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ASSOCIATION FOR THE

SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION

 

      63rd ANNUAL MEETING

 

 

SHERATON ANAHEIM

  ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA

    17-19 AUGUST 2001

 

 

 

 

 

RELIGION AND SOCIETAL MARGINALITY

 

 

Social structure, according to C. Wright Mills, consists of the relative positioning of society’s institutions. Sociologists in the past have often focused on those institutions that have widespread and significant impacts upon a society from their dominant position in it. In an essentially asymmetrical relationship, these macro institutions are assumed to constitute a formative environment for micro institutions, while remaining relatively unaffected in return. Established religions in contemporary societies have therefore been considered deviant cases subject to the erosive forces of modernity. By contrast the 2001 ASR annual meeting proposes to counteract this tendency by asserting that it is from the margins that social critique, countercultural values, revolutions, and other movements of intentional social change come. Seemingly private religiosities are thus powerful societal forces, whether they are expressed by individuals in the “secularized” mainline churches, in “upstart” sects, in new religious movements, among immigrant or marginalized populations, or in peripheral social locations worldwide.

 

 

OVERVIEW*

 

Thursday, August 16

 5 :00 p.m.

            “Old” Council Meeting — Devon

 7:00-9:00 pm.

            Registration — Rotunda

 Friday, August 17

 8:00 a.m.-3:15 p.m.

            Registration — Rotunda

 8:30-10:15 a.m.

              1.        New Religious Movements — Surrey

               2.       Author Meets Critics: Lowell Livezey’s Public Religion and Urban Transformation — Westmorland

               3.       Churches and the Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender Community — London West

               4.       Local Dynamics of Ritual and Worship — London East

10:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

               5.        Women in Organized Religion — Surrey

               6.        Authors Meet Critics: Helen Rose Ebaugh and Janet S. Chafetz’s Religion and the New Immi-grants — Westmorland

               7.       Globalization, Human Rights, and Societal Marginality — London West

               8.        Mysticism and Faith Healing — London East

  12:00-4:30 p.m.

            Book Exhibit — Somerset

  12:15-12:45 p.m.

            Authors’ Reception — Rotunda

  1:00-2:45 p.m.

               9.        Hispanic Popular Religion — Surrey

             10.       Author Meets Critics: Grace Davie’s Religion in Modern Europe — Westmorland

             11.       Religion and the Environment: New and Old Articulations — London West

             12.       Portrayals of Religion in the Media and the Academy — London East

  3:00-4:45 p.m.

             13.       Belief and Opinion Studies — Surrey

             14.      The Religious Market in Chinese Societies I — Westmorland

             15.      Religion, Migration, and Identity I (Joint ASR/SISR) — London West

             16.      The Social History of Religions — London East

  5:00 p.m.

            Presidential Address — Kensington Ballroom East

  6:00 p.m.

            Presidential Reception — Pond Courtyard

   

Saturday, August 18

7:30-8:25 a.m.

            Women’s Network Breakfast — Devon

8:00 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

            Registration — Rotunda

8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

            Book Exhibit — Somerset

8:30-10:15 a.m.

            17.        Exploring Generation X Religiosity/Spirituality (Joint ASR/ASA) — Anaheim Marriott Hotel, Orange Salon 2

            18.        Religion and Politics — Surrey

            19.        Defining Religion — Westmorland

            20.        Religion and Modernity: Refractions through Individual Lives — London West

  10:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

            21.       Religion in a Secular and Pluralistic Society — Surrey

            22.       Responding to Community Crises — Westmorland

            23.       Mainstream Participants, Marginal Religions, and the New Age (Joint ASR/ASA) — London West

            24.       Islam, Power Relations, and Change — London East

  12:30-2:15 p.m.

            25.       Dominus Iesus — Surrey

            26.      Marginality and Power in a De-Centered World — Westmorland

            27.      Author Meets Critics: Alberto Pulido’s The Sacred World of the Penitentes — London West

            28.      Explorations in the Sociology of Missions — London East

  2:30-4:45 p.m.

            29.      American Catholics — Surrey

            30.      Religion and Immigrant Incorporation in New York — Westmorland

            31.      Author Meets Critics: David Lyon’s Jesus in Disneyland — London West

            32.      Narrators and Narratives: Intersections between Fieldworkers and Fieldwork — London East

  5:00 p.m.

            ASR Business Meeting — Surrey

  6:00 p.m.

            Paul Hanly Furfey Lecture — Regent

  7:00 p.m.

            Paul Hanly Furfey Lecture Reception — Pond Courtyard

   

Sunday, August 19

7:30-8:25 a.m.

            Sociology of Religion Associate Editors’ Breakfast — Dorset

8:00 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

            Registration — Rotunda

8:15-10:00 a.m.

            Reserved Book Pick-Up — Somerset

8:30-10:15 a.m.

           33.        Religion in the Lives of New Immigrants to California (Joint ASR/ASA) —  Anaheim Marriott Hotel, Grand Salon C

           34.         Islam and Globalization — Surrey

           35.         End Times Rhetoric and Ideology — Westmorland

           36.         Religions as Subcultural Identities — London West

  10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.

            Final Book Sale — Somerset

  10:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

            37.       Church, Volunteerism, and Outreach — Surrey

            38.       The Religious Market in Chinese Societies II — Westmorland

            39.        Multicultural Issues in Churches — London West

            40.       Author Meets Critics: Donald Nielsen’s Three Faces of God — London East

  12:30-2:15 p.m.

            41.       Immigration and Religious Change in the U.S. — Surrey

            42.       Religious Political Cultures: Cross-national Perspectives — Westmorland

            43.       Church Organizations and Clergy — London West

            44.       Secularization — London East

  2:30-4:45 p.m.

