Credentialism Across Creeds: Clergy Education and Stratification in Protestant Denominations

2000 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Perl ◽  
Patricia M.Y. Chang
Keyword(s):  
Clergy Education ◽  
Protestant Denominations

The Incorporation of American Religion: The Case of the Presbyterians

1991 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-118
Author(s):  
Louis Weeks
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Voluntary Associations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
American Religion ◽  
Cultural Patterns ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Protestant Denominations ◽  
Family Groups

The Christian church, including all its various branches, has been consistently susceptible to the forces that form or change cultures. Scholars claim that this adaptability has been extremely important in the rise and spread of the religion. In the American environment, Protestants formed voluntary associations that attracted people individually and by family groups. This environment actually shaped “denominations” even during the colonial period. One such denomination was the Presbyterians, who pioneered in the formation of a communion that existed as neither a “state church” nor a “dissenting” church body. As the United States experienced industrialization and growing complexity in economic and cultural patterns, the Protestant denominations were affected by those same forces. Thus, denominations naturally became what came to be termed “non-profit corporations,” subject to the limitations and problems of such organizations but also the beneficiaries of that system as well.

Motivation for the Pastoral Profession in the Netherlands

2000 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hessel J. Zondag
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Pastoral Ministry ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Organizational Psychology ◽  
Expectancy Theory ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Item Questionnaire ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Protestant Denominations

Expectancy theory has been utilized by organizational psychology to explore the expectations and valuations of individuals in various professions. This study employs expectancy theory to clergy, investigating pastors' personal motivations, or values, for assuming pastoral ministry and the subsequent expectation that these values will be honored by their activities within the pastorate. The responses of 235 pastors from Catholic and Protestant denominations on a 24-item questionnaire devised to gauge pastoral motivation and adapted to assess pastoral expectations were factor analyzed and correlated in this exploratory study. The analysis yielded four robust factors. The first two motives found to be dominant were the pursuit of a Christian Way of Life and Anthropocentric Altruism. Anthropocentric Egoism and Theocentric Egoism, although secondary motivations, were theoretically meaningful in the understanding of pastoral motivations and expectations. The impact of expectations upon pastoral well-being and resilience against burnout is discussed.

God is Doing a New Thing in the ELCA: Trends from the FACT Data

2021 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-266
Author(s):  
Deborah L. Coe ◽  
Brad Petersen
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Faith Communities ◽  
Congregational Studies ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
The Past ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
Protestant Denominations ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran ◽  
The Church

For decades, mainline Protestant denominations in the United States have experienced steady membership declines. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is no different, and our research team has been exploring this topic for years. Faith Communities Today (FACT) is an interfaith project consisting of a series of surveys conducted by the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership, of which the ELCA is a long-standing member. In this article, we examine data collected from the three decennial FACT surveys to discern where, despite declining membership, God is, to quote the prophet Isaiah, “doing a new thing.” We find that over the past twenty years, the typical ELCA congregation has had a gradually increasing: sense of vitality, belief that it is financially healthy, desire to become more diverse, willingness to call women to serve as pastors, openness to change, and clarity of mission and purpose. Because there are multiple possible explanations for these positive trends, we recommend approaching such trend lines cautiously, viewing them through a critical-thinking lens. Even though there is an increased perception of congregational well-being, overall finances and the number of people involved in the church continue to decline. There is still much work to be done.

scholarly journals Egyedi jellemvonások a modern dél-koreai kereszténységben = Unique features of Christianity in modern South Korea

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-247
Author(s):  
Fábian Armin Vincentius
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Korean War ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Japanese Occupation ◽  
Korean People ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Korean Christianity ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
Protestant Denominations ◽  
High Share

