Being Done: Why People Leave the Church, But Not Their Faith

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 499-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josh Packard ◽  
Todd W. Ferguson
Keyword(s):  
Religious Life ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Religious Congregations ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Iron Cage ◽  
Meaningful Relationships ◽  
Push And Pull ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
The Church ◽  
Unique Dataset

Institutionally organized religious life in the United State is undergoing a dramatic transformation. While individual beliefs and practices remain relatively stable, institutional affiliation and participation has declined dramatically. In this article, we explore the religious “Dones”—those who have disaffiliated with their religious congregations but, unlike the Nones, continue to associate with a religious tradition. Drawing on a unique dataset of 100 in-depth interviews with self-identified Christians, we explain the “push” and “pull” factors that lead a person to intentionally leave their congregations. We find that a bureaucratic structure and a narrow focus on certain moral proscriptions can drive people away, while the prospect of forming more meaningful relationships and the opportunities to actively participate in social justice issues draw people out. From these factors, we show that an “iron cage of congregations” exists that is ill-suited to respond to a world where religious life is increasingly permeable as people enact their spirituality outside traditional religious organizations. We conclude by questioning whether the spiritual lives of the Dones are ultimately sustainable without institutional support.

scholarly journals Does establishment suppress the political activities of religious congregations? Evidence from Switzerland

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-56
Author(s):  
Jörg Stolz ◽  
Christophe Monnot
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Behavior ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Study Data ◽  
The Political ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Religious Congregations ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
State Regime ◽  
The Church ◽  
Geographical Context

AbstractEstablishment of churches is a central feature of the church-state regime in most European countries, and understanding the nature of such privileges is of key importance for both theoretical and political reasons. Yet, there is little empirical research on how establishment influences the organizational behavior of congregations. This article looks at this question by focusing on one relationship in one geographical context: we investigate whether establishment suppresses the political activities of congregations in Switzerland or not. We identify mechanisms that might lead establishment to suppress the political activities of congregations, and other mechanisms that might enhance such activities. We use representative National Congregation Study Data from Switzerland. Our results are unequivocal: establishment does not suppress the political activities of congregations. The level of establishment of the canton has no significant impact either on established congregations or on the religious field as a whole. Rather than establishment, important determinants of the political activities of congregations are religious tradition and income.

Idolatry and Apostasy in the 1633 Jesuit Annual Letter

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Blanco
Keyword(s):  
Religious Life ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
The State ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Early Colonial ◽  
Jesuit Order ◽  
The Church ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Christian Beliefs

In this excerpt from the annual letter reporting on the state of the Jesuit order in the Philippines, Fr. Juan de Bueras, the Jesuit provincial, relates the difficulties that the Church was experiencing among the indigenous communities of the island of Mindoro. Hoping to convert the Magayanes people of the mountains to Christianity, the Jesuits found that they had to redirect their efforts to the supposedly Catholic communities of the coast, which had reverted to pre-Christian beliefs and practices. Bueras’s letter provides insight into the limitations of the Church’s effort to convert native Filipinos, and the nature of Filipino religious life in the early colonial context. John Blanco places the letter in the broader context of religious and secular colonialism, and broader questions about the supposed Hispanization of the Philippines.

Summary

1998 ◽  
pp. 90-91
Author(s):  
Editorial board Of the Journal
Keyword(s):  
Religious Life ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
The Church

In the first section “Scientific Reports and Notes” of the Bulettin there are published the papers by V. Suyarko “The Humanistic Mission of the Religious Studies”, O. Buchma “Personality, Society, Religion: the Spiritual Transformations on the Edge of the Millenium”, T. Gorbachenko “The Language and Literacy as the Components of the Church-Religious Life of the Christians”, G. Nadtoka “The Orthodox Monasteries in Ukraine of the 1900-1917”.

Masao Abe and Comparative Theology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leo D. Lefebure
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Graduate Course ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Faith Tradition ◽  
Mahayana Buddhist

A leading form of comparative theology entails commitment to one religious tradition but ventures out to encounter another tradition, with the goal of generating fresh insights into familiar beliefs and practices reliant upon both the tradition of origin and the newly encountered faith tradition. This chapter, based on a graduate course at Georgetown University, examines how Zen Buddhist thinker Masao Abe engages in a dialogue with Western philosophy and Christian theology. Abe interpreted the meaning of the kenosis (emptying) of God in Jesus Christ in Christian theology in light of Mahayana Buddhist perspectives on Sunyata (emptying) and the logic of negation. The chapter includes responses to Abe from various Christian theologians, including Georgetown graduate students.

scholarly journals Intersection of the Religious and the Secular: The Cemetery Festival in Latvia

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 69
Author(s):  
Anita Stasulane
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Religious Ritual ◽  
Secular Society ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Ritual Practices ◽  
Research Tools

This article addresses the commemoration of the deceased by examining a peculiar Latvian religious tradition—the cemetery festival. Latvian society is moving down the path to secularization. Participation in religious ritual practices could be expected to decrease in a predominately secular society. Nevertheless, the tradition of the cemetery festival practiced in Latvia shows that the relationship between the religious and the secular is much more complex than simply being in opposition to each other. The analysis is based on data obtained by undertaking fieldwork at cemeteries in Latvia. Participant observation and qualitative in-depth interviews were the main research tools used in the fieldwork. Through an analysis of the fieldwork data, this article explains, first, how honoring of the deceased currently takes place in Latvia; second, the factors which have determined the preservation of the cemetery festival tradition despite the forced secularization of the Soviet period and the general secularization encountered today; third, the relationship between religious and secular activities and their transformation at the cemetery festival.