            45.       Religion and Gender: Cross-Cultural Studies — Surrey

            46.       Cults, Mind Control, and Anti-Cult Movements in Japan — Westmorland

            47.        The Decentering and Recentering of Religion in Urban Communities (Joint ASR/ASA) — London West

  5:00 p.m.

            “New” Council Meeting — Somerset

  7:00 p.m.

            Council Dinner — Dorset

 

  Monday, August 20

  2:30-4:15 p.m.

            48.       The History of the Sociology of Religion (Joint ASR/ASA History of Sociology Section) — Anaheim Marriott Hotel, Grand Salon H

     

 

  SESSIONS

    Friday, August 17, 8:30-10:15 a.m.

Session 1: New Religious Movements — Surrey

Convener—Véronique Altglas, École Pratique des Hautes Études

                ØMe, You, Us and Them: Self and Other-Imposed Marginality—and the Creation, Crossing, Changing and Dissolution of Boundaries

                    Eileen Barker, London School of Economics

    ØTrance States among New Religious Movements: How Should We Study Them?

                      Bernard G. Comeau, South Puget Sound College

    ØConsuming the Self: A Sociological Analysis of the Discourses and Practices of “New Age” Spiritual Thinkers

                     Jennifer Rindfleish, University of New England (Australia)

Session 2: Author Meets Critics: Lowell Livezey’s Public Religion and Urban Transformation — Westmorland

Organizer—William H. Swatos, Jr., ASR/RRA Executive Office

Convener—Patricia Wittberg, Indiana University-Indianapolis

Panelists                Nancy Eiesland, Emory University

                                Peter Kivisto, Augustana College (Illinois)

                                Omar McRoberts, University of Chicago

                                Rhys Williams, University of Cincinnati

Session 3: Churches and the Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender Community — London West

Convener—William Mirola, Marian College

Discussant—Barbara J. Denison, Lebanon Valley College

                      ØFrom Social Margin to Center Stage: Individualism, Queer Congregations, and the “Homosexuality” Debates

                         Melissa M. Wilcox, University of California, Santa Barbara

     ØGay Margins Encircling Straight Lines: Challenges to the Christian Churches to Embrace Social Change

                         Paul J. Levesque, California State University, Fullerton

     Ø Bisexuality and Spirituality: The Narratives of Male and Female Bisexual Christians in the United Kingdom

                          Andrew K.T. Yip, Nottingham Trent University

Session 4: Local Dynamics of Ritual and Worship — London East

Convener—Grace Davie, University of Exeter

     Ø The Janus Face: Aspects of Organizational Culture in the Church of Sweden

                        Per Hansson, Uppsala University

     Ø Our Place in the Pew

                         D. Paul Sullins, Catholic University of America

     Ø Funerals of the Congregationally Unaffiliated

                          Kathleen Garces-Foley, University of California, Santa Barbara

     Ø Alternative Religious Worship Spaces on the Margins: The Architecture of Christian Science, Vedanta, Theosophy, and Baha’i in the United States

                          Paul E. Ivey, University of Arizona

  Friday, August 17, 10:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

Session 5: Women in Organized Religion — Surrey

Convener—Ruth Wallace, George Washington University

Discussant—Laurel Kearns, Drew University

      ØThe Marginalization of Evangelical Feminism

                            Sally K. Gallagher, Oregon State University

      ØTraditionalism versus Egalitarianism: Black Baptists and Women in Ministry

                             Shayne Lee, Northwestern University

      ØGender and Clergy Work Stress: Differential Exposure and Vulnerability

                               Elaine M. McDuff, Truman State University

Session 6: Authors Meet Critics: Helen Rose Ebaugh and Janet S. Chafetz’s Religion and the New Immigrants: Continuities and Adaptations in Immigrant Congregations — Westmorland

Organizer and Convener—Lowell Livezey, University of Illinois at Chicago

Panelists:                Anthony Orum, University of Illinois at Chicago

                                Steven J. Gold, Michigan State University

                                Rebecca Kim, University of California, Los Angeles

Session 7: Globalization, Human Rights, and Societal Marginality — London West

Organizer and Convener—William R. Garrett, St. Michael’s College

Panelists:                Peter Beyer, University of Ottawa

                                Thomas Cushman, Wellesley College

                                William R. Garrett, St. Michael’s College

                                John H. Simpson, University of Toronto

Session 8: Mysticism and Faith Healing — London East

Convener—D. Paul Sullins, Catholic University of America

Discussant—Mary Jo Neitz, University of Missouri

                Ø The Tension between Religion and Magic: Faith Healing and Christianity

                     Durk H. Hak, University of Groningen

    Ø Mysticism as a Social Construct: Religious Experience in Pentecostal/Charismatic Contexts

                     Margaret M. Poloma, University of Akron

    Ø Spirits, Ancestors or Demons: Traditional Healing and the Challenge of Religious Fundamentalism in Samoa

                       Maureen Sier, National University (Samoa)

  Friday, August 17, 12:15-12:45 p.m.

Authors’ Reception — Rotunda

The ASR authors’ reception is cosponsored by Michael Cuneo, New York University Press, Oxford University Press, RENIR Project—University of Houston, Religion in Urban America Program—University of Illinois at Chicago, Smithsonian Institution Press

Friday, August 17, 1:00-2:45 p.m.

