests that the highly educated are innovators and early adopters of secular behaviors but that low levels of religiosity then diffuse to less-educated segments of a population as secularity becomes more common. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between religion and educational ideals in Taiwan is explored using the Taiwan Social Change Survey (1990, 1995, 2000, and 2005). Religion seems to influence the overall level of educational ideals. Both before and after controls, Taiwanese Protestants have the highest educational ideals for both boys and girls; the nonreligious have the second highest ideals. Members of the new religious movement Yi-Guan-Dao and Catholics have the lowest ideals, while folk religionists/Taoists and Buddhists are in the middle and not significantly different from each other. We discuss possible mechanisms of influence and how our findings speak to the available literature on religion and education in the United States and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I analyze the effects of Catholic schooling, Protestant schooling, and homeschooling on adolescents' religious lives and test three mechanisms through which these schooling strategies might influence religiosity: friendship networks, network closure, and adult mentors. Data from Wave 1 of the National Survey of Youth and Religion suggest that Catholic schoolers attend religious services more frequently and value their faith more highly than public schoolers, but attend religious education classes and youth group less often. Protestant schoolers' involvement in their local congregation is similar to public schoolers', but their faith plays a more salient role in their life and they are more active in private religious activities. Homeschoolers do not differ significantly from public schoolers on any outcome considered. Moreover, friendship networks, network closure, and adult mentors play a very limited role in mediating the relationships between schooling strategies and adolescent religiosity. Interpretations of these findings are presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thomas F. O'Dea's classic "The Mormons" identified “Mormonism's encounter with modern secular thought” as perhaps the church's greatest problem. In line with secularization theory, O'Dea predicted an attenuation of traditional Mormonism, and an adaptation and gradual liberalization of Mormon theology as the literal interpretation of Mormon origins “dissolved” in the solvent of modernity. O'Dea's views on the crisis facing Mormonism were based, in part, on ethnographic field work in Salt Lake City in the summer of 1950, as interpreted by a modernist Catholic sociologist. A review of his field notes suggests that key informants who “hosted” much of O'Dea's research activity were liberal Mormon academics who defined the church's traditional theology as a problem. This viewpoint agreed with O'Dea's preconceptions about the “education and apostasy” dilemma. A comparison of O'Dea's published “reading” of his field notes with the notes themselves suggests the plausibility of alternative readings. One such alternative is offered here, an interpretation of the interplay of education, Mormon theology, and Mormon intellectualism drawn from O'Dea's field notes, but with a different emphasis from that of his essay. Finally, reverting to a modernist perspective, I offer some hints from survey research suggesting that the predicted liberalization of Mormon theology has yet to occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After 1850, The Netherlands developed into a strongly pillarized or denominational society. Starting in 1965, however, a process of secularization and depillarization emerged and the influence of the institutionalized denominations declined greatly. Today, there are indications that the process of secularization has reached its peak. Remarkably enough, such secularization and depillarization has had little influence on the educational system in The Netherlands. In this article, the relations between the religious affiliations of parents, the denominations of the schools attended by their children, and both the cognitive and noncognitive educational achievement of their children are examined. A representative sample of nearly 8,400 kindergarten students from 432 elementary schools is studied. The results show that the denomination of the school does not appear to affect educational results. Effects of the religious affiliation of the parents on the cognitive achievement but not the self-confidence or well-being of their children were found. When the socioethnic background of the students was taken into consideration, however, the observed effects disappeared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This note uses systematic data gathered on state legislators in Wisconsin to present an empirical test of Allen Hertzke's suggestion that there is a connection between legislators' faith and the access they give to religious groups. It does so by regressing dependent variables which measure the extent of contact between legislators and religious advocacy organizations on various demographic background and personal religiosity variables. The analysis confirms Hertzke's contention that characteristics of legislators - including religious factors - matter for religious group access. But the relationship between faith and access is not the same for all groups. The connection is strongest for conservative religious groups. The strategy of the Christian Right to elect religious candidates seems wise in light of this finding. Although access to legislators on the basis of their faith was only positive for conservative religious advocacy organizations, liberal and Catholic organizations did have higher levels of access to legislators with higher levels of education, which may be of more consequence since the more highly educated legislators tend to be in more influential positions in the legislature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents response from the author to Frank Lechner, on the criticism of his article about recent religious declines in Quebec, Poland and the Netherlands. Lechner is convinced that our theory cannot explain declines in religiousness, thus leaving the secularization doctrine as the only available explanation. The fact is that our theory aims to explain variations in religiousness and therefore must account for the recent changes observed in Quebec, Poland, and the Netherlands. Moreover, Lechner's skillful documentation of the decline of Dutch religions participation highlights aspects of the theory that we have often noted but perhaps have failed to emphasize sufficiently. Religious commodities are both costly and risky. They demand the sacrifice of valuable resources in return for promised rewards that, in most cases, lie beyond the range of empirical proof. Faced with these costs and risks, religious consumers are tempted to backslide, thereby reducing their levels of participation and commitment. Where large numbers of people receive little or no religious socialization, subjective religiousness will tend to be idiosyncratic and heterodox, but will be far more widespread than organized religious participation. Pluralism and competition usually are linked, but when they are not, it is competition that is the energizing for

This article presents a detailed study of denominational retention and switching among American Jews derived from the 1990 national Jewish population survey. Adults report that since childhood the number of Orthodox Jews has decreased by 16%, practically no change has occurred among those preferring the Conservative denomination or without a denominational preference, whereas the number of Reform Jews has increased by 13%. More frequent synagogue attendance, more home religious practices, more involvement in Jewish primary groups, and day-school Jewish education are associated with greater denominational retention. Marriages between Jews and Christians produce shifts to the Reform denomination or, more often, to a no-preference position. Research on denominational shifting needs to differentiate between marriages within or between basic religious groupings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This investigation proposes and tests a conceptual model of adolescent religious belief and commitment which was informed by recent advances in measurement theory and scale constrution. The model is a partial conceptual replication of Cornwall's 1988 study of Mormon adult religious development. The model was examined by looking at the linear structural relations from the covariance matrix of relations in a large survey of adolescent religious attitudes and behavior conducted In late 1988 and early 1989. The proposed model was specified, modified, and re-specified. The final fit of the model to the data was quite good, especially when one considers that the survey used for this study was originally prepared for another purpose. Finally, the implications of this new model and additional research strategies and questions are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The specific aims of this research were: (1) to review past studies on the Korean ethnic church in the U.S., (2) to analyze the religious participation patterns of Korean immigrants in light of various theories on the immigrant church, and (3) to explore theoretical and practical implications of the findings from historical, comparatives and structural perspectives. The empirical data for this study derived from interviews with 622 Korean immigrants (20 years and older) residing in the Chicago area. In general, regardless of length of residence, sex, age, education, economic status, or sociocultural assimilation, church participation was found to be a way of life among Korean immigrants in the US. Data analyses generally confirmed the meaning, belonging, comfort, and mental-health theories but lent no support to the assimilation/mobility theory. In addition, historical and structural factors accounting for the Korean immigrants' pervasive participation in their ethnic church were explored, such as the Christian legacy of Korean immigration. the urban middle-class background of recent Korean immigrants, and their adaptation as a racial/ethnic minority in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glock, Ringer, and Babbie have argued that people who become involved in church are seeking a comfortable refuge from the deprivations associated with being old, female, unmarried, or having a small income or little education. The present research tests this thesis using data from a province wide sample of adults in Alberta. No support for the thesis is found among any denominational grouping. When the thesis is broken down into its component hypotheses, however, the pattern of relationships that emerges is one that has long been familiar to sociologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]