Structure Of Congregations Research Articles

Faith and Power: Latino Religious Politics Since 1945 ed. by Felipe Hinojosa, Maggie Elmore, and Sergio M. González

Reviewed by: Faith and Power: Latino Religious Politics Since 1945 ed. by Felipe Hinojosa, Maggie Elmore, and Sergio M. González David A. Badillo Faith and Power: Latino Religious Politics Since 1945. Edited by Felipe Hinojosa, Maggie Elmore, and Sergio M. González. New York: New York University Press, 2022. 352 pp. $35.00. This lively collection of twelve lively essays, edited by historians Felipe Hinojosa, Maggie Elmore, and Sergio González is a well-designed and interesting, addition to the modern Latino religious studies literature. The authors' contributions are original, interesting, and valuable. Their aim is to reinterpret Latino religious studies by updating interdisciplinary and comparative scholarship with focused research studies adopting urban, social movement, and immigration perspectives. Topics include institutional Catholicism, popular devotionalism, ecclesiastical structures and church movements, male and female religious order clergy, and episodes in the historic transition from the old to the new U.S. immigrant church. These themes have been covered thoroughly in earlier works including, for example, the Notre Dame History of Hispanic Catholics in the U.S. trilogy edited by Jay Dolan, as well as case studies by Thomas Tweed, Robert Orsi, and Stephen Warner, among many others, and in recent works analyzing the histories of Latino evangelicals. Faith and Power seeks to re-envision earlier generations of scholarship by focusing on "Latino religious politics" from the vantage points of Catholicism, mainline and Pentecostal Protestantism, and Mormonism. The essays are organized into three sections with four chapters each: "place and politics," "freedom movements," and [End Page 87] "immigrant transformations" covering diverse Latino constituencies and religious leadership styles. The first essay by Maggie Gilmore explores how increasing religious pluralism during and right after World War II allowed Catholic agencies to provide needed services to Latinos and how, since the 1950s, church-state collaboration between Catholic organizations, especially involving important bishops and governmental agencies, demonstrated the merging of faith with political power. The next essay, by Lilia Fernández, offers an intricate examination of challenges surfacing in serving a multiethnic Latino population in the Archdiocese of Chicago during the mid-to-late twentieth century. Delia Fernández-Jones examines housing and other Latino adjustment patterns in Grand Rapids, Michigan from 1956 to 2000 and an essay by Sujey Vega examines how Latinos in the historic Mormon Corridor (running from Utah to northern Mexico) responded to changing congregational structures and language usage. The second section on social movements includes Lloyd Barba's essay on Pentecostal farmworkers in the 1950s; Jorge Juan Rodríguez's study of the Young Lords' takeover in 1969 and 1970 of The People's Church in East Harlem; Felipe Hinojosa's chapter on progressive religious movements—beginning with the California Migrant Ministry in the San Joaquín Valley and extending to faith-based organizations in New York City, which illuminates the rise of Latino activism in the civil rights era; and Lara Medina, who assesses innovative mujerista conferences and liturgies of the Catholic feminist organization Las Hermanas, which formed during the early 1970s, relating its work to subsequent movements. The third section begins with Sergio González's chapter on immigrant and refugee sanctuary movements from the 1980s to the present, which focuses on the Midwest. Then the chapter by Eladio Bobadilla turns to the role of the Catholic Church in debates leading to the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 and Latino immigrant advocacy in its aftermath. Anne Martinez's essay revisits the expression of popular religion in the Vía Crucis in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. Finally, Yuridia Ramírez examines indigenous identity among Latinos in Durham, North Carolina. I have some reservations, however, about using the term "Latino religious politics" as a central organizing theme for the volume. Evidence presented in the chapters does not seem to warrant its predominance over an interpretation based simply on the interaction between religion, place, social movements, and immigration. In the essay on Mormonism, for instance, Vega develops a fascinating congregational analysis of Mexican American identity and participation within the Mormon Church which has little to do with immigration policy, the law, or politics. Few other chapters had any actual content [End Page 88] dealing with governance, democracy...