Session 9: Hispanic Popular Religion — Surrey

Convener—Patrick H. McNamara, University of New Mexico

Discussant—Alberto L. Pulido, Arizona State University West

     Ø Mexican Migrant Religious Practices as Seen from their Families’ Point of View

                         Luis Rodolfo Morán Quiroz, Centro de Investigaciones Pedagógicas y Sociales, Guadalajara

     Ø Festive Identities: The Festival of the Fallas of Saint Joseph in València, Spain

                        Xavier Costa, University of València

     Ø From the Margins to the Streets: Angeleno Latino Popular Religion and Transnational R-evolution

                          Jeanette Reedy Solano, University of Southern California

Session 10: Author Meets Critics: Grace Davie’s Religion in Modern Europe — Westmorland

Convener—José Casanova, New School for Social Research

Panelists:                 Nancy Ammerman, Hartford Seminary

                                Lina Molokotos-Liederman, École Practique des Hautes Études

                                Peter Beyer, University of Ottawa              

Session 11: Religion and the Environment: New and Old Articulations — London West

Convener—Jennifer Rindfleish, University of New England (Australia)

     Ø "Greening” Ethnography and the Sociology of Religion

                        Laurel Kearns, Drew University

                      ØGreen Nuns and Land: Cultivating New Varieties of Religion and Culture

                         Sarah McFarland Taylor, Northwestern University

     Ø“The World Is a Canoe”: The Chumash Environmental Ethos and Spiritual Connections to Maritime Culture

                         Dennis Kelley, University of California, Santa Barbara

     Ø   The Church of Euthanasia: “The World’s First Anti-Human Religion”

                           Matthew Immergut, Drew University

 

Session 12: Portrayals of Religion in the Media and the Academy — London East

Convener—Loretta M. Morris, Loyola Marymount University

Discussant—James R. Kelly, Fordham University

      Ø Veiled Power: Henriette Delille and the Social Terrain of American Sainthood

                               Tracy Fessenden, Arizona State University

      Ø Disregarding Religion: The Case of the Handbook of Social Psychology

                                Michael J. Donahue, Azusa Pacific University

                           ØDisability, Religion and Societal Marginality

                                Albert A. Herzog, Jr., Ohio State University

 

Friday, August 17, 3:00-4:45 p.m.

 

Session 13: Belief and Opinion Studies — Surrey

Convener—Jerry Pankhurst, Wittenburg University

      Ø Trends in Religious Influences on Support for Traditional Sexual Norms, 1972-1998

                               Vyacheslav Karpov and Matthew DeMichele, Western Michigan University

      Ø Abortion Attitudes and the Death Penalty

                               Chris Kudlac and James R. Kelly, Fordham University

      ØThe Value of Sacrifice: American Catholics in Three Cohorts

                             Thomas Landy, College of the Holy Cross

      Ø Catholics’ Political Orientations and Perceptions of Anti-Catholic Bias

                               Paul Perl and Mary Bendyna, Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate

 

Session 14: The Religious Market in Chinese Societies I — Westmorland

Organizers—Joseph B. Tamney, Ball State University, and Fenggang Yang, University of Southern Maine

Convener—Fenggang Yang

       Ø Persistence of Traditional Values: Causality of Change and Confucian Culture

                                    Mary Phillips, American University

                       Ø Religious Composition of Chinese Societies, 1950-2000

                                    Joseph B. Tamney, Ball State University

       ØMoney, Power and the Revival of the Gods in China: Case Studies of the Delicate Dance of Cadres, Villagers, Entrepreneurs and Diaspora Chinese

                                 Graeme Lang, City University of Hong Kong, Selina Chan, National University of Singapore, and Lars Ragvald, Lund University

  

Session 15: Religion, Migration, and Identity I (Joint ASR/SISR Session) — London West

Organizer—Grace Davie, University of Exeter

Convener—Marie Friedmann Marquardt, Emory University

       ØFrench “Laïcité” and Religious Diversity: The Misdemeanor of Mental Manipulation

                                  Véronique Altglas, École Pratique des Hautes Études

       ØReflections on Modern Turkey

                                  Grace Davie, University of Exeter

       ØThey Prayed in Boston and It Rained in Brazil: The Transnationalization of Religious Life

                                   Peggy Levitt, Wellesley College

       ØIdentity Crisis: Greece, the European Union, and Religious Nationalism

                                  Lina Molokotos-Liederman, École Pratique des Hautes Études

                ØDiscussing the “American Exception”: A French Perspective

                                                Fabienne Randaxhe, University of St-Etienne

 

Session 16: The Social History of Religions — London East

Convener and Discussant—Dana Fenton, CUNY

                ØBlack Holy Ground: On African Roots in Christianity

                                                William H. Hardy, Tennessee State University

                ØRevolution in Early Christianity: The Gospel of Thomas

                                                Robert M. Geraci, University of California, Santa Barbara

                Ø                Path Dependent Modeling Applied to the Feast of Corpus Christi

                                                Barbara R. Walters, Kingsborough Community College, CUNY

 

Friday, August 17, 5:00 p.m.

 

ASR Presidential Address — Kensington Ballroom East

Convener—José Casanova, New School for Social Research

                ØMarginality as a Societal Position of Religion

                                                Anthony J. Blasi, Tennessee State University

 

Friday, August 17, 6:00 p.m.

 

ASR Presidential Reception — Pond Courtyard

The Reception is cosponsored by the ASR and by the Department of Sociology and the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts of the University of Notre Dame

 

          Saturday, August 18, 7:15-8:25 a.m.

Women’s Network Breakfast — Devon

 

          Saturday, August 18, 8:30-10:15 a.m.

 

Session 17: Exploring Generation X Religiosity/Spirituality (Joint ASR/ASA Session) — Anaheim Marriott Hotel, Orange Salon 2

Organizer and Convener—D. Paul Johnson, Texas Tech University

Discussant—James C. Cavendish, University of South Florida

                ØGenerational Differences and Similarities in Religiosity, Spirituality, Socioeconomic Status, and Race/ Ethnicity

                                                Robert E. Beckley and James D. Griffith, West Texas A&M University

                Ø                The Religious Identity of Young Adult Catholics in the Context of Other Catholic Generations

                                                Mary L. Gautier and Mary E. Bendyna, Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate

                Ø                Civic Engagement Among American Catholics, Especially the Post-Vatican II Generation

                                                James D. Davidson, Purdue University

                ØCatholic Identity: Are GenXers Different from Other Birth Cohorts?

