Living Religion

The chapter explores the everyday contributions of ordinary Christians to the running of Graham’s crusades. In forming prayer groups and organizing bus rides, ordinary Christians blurred the boundaries between private religiosity and public mass evangelism, as well as between the religious and the secular. They filled the organizational structures implemented by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association with life and by doing so turned the crusades into a powerful force of renewal for local churches and everyday religious life in London, Berlin, and New York. Women played a crucial role in this everyday running of the crusade machine. Religious practices such as prayer and pilgrimages traveled with Billy Graham and crossed the national boundaries between the different organizing committees. Organized prayer turned into a dynamic form of transnational communication that tied different crusade audiences together and became the cornerstone of Graham’s international ministry.

Brief Report

Religiosity has been shown to be a protective factor against risky sexual behavior (RSB). The current study sought to identify which aspects of perceived significant other and personal religiosity (i.e., private, coping, conviction, social, and conservatism) predict RSB in emerging adults and how this might differ by gender. The sample (N = 275; 72% female, 28% male) consisted of adults aged 18–25 years (mean = 19.31, SD = 1.42) attending a large Southern university and used the Stearns–McKinney Assessment of Religious Traits scale and Student Sexual Risks Scale. For males, significant other private religiosity and personal conservatism predicted RSB. For females, significant other private religiosity and religious coping as well as personal conviction and conservative religiosity predicted RSB. Thus, religious traits and gender differed regarding the prediction of RSB of emerging adults.

Publiczna i prywatna religijność królowej Marii Kazimiery

Public and Private Religiosity and Piety of the Queen Marie Casimire d’Arquien Sobieska In the early modern period, queens were obliged to participate in religious ceremonies and outwardly display their piety through charity. Marie Casimire de la Grange d’Arquien Sobieska met these duties when she was consort of the King John III Sobieski, and later, as a widow residing in Rome. Yet, her prayers were not limited to outward gestures of religiosity at official ceremonies. From her numerous letters, we can learn about her personal piety. In her letters written to Jakub, her eldest son, and his wife, the queen mother often refers to God’s Providence, and expresses her deep devotion and faith in God’s grace and protection. For Queen Marie Casimire, God was the source of comfort in difficult moments. While her outward religiosity is a reflection of the age in which she lived, the queen’s personal faith developed over time and appears to have been deep and sincere.

Glad Tidings? Personal Witnessing, Religiosity, and Mental Health among U.S. Adults

A growing body of research has documented connections between religious involvement and mental health. However, religion is complex and multidimensional. Religious witnessing, the interpersonal sharing of religious faith, is an important religious practice that has received little attention. Religious witnessing is a relatively unconventional behavior in contemporary American society, yet it can promote social interaction and belonging and has implications for personal identity and sense of self-worth. Using data from a 2010 national random sample (N = 1,342) of U.S. adults, we examine associations between religious witnessing and mental health and the moderating role of public and private religiosity. Mental health is measured using three classes of psychiatric symptoms (general anxiety, social anxiety, and paranoia). Results show that witnessing is related to positive mental health among more highly religious individuals and negative mental health among less religious individuals. Drawing from identity theory and authenticity research, we argue that the contingent impact of religious witnessing on mental health can be explained by (1) participation in social contexts and groups conducive to religious self-expression and (2) the interplay between witnessing, private religiosity, and feelings of authenticity.

Power

This chapter explores how Christian nationalism helps explain Americans’ responses toward a host of sociocultural issues. It examines how and why Ambassadors, Accommodators, Resisters, and Rejecters respond differently to disputes over immigration, the refugee crisis, gun control, and arguments over “respecting the flag,” to name a few. It also explores how Christian nationalism played an integral role in the outcome of the 2016 election and can similarly explain continued support for President Trump among American Christians. Because Christian nationalism provides a unifying vision of how the world should look, and how that vision should be enacted, the realm of politics is central to understanding the influence of Christian nationalism on American life. We also demonstrate that Christian nationalism is not synonymous with private religiosity. Therefore, in order to understand religion and politics we must recognize that Christian nationalism is unique and cannot be equated with other expressions of religiosity.

Religiosity Dimensions and Disability-Free Life Expectancy in Taiwan

Objectives: Eight years of panel data are used to investigate the association between three dimensions of religiosity and total and disability-free life expectancy (TLE/DFLE) in Taiwan. Method: Data come from the 1999 “Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging” (TLSA; N = 4,440; Age 55+). Dimensions of religiosity are public, private, belief, and coping. Mortality is linked to a national database. Disability is activities of daily living (ADLs). TLE/DFLE estimates use the Stochastic Population Analysis for Complex Events (SPACE) software. Results: Those who engage in public and private religiosity live longer and more years disability-free than others, but proportion of life disability-free does not differ across levels of religiosity. Coping is less associated with TLE and DFLE. Coping however associates with more years disabled among men. Findings are robust to model specifications. Discussion: The way in which religiosity associates with health depends upon the definition. When it does associate, religiosity increases TLE and DFLE proportionately.

China: Some Exceptions of Secularization Thesis

The aim of this article is to present the controversial features of the secularization thesis about Chinese religions performed via analyzing the newly published Chinese religious policy named The Several Opinions on Further Governance of Commercial Problems in Buddhism and Taoism. This article proposes a complex hypothesis: (1) though the public influence of religion has acquired momentum of expansion in China, the growth and expansion of Chinese religions accompanied the decline of private religiosity; (2) Chinese religions possess controversial features of secularization: though they experience the reduction of their power, range of control, and prestige, meanwhile they embrace the increase in numbers of members, intensity, frequency, and importance of public life; (3) Nonreligious factors play an important role in promoting the growth of Chinese religions temporarily, while religious factors will be responsible for resurgence of Chinese religions chronically. This paper is the first in a series to apply the secularization thesis to Chinese religions.

The Impact of Immigrant Religions on the Nature of Religious Pluralism in the USA and Western Europe

Some of the most significant consequences of transnational immigration is growing religious diversity and finding a way to manage it. This article considers the concept of pluralism, the differences in religious pluralism between America and Western Europe occurring due to immigration, as well as the roles and possibilities of immigrant religions in the process of adapting to the host society. The history of immigration, models of immigrant incorporation and adaption, patterns of religious pluralism and types of secularism strongly vary in the aforementioned regions. Religion in America is a positive resource and a basis for incorporating immigrants into American society, their recognition in public life, assimilation and construction of an American identity. By contrast, in Western Europe immigrant religions, particularly Islam, are perceived primarily as an obstacle to incorporating immigrants into European societies and their recognition in the public domain. This is explained mainly by the secularist mindset of European people in general, their uncertain “private” religiosity in the context of “Euro-secularity”, the European concept of religion’s place in the “private domain”, as well as types of state-religion relations and institutional patterns of recognition which differ from America.