“Our Antient Friends … Are Much Reduced”: Mary and James Wright, the Hopewell Friends Meeting, and Quaker Women in the Southern Backcountry, c. 1720–c. 1790

Although the existence of Quakers in Virginia is well known, the best recent surveys of Virginia history devote only passing attention to them, mostly in the context of expanding religious freedoms during the revolutionary era. Few discuss the Quakers themselves or the nature of Quaker settlements although notably, Warren Hofstra, Larry Gragg, and others have studied aspects of the Backcountry Quaker experience. Recent Quaker historiography has reinterpreted the origins of the Quaker faith and the role of key individuals in the movement, including the roles of Quaker women. Numerous studies address Quaker women collectively. Few, however, examine individual families or women of different generations within a single family, and Robynne Rogers Healey has argued for “more biographies of less well-known Quaker women”. This essay uses a four-generation genealogical case study of the Quaker Bowater-Wright family to analyze the development of the Quaker faith in the Virginia backcountry and the lower South and its spread into the Old Northwest. In the backcountry environment, with its geographically isolated settlements and widely dispersed population, early Quaker migrants found fertile ground for both their economic and religious activities. The way of life that developed there differed significantly from the hierarchical Anglican structure of the Tidewater region and the more vocal evangelical groups with their independent congregational structure in the southern backcountry. This article argues that Quaker women played a critical role in shaping Quaker migration and institutional growth in eighteenth and nineteenth century America. It also suggests that the Quaker institutional structure reinforced family connections by creating a close bond that united southern Quakers across a great geographical area.

The Congregational Structure of Homonegativity: Why Place of Worship May Matter More than Frequency of Worship

ABSTRACT Using 239 congregants from 14 randomly selected places of worship in the Southern United States—and a mega-analysis of 577 congregants from 34 similarly-located places of worship—we examined the relationship between religiousness and homonegativity. Multilevel models examining the effects of religiousness on homonegativity indicated that service attendance was more strongly related to homonegativity as a congregation-level variable than as an individual-level variable. Interaction effects between service attendance and the affirmativeness of a congregation were not significant, suggesting that the frequency of participation with a homonegative congregation is not related to homonegativity. These findings imply that the religiousness of a congregation is more closely related to homonegativity than the religiousness of an individual and that individuals may select a congregation that matches their views on same-sex sexuality. Homonegativity may serve a signaling function, enabling congregants to affiliate with a congregation with attitudes toward same-sex sexuality similar to their own.

‘예배는 신앙을 형성한다’ - 회중의 인지구조를 중심으로 -

‘예배는 신앙을 형성한다’ - 회중의 인지구조를 중심으로 -

Putting Civic Participation in Context: Examining the Effects of Congregational Structure and Culture

Research indicates that participation in organized religion is related to higher levels of civic engagement. It is often theorized that social connections developed in congregations facilitate this increased involvement in civic life. Yet, despite interest in the link between religion and civic engagement, few studies have explored the effects that varying congregational contexts have on attenders’ civic behavior. In an era when both religious culture and demographics are changing rapidly, understanding how organizational contexts affect attenders’ community involvement may be valuable for predicting future patterns of religion and civic engagement. I utilize multilevel data drawn from the 2001 US Congregational Life Survey to investigate the relationship between congregational context and three measures of civic engagement. Findings reveal that important structural and cultural characteristics of congregations are related to civic behavior and that these characteristics influence different types of engagement differently. Implications for the relationship between religion and civic participation are discussed.

Financial Commitment Within Federations of Small Groups: The Effect of Cell-Based Congregational Structure on Individual Giving

According to available research, congregations with strict rules and dense social networks are better able to screen out free-riders (“selection”) and encourage greater levels of commitment among members (“production”). Both selection and production raise levels of individual giving. Research testing these processes generally utilizes a measure of network density. This study examines whether organizations that are a “federation of small groups” are better able to monitor members and hold them accountable, thus assuring acceptable levels of commitment on the part of members. Results of multilevel modeling using data from the 2001 U.S. Congregational Life Survey indicate that cell-based congregations elicit higher levels of financial giving among congregants, net of all other effects, including network density. Moreover, cross-level interactions between the cell-based congregation variable and theological exclusivity as well as attendance are significant and positive. Cell-based congregations provide a context in which individual-level predictors of giving become more robust.

Structural Adaptations in Immigrant Congregations

In this paper we show that immigrant religious institutions tend to assume many elements of a congregational structure and a community center model of functioning, characteristics usually not found in their countries of origin. Based on data from the Religion, Ethnicity, New Immigrants Research (RENIR) project in Houston, Texas, we found, however, that the two dimensions are distinct and largely unrelated to one another. While each serves as a vehicle to engender high levels of member commitment to the religious institution and serves to meet both religious and material needs of the immigrants, congregations vary in the degree to which they develop the two major elements of Congregationalism.