                                                Andrea S. Williams, Purdue University

 

Session 18: Religion and Politics — Surrey

Organizer—Michael R. Welch, University of Notre Dame

Conveners—Michael R. Welch and David Sikkink, University of Notre Dame

Ø             Religion and Social Trust

                                                Michael R. Welch, David Sikkink, and Carolyn Bond, University of Notre Dame

Ø             The Lotto and the Lord: The Impact of Religious Beliefs and stimuli on Attitudes about the Lottery in South Carolina

                                                Laura R. Olson, Clemson University, Karen V. Guth and James L. Guth, Furman University

Ø                Religion, Moral Authority, and Attitudes toward Abortion

                Michael R. Welch, University of Notre Dame, and Neal Christopherson, Whitman College

                ØMoral Cosmology and Protestant Self Identification: Differing Political Consequences?

                                                Brian Starks, Indiana University

                ØReligion and Social Capital in Contemporary Europe

                                                Loek Halman, Tilburg University, and Thorleif Pettersson, Uppsala University

 

Session 19: Defining Religion: Constructivist Perspectives — Westmorland

Organizers—David G. Bromley, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Arthur L. Greil, Alfred University

Convener—Arthur L. Greil, Alfred University

                Ø                Religion as a Category of Discourse

                                                Arthur L. Greil, Alfred University

                ØImperial States, Axial Religions, and the Definition of Religion

                                                William Herbrechtsmeier, Humboldt State University

                ØDefining Religion in Cross-National Perspective: Identity and Difference in Official Conceptions

                                                Peter Beyer, University of Ottawa

                Ø                Baby Boomers and their Millennial Kids: How Parents Define and Inculcate Religion

                                                Lynn Schofield Clark, University of Colorado

 

Session 20: Religion and Modernity: Refractions through Individual Lives — London West

Convener—Nancy Nason-Clark, University of New Brunswick

Discussant—Helen A. Berger, West Chester University

                Ø                Modernity, Religion, and Tradition in the Narrated Life of a Female Humanist

                                                Inger Furseth, KIFO Centre for Church Research, Oslo

                ØAutonomy, Authenticity, and Individual Probation: Patterns of a Secularized Conduct of Life—The Case of an Austrian Mountaineer

                                                Manuel Franzmann, University of Dortmund

                ØThe Quest for Identity

                                                Kamel Ghozzi, Central Missouri State University

 

          Saturday, August 18, 10:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

 

Session 21: Religion in a Secular and Pluralistic Society — Surrey

Convener—Mark Regnerus, Calvin College

Discussant—William Mirola, Marian College

Ø             Changes in Religious Pluralism and Church Membership 1971 to 1990

                Daniel V.A. Olson, Indiana University South Bend, and Paul Perl, Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate

                ØDividing America: The Legacy of Religious Freedom in a Pluralistic Society

                                                Sherry Wright, University of Denver

Ø             Invisible Religion Revisited: Culture and Religious Modernity

                                                Kelly Besecke, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Session 22: Responding to Community Crises — Westmorland

Organizer and Convener—Nancy L. Eiesland, Emory University

Discussant—Rhys H. Williams, University of Cincinnati

                ØResponding to Crisis: Framing a Collaborative Research Project

                                                Nancy L. Eiesland, Emory University

Ø             “God’s House” or “Our Community”? Factors Influencing How Two Immigrant Congregations Define and Respond to Crisis

                                                Marie Friedmann Marquardt, Emory University

Ø Responding to Economic Crisis: Black Church Support for the Economic Position of the Black “Anxious Middle”

                                                Chris Scharen, First Lutheran Church, New Britain, Connecticut

Ø Understanding Ourselves By Way of the Other: Experiments in Ethnographic Empathy

Jillinda Weaver, Emory University

                ØMaking Sense Of It All: Some Thoughts on the Intersection of Ethnography and Ethics

                                                Elizabeth Bounds, Emory University

 

Session 23: Mainstream Participants, Marginal Religions, and the New Age (Joint ASR/ASA Session) — London West

Convener and Discussant—Helen A. Berger, West Chester University

Ø                Spiritual Tourism: The Modern Pagan Pilgrimage

Kathryn Rountree, Massey University

Ø                Astrology and New Age: Minority Religion with Mainstream Appeal

                                                Michael York, Bath Spa University College

Ø             Why Do Mainstream Social Actors Get Involved in Marginal Religions?

                                                Dorothea M. Filus, University of Tokyo

 

Session 24: Islam, Power Relations, and Change — London East

Organizer and Convener—Mahgoub El-Tigani Mahmoud, Tennessee State University

                Ø                The Baqt Agreement: Medieval Relations between Christian Nubia and the Muslim State of Egypt

                                                Nuraddin Manan, Former Ambassador of Sudan to the United States

                Ø                Bureaucratizing Religious Institutions: The Example of Iran

                                                Stephen Poulson, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

                ØContinuity and Discontinuity in Religion, Power, and Change

                                                Mahgoub El-Tigani Mahmoud, Tennessee State University

                ØContemporary Conflicts: Modern Fundamentalism versus Popular Islam

                Hassan Mohamed Salih, Sacramento, California

 

          Saturday, August 18, 12:30-2:15 p.m.

