Patterns of Belief at the Denominational and Congregational Levels

Abstract

This paper examines the homogeneity and heterogeneity of church members' beliefs at the denominational and congregational levels. Homogeneity is defined as the extent to which one pattern of belief tends to dominate all others. Heterogeneity is defined as the extent to which more than one pattern of belief exists within a group. Data were obtained from Baptist and Methodist members of two middle class and two working class congregations. The data indicated that heterogeneity prevailed in both denominations and in three of the four congregations. A discussion of these findings focuses on some of the functional implications of heterogeneity and the role of heterogeneity in some of the crises religious groups are facing. The sociology of religion literature of the 1950s and early 1960s suggested that there were important differences between the religious orientations of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, but that there were few, if any, substantial ideological divisions within each of these three major religious traditions (Herberg, 1957; Lee, 1960; Lenski, 1961). While this view seemed to make sense and tended to influence the analysis of data gathered during that time, evidence collected in the last several years has not supported that generalization. For example, several writers have pointed out the ideological cleavages between Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Jews as well as the different religious orientations of first, second, and third generation Jews in this country (Sklare, 1958 and 1955; Dresner, 1963; Glazer, 1957; Gordon, 1964; Glazer and Moynihan, 1963; Rosenberg, 1965; Sherman, 1965; Goldstein and Goldscheider, 1968). Data from several other studies have indicated that there are sizable denominational differences within "Protestantism." Indeed, the evidence suggests that the differences between many Protestant denominations (e.g., Baptists and Episcopalians) often are greater than the average differences between Protestants and Catholics (Stark and Glock, 1968; Hadden, 1967 and 1969; Davidson, Schlan-