L'impegno quotidiano della Congregazione per le Chiese Orientali

The origin of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches is well known and its competence has been explained various times by more than one author. This has always been done in general terms. The current article considers particulars. Briefly it deals with the following : 1. the origin of the Roman Curia and the structure of Congregations; 2. the origin of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide and the institution of the dicastery pro negotiis ritus orientalis; 3. the transformation in 1917 which make this dicastery into an autonomous congregation called pro Ecclesia Orientali by Benedict XV and, later by Paul VI, from 1968 onwards: pro Ecclesiis orientalibus; since when the Congregation has had the Roma Pontiff as its Prefect. The competance of the Congregation is vast, extending to all the faithful of Oriental Rite and also Latin Rite faithful in certain territories, this is exercised in strict subordination to the Roman Pontiff; 4. In the fulfilment of its pastoral service, the Congregation intervenes when there is an election of a Patriarch or of a Major Archbishop and presents the assent or nomination of the Roman Pontiff to the candidates for the episcopate. It also assists the Oriental Bishops in their ad milina Apostolorum visit; it follows carefully the inherent problems of initial formation and permanence of the clergy, and the problems of priestly life; it promotes and assists consecrated life, and the life of the laity. The Congregation shows the Apostolic Sees fidelity to its continuing mission during this century by giving great attention to Oriental Liturgy, and promoting the study of oriental christianity. Finally the particular situations of the oriental communities give relevance to the financial assistance which is coordinated by this Congregation

Bedieningspatrone wat die assimilasie van nuwe gelowiges in die gemeente bevorder

In this article the problem of assimilating new members into congregational structures is addressed. A further aim of the article is to offer a possible contribution to the role of ministry structures in local churches - structures which may promote effective assimilation of new members in such a way that these new members will spontaneously apply and minister their gifts to other people. The object of this ministering involves existing members of the congregation as well as individuals not yet evangelized or assimilated into existing local churches.

RELIGIOUS PATTERNS AND PARTICIPATION OF OLDER ADULTS: A SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

This article examines patterns of religious behavior and participation of older adults from a sociological perspective from five areas: (a) a social profile of religious participation (b) a profile of patterns of religious behavior of the elderly, (c) the effects of age, period, and cohort on the socialization to religious practice, (d) the meaning and role of organized religion for older adults, and (e) the implication of these practices for future cohorts of older adults, religious organizations and society. Although more adults say that they rely on established patterns of religious practice and continue to participate until late life, about one‐fourth of the elderly disaffiliate or decrease their activities. The established churches and synagogues are predicted to be an increasing source of social, physical, and psychological support for older adults; older adults, in turn, will be recognized as new resources for the congregations, and the increase in the proportion of older members will impact the programs and social structure of congregations.

The Effects of Size on Other Structural Attributes of Congregations within the Same Denomination

Contemporary theorizing on sect-like religious bodies has focused on the size of entire religious organizations as an important variable in the study of these groups, particularly their transformation into denominations. In contrast, Weber and Troeltsch identified small size of congregation rather than of denomination as the sine qua non of sect-like organizational structure. This paper tests the hypothesis that small congregation size is associated with sect-like congregational attributes and therefore is likely to impede transition from sect-like to church-like (or denominational) religious organizations. It is also hypothesized that the size of the communities in which congregations are located will differentially affect congregational organizational structure, with smaller communities enhancing tendencies toward sect-like characteristics. These hypotheses are tested on a representative sample of Church of the Nazarene congregations. Four dependent variables measure sect-like congregational structural attributes: rigorous membership criteria, the conversion rate, the reversion rate, and the proportion of the annual congregational budget contributed to the denomination. The findings furnish strong support for the hypothesis that congregational size is correlated with these structural attributes, while weaker support is furnished for the hypothesis that community size is similarly related.