 

Session 25: Dominus Iesus: On the Unity and Salvific University of Jesus Christ and the Church — Surrey

Organizer and Convener—John H. Simpson, University of Toronto

Panelists:                José Casanova, New School for Social Research

                                Grace Davie, University of Exeter

                                William R. Garrett, St. Michael’s College

                                James R. Kelly, Fordham University

                                Thomas Imse, College of the Holy Cross

 

Session 26: Marginality and Power in a De-Centered World — Westmorland

Organizer—Nancy Nason-Clark, University of New Brunswick

Convener—Janet Jacobs, University of Colorado

Panelists:                Mary Jo Neitz, University of Missouri

                                Marion Goldman, University of Oregon

                                Nancy Nason-Clark, University of New Brunswick

     

Session 27: Author Meets Critics: Alberto L. Pulido’s The Sacred World of the Penitentes — London West

Organizer and Convener—Patricia Wittberg, Indiana University-Indianapolis

Panelists:                 Milagros Peña, University of Florida

                                Otto Maduro, Drew University

                                Cesar A. Gonzalez, San Diego Mesa College

                               

Session 28: Explorations in the Sociology of Missions — London East

Organizer—F. Albert Tizon, Graduate Theological Union

Convener—William H. Swatos, Jr., ASR/RRA Executive Office

                ØMissiology and the Sociology of Religion: Not Yet on Speaking Terms

                                                Robert L. Montgomery, Ridgewood, New Jersey

                ØSocial Scientific Investigations of Conversion at the Interface with Missiological Practice

                                                Craig D. Rusch, Vanguard University of California

                Ø                Analyzing “Mission as Transformation” in the Philippines: An Interdisciplinary Approach

                                                F. Albert Tizon, Graduate Theological Union

                Ø                A Sociocultural Analysis of the Leadership of John Wimber and the Vineyard

                                                William Bjoraker, Operation Ezekiel

                Ø                Making the Transition: The English Church in Postmodernity

                                                Ryan Bolger, Fuller Theological Seminary

 

          Saturday, August 18, 2:30-4:30 p.m.

 

Session 29: American Catholics—Gender, Generation, and Commitment — Surrey

Organizer and Convener—James D. Davidson, Purdue University

Panelists:                James D. Davidson, Purdue University

                                William V. D’Antonio, Catholic University of America

                                Katherine Meyer, Ohio State University

 

Session 30: Religion and Immigrant Incorporation in New York — Westmorland

Organizer and Convener—José Casanova, New School for Social Research

                Ø                Searching Expressions of Identity: Belonging and Spaces—Mexican Immigrants in New York

                                                Liliana Rivera Sanchez, New School for Social Research

ØDominican Immigrants and the Catholic Church in New York City: Legal and Cultural Citizenship, Hispanicity, and the Creation of a Dominican Social Space

                                                Nina Siulc, New York University

Ø Immigrant Chinese Gods: Fuzhounese Religious Communities in New York and Their Transnational Networks

                                                Kenneth Guest, Graduate Center, CUNY

ØNegotiating Muslim Space: The Incorporation of West-African Muslim Immigrants in New York City

                                                Zain Abdullah, Rutgers University-Newark Campus

 

Session 31: Author Meets Critics: David Lyon’s Jesus in Disneyland — London West

Organizer and Convener—John H. Simpson, University of Toronto

Panelists:                Eileen Barker, London School of Economics

                                Peter Beyer, University of Ottawa

                                William R. Garrett, St. Michael’s College

                                William H. Swatos, Jr., ASR/RRA Executive Office

Session 32: Narrators and Narratives: Intersections between Fieldworkers and Fieldwork — London East

Organizer and Convener—Mary Jo Neitz, University of Missouri

Discussant—Joy Charlton, Swarthmore College

                Ø                Alienation in the Research Toolkit: Studying the Church You Left Behind

                                                Karen Bradley, Central Missouri State University

                Ø                Finding a Place: The Unchurched Researcher Goes to Church             

                                                Zoey Heyer-Gray, Woodland, California

Ø             An Outsider among Outsiders: The “WASP” Researcher Negotiates Religion and Research amid the New Immigration

                                                Ann M. Detwiler-Breidenbach, University of Missouri

                Ø                Standing In and Standing Out: A Mainline Protestant Researcher Learns from the Pentecostals

                                                Lynne Isaacson, Concordia College (Minnesota)

 

          Saturday, August 18, 5:00 p.m.

 

ASR Business Meeting — Surrey

 

          Saturday, August 18, 6:00 p.m.

 

Paul Hanly Furfey Lecture — Kensington Ballroom East

Convener—Anthony J. Blasi, Tennessee State University

                ØOutside the Nation, Outside the Diaspora: Accommodating Race and Religion in Argentina

                                                Alejandro Frigerio, Universidad Catolica Argentina

 

          Saturday, August 18, 7:00 p.m.

 

Paul Hanly Furfey Reception — Pond Courtyard

                The Reception is cosponsored by the ASR and Loyola Marymount University

 

Sunday, August 19, 7:30-8:25 a.m.

 

Sociology of Religion Associate Editors' Breakfast — Devon

               

Sunday, August 19, 8:30-10:15 a.m.

 

Session 33: Religion in the Lives of New Immigrants to California (Joint ASR/ASA Session) — Anaheim Marriott Hotel, Grand Salon C

Organizers—Jon Miller and Donald E. Miller, University of Southern California

Convener—Jon Miller

                Ø                Religion and Health Seeking among Recent Latino Immigrants in the Los Angeles Area

H. Edward Ransford and Frank Carrillo, University of Southern California

Ø             A Comparison of Contemporary Clergy Mobilization for the Labor Rights of New Immigrants and the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s

                                                Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo and Kara Lemma, University of Southern California

Ø             Religion as Protection from Joining Gangs

Monica Whitlock, University of Southern California, and Cheryl Maxson, University of California, Irvine

Ø Multiculturalism, Ethnic Nationalism and Immigrant Religion: The Development of an American Hinduism

                                                Prema Kurien, University of Southern California

                ØIndigenous Migrants and Cultural Diversity: Ethnicity and Religion among Mexican Immigrants in the U.S.