A „Han folyó csodája” kifejezésről sokan hallottak Dél-Korea rendkívül gyors és drámai fejlődésének eredményeként, ám az talán kevesek számára ismert, hogy a Japántól való felszabadulást (1945), illetve a koreai háborút (1953) követően a kereszténység is komoly áttörést ért el az országban. Jelenleg a lakosság több mint negyede, 13.5 millió személy vallja magát kereszténynek, a domináns protestáns felekezetek mellett pedig számottevő a hozzávetőlegesen 5 millió katolikus száma is. Mindez nemcsak a régióban található többi államhoz viszonyítva különleges, hanem azt is jelenti, hogy a Dél-Koreában élő keresztények aránya meghaladja az országban létező többi vallás követőinek számát együttvéve. A folyamat különösen érdekesnek tekinthető azon szempontból, hogy a távol-keleti állam teljesen más kulturális, vallási és történelmi szempontok alapján fejlődött a kereszténység megjelenése előtt, napjainkra azonban mégsem a sámánizmus vagy a buddhizmus, hanem a kereszténység bír központi szereppel vallási életében. Jelen tanulmány célja épp arra választ adni, hogy milyen okoknak köszönhetően volt képes a kereszténység hívek sokaságának bevonzására, illetve milyen egyedi, Dél-Koreára jellemző sajátosságok alakultak ki a fejlődés eredményeként. Jelen kutatás során egy rövid összefoglaló keretén belül szó esik a kereszténység Korea területét érintő kezdeti megjelenéséről, majd külön fejezetekben olvasható a katolicizmus, ortodoxia, anglikanizmus és protestantizmus helyzete. A munka autenticitásához és részletességéhez hozzájárul, hogy a szerző kilenc kvalitatív interjút készített a különböző felekezetek képviselőivel, illetve délkoreai tanulmányútja során személyesen is meglátogatta több felekezet lényeges helyszíneit. = The term "Miracle on the Han River" has been heard by many as a result of South Korea's fast and dramatic development, but it is probably known to few that in parallel Christianity managed to gain as well a significant popularity in the country after the liberation from Japanese occupation (1945) and the end of the Korean War (1953). Currently, more than a quarter of people living in South Korea consider themselves as Christians, and in addition to the dominant Protestant denominations, the number of Catholics is also significant with a number of around 5 million followers. The high share of Christians may seem peculiar not only compared to other states in the region, but also by acknowledging that before the emergence of Christianity Korea evolved based on different, cultural and religious principles. Still, instead of Buddhism or Shamanism nowadays Christianity has a central role in the religious life of South Korean people. This study attempts to find the main reasons behind the remarkable popularity of Christianity, as well as to show the unique features of South Korean Christianity resulted by the distinctive development. After a short introduction presenting the first stage of Christianity on the territory of Korea, the main features and situation of different Christian branches are discussed, namely Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Anglicanism and Protestantism. Contributing to the authenticity and detail of the work, nine qualitative interviews with representatives of different denominations are included, all conducted by the author during his study trip to South Korea. Also, as the author had the opportunity to visit important religious sites during his field trip in Seoul, his experiences are briefly reported too in the study.

The Protestant Episcopal Church, Black Nationalists, and Expansion of the West African Missionary Field, 1851–1871

1988 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Oldfield
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
The United States ◽  
West African ◽  
Second Century ◽  
The West ◽  
Episcopal Church ◽  
American Missionaries ◽  
Protestant Denominations ◽  
The Church

One of the most boldly conceived assaults on benighted Africa during the nineteenth century was that undertaken by mainline Protestant denominations in the United States. With the brash confidence characteristic of the age, hundreds of American missionaries were dispatched from New York and Baltimore to convert the heathen tribes of Africa and wrest a continent from ruin. If the experience of the Protestant Episcopal church is at all typical, however, these efforts not infrequently aroused suspicion and open hostility. In fact, Episcopal penetration of Liberia in the second half of the second century was remarkable for a long and bitter contest with black nationalists who were intent on using the church as a vehicle for their own personal and racial ambitions.

God Can Save Us

Rough Country ◽  
2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Wuthnow
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
Religious Right ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Moral Majority ◽  
Jerry Falwell ◽  
Protestant Denominations

This chapter discusses the emergence of the New Christian Right or simply the Religious Right as a powerful new force in American politics. The rise of the Religious Right has been examined from all angles, and several key factors have been identified. It clearly depended on leadership. The most visible leaders were preacher Jerry Falwell, whose Moral Majority rallies at state capitals had been gaining attention in the late 1970s, and fellow televangelist Pat Robertson, whose popular 700 Club television program included discussions of social and moral topics. Both were canny entrepreneurs who knew how to attract media attention, and there were conservative political operatives eager to enlist their support. There were unifying issues as well, such as opposition to abortion, homosexuality, and promiscuity, and the more general sense that religion was under siege by secularity and humanism. And there were lingering divisions within Protestant denominations and among Catholics over such issues as social activism, the legacies of the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War, communism, gender equality, the ordination of women, and theology.

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