Tract 90

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. G. Pahls ◽  
Kenneth Parker
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Best Effort ◽  
The Church

In 1864, John Henry Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua characterized Tract 90 as his last best effort to remain in the Church of England. While Newman always celebrated his reliance on Anglican Caroline divines, this chapter demonstrates his unacknowledged debt to a notable Oxford convert of the Caroline period, Christopher Davenport (1598–1680), known in Franciscan religious life as Franciscus à Sancta Clara. Davenport served as Catholic chaplain to Queen Henrietta Maria and penned his irenic Paraphrastica Expositio Articulorum Confessionis Anglicanae (1634) to promote the reunion of the churches of England and Rome. The chapter demonstrates Newman’s use and close reading of Davenport’s work, analysing numerous paraphrases that Newman employed to build his arguments.

scholarly journals Czwarty synod archidiecezji warszawskiej

2009 ◽  
Vol 52 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 23-49
Author(s):  
Janusz Gręźlikowski
Keyword(s):  
Canon Law ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Moral Life ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Holy See ◽  
John Paul Ii ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The Many ◽  
Administrative Structures ◽  
The Church

The 4th Synod of the Warsaw Archdioceses was debating during the five-year period, between 19th March 1998 and 19th March 2003 when the Warsaw Church had been run by the primate of Poland, cardinal Joseph Glemp. He proposed, summoned and carried out the synod and promulgated its resolutions. The initiative of summoning the synod was connected with the need for overall renewal of the religious and moral life of the Warsaw archdiocese. The synod’s deliberations and its resolutions were to cause the betterment of the organization and functioning of administrative and pastoral apparatus in the archdiocese, to normalize the many issues concerning the church and religious life, as well as to improve the laity and clergy’s religious, social and moral level. To achieve, a wide representation of clergy, catholic laity and monks were engaged. The synodical resolutions with its jurisdictional and pastoral nature are signified by strong setting in the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, the Canon Law, the documents of the Holy See and John Paul II, as well as by the resolutions of the Second Polish Plenary Second and the instructions of the Conference of the Polish Episcopate. At the same time they refer to the tradition of the Warsaw archdiocese and remain fully opened for the “tomorrow” of the Church, evangelizing and pastoral objective. Furthermore they undertake, organize and regulate many difficult pastoral issues. Thus the synodical legislator contributed to the renewal, revival and activation of the church and administrative structures of the archdioceses, so they could serve to various pastoral, church and administrative assignments.

scholarly journals NILAI-NILAI SUFISME DALAM JAMAAH SHALAWAT WAHIDIYYAH DI KEDIRI DAN MALANG

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Fatkhul Wahab ◽  
Ahmad Bukhori ◽  
Athiyah
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Data Reduction ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Analysis Techniques ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
The Right ◽  
Depth Interviews

Among Muslim communities, love of the Prophet Muhammad embodied in a religious tradition known as shalawāh tradition. Shalawāh is an expression of deep gratitude for the guidance to Muslims on the right path. Sufism that emphasizes reading Shalawāh of the Prophet Muhammad as dhikr primarily is Shalawāh Wāhidiyah. The main purpose of Shalawāh Wāhidiyah is to alleviate people from the shirk and return to the straight and true that by pleasing Allah. The focuses of this study are: (1) how do the precepts and values of Sufism in the Jamaat Shalawāh Wāhidiyah? (2)  How do the precepts and values are promoted and practiced by Jamaat Shalawāh Wāhidiyah? (3)  How does the experience of spirituality Jamaat Shalawāh Wāhidiyah? This study is a qualitative study by using a naturalistic paradigm and phenomenology approach. The data were collected by in-depth interviews, participant observation, and documentary in the form of journals, magazines and so on. While the data analysis techniques include data reduction, presentation of data, the validity of the data and drawing conclusions. The results of this study indicate that: (1) Shalawāh Wāhidiyah precepts include: a. li Allāh, bi Allāh; b. li al-RasÅ«l, bi al-RasÅ«l; c. li al-ghauts bi al-ghauts; d. yu'thÄ« kull dzÄ« ḥaqq; e. taqdÄ«m al-hamm tsumm al-hamm, fa al-fa’ tsumm al-fa'. The values contained in Shalawāh Wāhidiyah Sufism, among others: taubah, ikhlāsh, syukr, mahabbah. (2) Socialization Shalawāh Wāhidiyah precepts are done by 1. individual, 2. packaged in a formal form as mujāhadah nishf al-sanah and mujāhadah kubrā, 3. through dreams, 4. implemented in the form of books, magazines, newsletters, and CDs. While this practice Shalawāh Wāhidiyah carried out in different ways mujāhadah usbÅ«'iyyah, mujāhadah syahriyyah, mujāhadah rub’ al-sanah, mujāhadah nishf al-sanah, and so forth. Keywords: The values of Sufism, Shalawāh Wāhidiyah

scholarly journals Laws, doctrines and practice: a study of intermarriages and the ways they challenged the Jewish Community of Helsinki from 1930 to 1970

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-54
Author(s):  
Mercédesz Viktória Czimbalmos
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Community ◽  
Jewish Life ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Religious Congregations ◽  
History Of ◽  
Secular Society

The identities, customs and habits of religious congregations are tightly connected to the history of these congregations and to the specific religious tradition or denomination they consider themselves to be a part of. They are also shaped by the legislative and bureaucratic regulations and processes of the secular society that is surrounding them. The aim of this study is to further our knowledge of some of these aspects of Jewish life as they relate to the Jewish Community of Helsinki in the period 1930–70 by showcasing two examples that emerged as a result of the rising number of intermarriages in the congregation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document