                                                Gaspar Rivera-Salgado, University of Southern California

Session 34: Islam and Globalization — Surrey

Convener—John Bartkowski, Mississippi State University

Discussant—David Smilde, University of Georgia

Ø             Young Preachers of the Tabligh Movement in Public Space: Identitary Dignity Rediscovered through Religious Puritanism

                                                Moussa Khedimellah, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales

                ØThe Class Nature of Religion and Religious Movements: A Class Analysis of the Islamic Revolution in Iran

                                                Berch Berberoglu, University of Nevada, Reno

ØGlobal Impacts of an Ethno-Religious Movement: The Case of the Nation of Islam in Britain

                                                Nuri Tinaz, University of Warwick

 

Session 35: End Times Rhetoric and Ideology — Westmorland

Convener and Discussant—Gary D. Bouma, Monash University

                Ø                Negative Hopes? Evangelical Christianity and the Decline Narrative

                                                Daniel C. Johnson, Gordon College

                Ø“Intolerance Is a Beautiful Thing”: Jerry Falwell, the Moral Majority, and Randall Terry

                                                Victoria C. Rosenholtz, SUNY Canton

                ØThe Delicate Issue of the End Times in a Conservative Evangelical/Fundamentalist Parachurch Organization

                                                Dana Fenton, CUNY

 

Session 36: Religions as Subcultural Identities — London West

Convener—Robert Durel, Christopher Newport College

                Ø                The Concept of “Class” in British Pentecostal Experience

                                                Malcolm Gold, Malone College

                ØWomen and Religion in Modern Times: A Theoretical Framework

                                                Linda Woodhead, Lancaster University

                ØWhatever Happened to Promise Keepers? A Test of the Christian Smith “Subcultural Identity” Theory of Religious Strength

                                                James A. Mathisen, Wheaton College (Illinois)

                Ø                Insights into the Life and Times of Irish Priests in the United States

                                                William L. Smith, Georgia Southern University

 

Sunday, August 19, 10:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

 

Session 37: Church, Volunteerism, and Outreach — Surrey

Convener—Jerome Baggett, Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley

Ø Generating Faith-Based Social Capital at the Religious Margins: Muslim and Hispanic Poverty Relief in Mississippi’s Baptist Belt

                                                John P. Bartkowski, Mississippi State University, and Helen A. Regis, Louisiana State University

Ø Religious Variables and AIDS/HIV

                                                Robert E. Beckley, West Texas A&M University

Ø Religion, Volunteering and Modernity

                                                Bryan S. Turner, University of Cambridge

Ø             African-American Congregations, Lay Leadership Opportunities, and Social Service Provision

William Tsitsos, University of Arizona

 

Session 38: The Religious Market in Chinese Societies II — Westmorland

Organizers—Fenggang Yang, University of Southern Maine, and Joseph B. Tamney, Ball State University

Convener—Joseph B. Tamney

Ø Buddhism During the Past Fifty Years in China

                                                Dedong Wei, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Ø             Lost in the Market, Saved at McDonald’s: The Growth of Christianity in Chinese Coastal Cities

                                                Fenggang Yang, University of Southern Maine

Ø Christianity and Buddhism: Their Changing Roles in Hong Kong since 1997

                                                Peter Ng, Chinese University of Hong Kong

 

Session 39: Multicultural Issues in Churches — London West

Convener—Sharon Houseknecht, Ohio State University

Discussant—James H. Mahon, William Paterson College

Ø             “This is True Biblical Koinonia”: The Maintenance of Multiculturalism and Multiracialism in the International Churches of Christ

                                                Kathleen Jenkins, Brandeis University

Ø             The Politics of Memory and Marginality: The Guilt of Canadian Churches

                                                Alain P. Durocher, Graduate Theological Union

Ø             Class and Education Considerations in American Jewish-Gentile Intermarriage

                                                Richard O’Leary, Queen’s University of Belfast, and Meir Yaish, Oxford University

 

Session 40: Author Meets Critics: Donald Nielsen’s Three Faces of God — London East

Organizers—Edward Tiryakian, Duke University, and Anthony J. Blasi, Tennessee State University

Convener—Edward Tiryakian

Panelists:                James Faught, Loyola Marymount University

                                Ivan Strenski, University of California, Riverside

                                Fabio B. Dasilva, University of Notre Dame

                                A. Tristan Riley, Bucknell University

 

Sunday, August 19, 12:30-2:15 p.m.

 

Session 41: Immigration and Religious Change in the United States — Surrey

Convener—Peter Kivisto, Augustana College (Illinois)

Discussant—Kenneth Guest, Graduate Center, CUNY

                ØThe Incorporation of Hinduism in New York

                                                Daniel Jasper, New School for Social Research

                ØAmerican Buddhists in Japanese Buddhist Churches Today: Tradition, Social Ethics, and Identity as Buddhists

                                                Tomoe Moriya, Hannan University

                ØGlobalizing Religion and Racial Identity Formation: The Case of Philadelphia Mennonites

                                                Jeff Gingerich, Bluffton College

 

Session 42: Religious Political Cultures: Cross-National Perspectives — Westmorland

Convener and Discussant—Ted G. Jelen, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

                ØThe Catholic Church and the Transnational Advocacy Network against Capital Punishment in the United States

                                                Lisa Ferrari-Comeau, University of Puget Sound

                Ø“I Know It When I See It”: Preconceptions and Myths in the Conceptualization of Religion by Canadian and U.S. Courts

                                                Lori G. Beaman, University of Lethbridge

                ØRupture or Continuity? Latin American Evangelical Political Culture in the Election of Hugo Chávez