Erratum: The Effect of Participation in Congregational Structures on Church Attendance

Erratum: The Effect of Participation in Congregational Structures on Church Attendance

The Effect of Participation in Congregational Structures on Church Attendance

The structure of congregations that college students attended prior to college is examined for effect upon church attendance rates while in college. Specifically, the division of labor in the congregation was measured as was also the extent to which the individual held positions in the division of labor. The findings reveal that the division of labor itself does not affect attendance rate. However, holding positions in the division of labor does have some effect on the attendance rate in college even when rate of high school church attendance is controlled. In comparing positions held in the division of labor with participation in church sponsored youth activities, a greater effect on church attendance was derived from the holding of positions in the congregational division of labor. A multitude of publications as well as multi-million dollar expenditures on college campuses attest to the concern of American churches for the religious commitment of college students. The number of campus ministers employed throughout the country further supports the contention that the religious participation of college students has a high priority in the goals of American churches. Hammand and Mitchell (1965), for example, found in 1963 the names and addresses of 1,300 full-time Protestant campus ministers, probably a conservative figure due to inadequate records. In the same decade Havens (1963) and Feldman (1969) published surveys of empirical research on college student religion. Their work indicates that nearly all research has focused on the effect of college on student religion. The failure of such studies to, establish that college itself has an effect on student religion led Demerath and Lutterman (1969) to conclude that differences in participation of college students in religious activity are a result of "differential recruitment rather than differential impact of factors in the college environment."

The Strange American Way: Letters of Caja Munch from Wiota, Wisconsin, 1855-1859 ; with An American Adventure (review)

284CIVIL WAR HISTORY the earliest efforts to attract people to the New World. More than two and a half centuries later, the booster or promoter was still at work in the Great Plains region, cajoling and coaxing people to settle in the area. Professor Emmons of the University of Montana has written a systematic account of boomer propaganda used in the central plains, especially Kansas and Nebraska, with peripheral attention to Colorado and Wyoming. In doing so, he fills a need in western history by recognizing the scope and importance of boomer literature. In the author's opinion, the Central Plains region served as a model for other promotional activities elsewhere. In his first six chapters Emmons treats the various aspects of promotion , ranging from the efforts extended by railroads, newspapers, and state and territorial governments to a treatment of the safety valve implications and the pseudoscientific arguments put forth to counter the image of the "Great American Desert." The recurring image of the frontier as a Garden of Eden faltered on the Great Plains, largely because of the shortage of rainfall. Consequently, promoters found it necessary to educate the public on the possibilities of life in a semiarid region. Obviously, vested interests tried to use various propaganda techniques to their best advantage, although the end-result sometimes served the public interest. Emmons bases his work upon a close study of the propaganda itself and a variety of other sources, including manuscripts , letters, and government reports. Chapter six, "Rain Follows the Plow," is particularly enlightening on the different theories put forth to explain how the Plains people might remedy the problems of their environment. In his final chapter, Emmons deals with dissenters and defenders. The boomers took special offense at the ideas of John Wesley Powell, who wanted a more realistic appraisal of western settlement. In his denial of the garden myth, Powell posed a challenge to most promoters and consequently drew the wrath of their congressional allies. As the author notes in his conclusion, the boomer played an important role in the closing days of the frontier era. In view of the massive amount of boomer materials, it is surprising that historians have not given more attention to boosterism. Emmons' treatment of the subject is straightforward and scholarly, although he seems to have slighted the role of the newspaper editor. A chapter on the preposterous notions of newspapermen would have added some comic relief to an otherwise serious study. Bobby H. Johnson Stephen F. Austin State University The Strange American Way: Letters of Caja Munch from Wiota, Wisconsin , 1855-1859; with An American Adventure, by Johan Storm Munch, translated by Helene Munch and Peter A. Munch; and with an essay Social Class and Acculturation, by Peter A. Munch. (Carbondale BOOK REVIEWS285 and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970. Pp. xiv, 274. $7.95.) This volume is best described as a collection of materials relating to the experience of a Norwegian Lutheran minister, Johan Storm Munch, and his wife in Wisconsin during the years 1855-1859. Of the three sections of the book, the longest consists of the letters written by the minister's wife, Caja Munch, to her family in Norway. They hardly present a picture of the legendary struggling immigrant seeking a place in American life. Caja Munch was too accustomed to the middle-class life of the ministry of the Norwegian state church to ever consider her stay in America as anything but temporary. Her resentment for the "peasant" attitudes of the majority of Norwegian immigrants, and especially for the independence and latitudinarianism they demanded in their congregations, runs through her letters. Although a few letters of Johan Munch are included among those of his wife, his view is more particularly set forth in a memoir written forty-five years later for his children. He, too, never adapted to the free-and-easy congregational structures of the immigrant church, and quarreled, for example, with his parishoners over letting Methodists use the church building. But his strongest reasons for returning to Norway had to do with relationships with immigrant churches more rigidly doctrinaire than his own; he disapproved of the move of some Norwegian Lutherans in America toward...