                                                David Smilde, University of Georgia

 

Session 43: Church Organizations and Clergy — London West

Convener—Nancy T. Ammerman, Hartford Seminary

                Ø                Staving Off Mainline Erosion: Finding “Good” Clergy for Marginal Congregations

                                                Adair Lummis, Hartford Seminary

                Ø                A Comparative Historical Analysis of Three Episcopal Campus Ministries

                                                Catherine Fobes, Alma College

                ØIdentity Integration and Ministry: An Examination of Role Identities of Permanent Deacons in the Catholic Church

                                                Robert Durel, Christopher Newport University

                Ø                Creating a New Parish Model: African-American Catholics

                                                Ruth A. Wallace, George Washington University

    

Session 44: Secularization — London East

Convener—Nancy Eiesland, Emory University

Discussant—Linda Woodhead, Lancaster University

                Ø                Comfortable on the Margins: The Churches’ Complicity in the Marginalization of Religion

                                                Gary D. Bouma, Monash University

                ØThe Secularization Debate: A Dialectic of Old and New Paradigms

                Warren S. Goldstein, University of Central Florida

                Ø                Religious Travel in the Twenty-first Century: Modern and Postmodern Influences

                                                Lutz Kaelber, University of Vermont

 

Sunday, August 19, 2:30-4:30 p.m.

 

Session 45: Religion and Gender: Cross-Cultural Studies — Surrey

Convener—Harriet Hartman, Rowan University

Discussant—Paula D. Nesbitt, University of Denver

Ø             Women’s Voices and the Mobilization of Women within the Hare Krishna

E. Burke Rochford, Jr., Middlebury College

Ø             Religion and Identity Construction among Canadian Mothers and Daughters of South Asian Origin

                                                Helen Ralston, Saint Mary’s University (Halifax)

ØWomen’s Work and “Women’s Work”: LDS Dual-Earner Families, Work-Family Spillover, and Family Cohesion

                                                Daphne Pedersen Stevens and Krista Lynn Preheim, Utah State University

                Ø                Rethinking the Sociology of Religion for Analysis: Islamist Women’s Religious Experiences

                                                Nese Öztimur, Uludag University

 

Session 46: Cults, Mind Control, and Anti-Cult Movements in Japan — Westmorland

Organizers and Conveners—Masayuki Ito, Aichi Gakuin University, and Naoki Kashio, Keio University

                Ø                Cult as a Religious Addiction

                                                Hiroshi Iwai, Kansai University of International Studies

                ØThe Conversion Process of Young Unification Church Members in Japan since 1985

                                                Yoshihide Sakurai, Hokkaido University

                Ø                From an est-like Seminar to a Cult of Guru: The Case of “Life Space” in Japan

                                                Yasushi Koike, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

                ØRecent Developments of Anti-Cult Movements in Japan

                                                Kimiaki Nishida, University of Shizuoka

                ØThe “Cult” and Regional Societies: A Case Study of Aum Shinrikyo in Japanese Communities

                                                Tatsuya Yumiyama, Taisho University

 

Session 47: The Decentering and Recentering of Religion in Urban Communities (Joint ASR/ASA Session) — London West

Organizer and Convener—William Mirola, Marian College

Ø Decentering and Anticentering: Tensions in Neighborhood Religious Life

                                                Elfriede Wedam, The Polis Center—IUPUI

                ØThe One and the Many: The Domestication of Institutional Religion and the Negotiation of the Sacred in Public Life

                                                Arthur E. Farnsley II, The Polis Center—IUPUI

                Ø                Ethnic and Religious Identities Among Urban University Asian Americans: A Preliminary Analysis

                                                Jerry Park, University of Notre Dame

 

Sunday, August 19, 5:00-7:00 p.m.

 

“New” Council Meeting — Somerset

Sunday, August 19, 7:00-9:00 p.m.

 

Council Dinner — Dorset

 

          Monday, August 20, 2:30-4:15 p.m.

 

Session 48: The History of the Sociology of Religion (Joint ASR/ASA History of Sociology Section Session) — Anaheim Marriott Hotel, Grand Salon H

Organizer and Convener—Robert D. Woodberry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

                Ø                Caroline Bartlett Crane and Religion: The Social Gospel Goes to Kalamazoo                          

                                                Linda Rynbrandt, Grand Valley State University

                Ø                A Review of the Social Scientific Analysis of Mysticism

                                                Philip Schwadel, Penn State University

                ØReligious and Irreligious Critiques of Religion and Society in Freudo-Marxism: Reich, Fromm, and the Early Frankfurt School

                                                Donald Nielsen, SUNY Oneonta

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ABSTRACTS

 

 

 

NEGOTIATING MUSLIM SPACE: THE INCORPORATION OF WEST AFRICAN MUSLIM IMMIGRANTS IN NEW YORK CITY

Zain Abdullah, Rutgers University-Newark Campus

 

This paper explores the ways America’s civic culture, values, and laws help to shape the religious experiences and encounters of West African Muslims in Harlem, New York. In February 1999, the killing of an unarmed immigrant by four police officers firing 41 bullets awakened the world to the growing presence of West African Muslims in New York City. Their incorporation is often marked by the contestation of American economic values (e.g., informal West African trading practices versus Western economic exchanges), the confrontation of American laws that constrain religious practice (like polygy­ny, selling Islamically prepared meats, and five daily prayers in secular settings), the objectif­ication of religion informed by an ideology of multicult­uralism (i.e., a greater concern for reli­gious practice by Islamic bumper stick­ers, call-to-prayer Azan alarm clocks, Muslim “clergy” as repre­sentatives of the faith), and the construction of identities that defy national boundaries by linking Muslim immigrants and Ameri­can converts to a transna­tional religion or a “global Islam.”

 

 

FRENCH “LAÏCITÉ” AND RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY: THE MISDE­MEANOR OF MENTAL MANIPULATION

Véronique Altglas, École Pratique des Hautes Études

 

The aim of this paper is to sketch aspects of the relations between the state and religions in France, on the basis of a bill relating to “mental manipulation.” The aim of the bill, which had its first reading in the National Assembly on June 22, 2000, is to allow the political authorities to dissolve “moral entities” that have been convicted many times for what have are known as “cultic” offenses, such as endangering people, abuse of trust, and so on. Above all, it introduces the notion of “mental manipu­lation.” The threat to individual freedom which this bill embod­ies has led to a heated controversy. Such reactions have led to a redrafting of the bill, which will have to be modified to have a chance of being made into law after a second reading. The debate about the mental manipulation bill in France is signifi­cant in that it raises a whole series of issues, which take place within the specific French context of “laïcité.” It also reveals the paradoxical link between the nonrecognition of religion in France, as a constitu­tional princi­ple, and the need for public manage­ment of individu­al freedom and religious diver­sity.

 

 

ME, YOU, US, AND THEM: SELF- AND OTHER-IMPOSED MAR­GINALITY—AND THE CREATION, CROSSING, CHANGING, AND DISSOLUTION OF BOUNDARIES

Eileen Barker, London School of Economics

 

Boundaries are man made (or, less frequently, woman made). They are there to keep separate, but they can be crossed, changed, or dissolved altogether. New Religious Movements frequently margin­alize themselves from the rest of society, and the rest of society is frequently eager to marginalize them from itself. In fact, one of the characteristics of the NRM is that it is either marginal to the society or “beyond the pale.” Within the NRM, members are marginalized and/or marginalize themselves. Other members join, leave, or are expelled. With the passage of time, NRMs may be warily welcomed within some pales but kept firmly beyond others. This paper examines some of the fugues of active and passive construction, distancing, embracing, and denials of margins, marginality, and marginalization and between NRMs and society.

 

 

GENERATING FAITH-BASED SOCIAL CAPITAL AT THE RELI­GIOUS MARGINS: MUSLIM AND HISPANIC POVERTY RELIEF IN MISSISSIPPI’S BAPTIST BELT

John P. Bartkowski, Mississippi State University, and Helen A. Regis, Louisiana State University

 

Charitable Choice legislation permits religious communities to compete for government contracts to support faith-based social service provision. This study examines poverty-relief dynamics in two marginal Mississippi faith communities—an itinerant Catholic ministry to Hispanic migrant workers and an Islamic Center composed primarily of professional-class university students and professors. Within the context of rural and small-town Mississip­pi, the congregations studied here are twice marginalized—first by their religious distinctiveness, then by their racial difference. We reveal how congregational strategies of poverty relief enable these religious minorities to negotiate their social marginality in Baptist-dominated Mississippi. The invisibility of nonmain­stream religions in local communities provides a critical correc­tive to faith-based welfare-reform discourse predicated on economistic conceptualizations of “choice.”

 

 

“I KNOW IT WHEN I SEE IT”: PRECONCEPTIONS AND MYTHS IN THE CONCEP­TUALIZA­TION OF RELIGION BY CANADIAN AND U.S. COURTS

Lori G. Beaman, University of Lethbridge

 

A review of case law in the United States and Canada reveals that embedded in court decisions are notions about religion that are not always explicitly stated. This paper explores some of the preconcep­tions and myths about religion that pervade legal discourse. For example, courts routinely characterize God as male. In addition, there are underlying assumptions about how religious groups should be organized, and what constitutes “normal” reli­gious expression. Courts also accept the secularization thesis without the nuanced understanding developed by social scientists. Underlying all of this is an assumption that Christianity is the bench mark against which all other religions and expressions of spirituality should be measured.

 

 

RELIGIOUS VARIABLES AND AIDS/HIV

Robert E. Beckley, West Texas A&M University

 

The stigmatized illness of AIDS/HIV is now entering its third decade as a pandemic. However, Americans show little of the interest prevalent in the 1980s and early 1990s, as AIDS-related deaths decreased beginning in 1994. Many of the religious groups in metropolitan areas that had become involved in ministry to AIDS/HIV-Positive sufferers closed. However, projections from the Center for Disease Control indicate that deaths among gay and bisexual men and intravenous drug users will increase in the next few years. AIDS ministries may again be needed. This study uses data from focused interviews with clergy in six congrega­tions that are involved in AIDS ministry. Three are “More Light” congregations within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and three are “Reconciling Congregations” within the United Methodist Church. Analysis indicates the same intensity of commitment but less support from the religious communities than before.

 

GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES IN RELIGI­OSITY, SPIRI­TUALITY, SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS, AND RACE/ETHNICITY

Robert E. Beckley and James D. Griffith, West Texas A&M Universi­ty

 

Research on cohort differences between the “baby boomer” genera­tion and their parents’ generation demonstrates both quantitative and qualitative differences between cohorts in world views. These include perceptions in the ability of institutions, including religion, to meet social needs. Recent research suggests that these differences are further accentuated in the “Generation X” cohort. Are these differences the same for all socioeconomic levels and all racial and ethnic groups? Particularly, do indi­viduals of lower socioeconomic status demonstrate these same differences? Data collected in an evaluation of a faith-based outreach ministry in Texas partially answer some of these ques­tions. The evaluation utilized both intake and follow-up ques­tionnaires. Respondent changes in spirituality and religiosity could be noted, as could perceptions of government versus private welfare programs. The findings suggest generational cohort differences, particularly between slightly older “baby boomer” and slightly younger “generation X” respondents. Race and ethnic­ity seem to correlate with some of the differences.

 

 

THE CLASS NATURE OF RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS MOVE­MENTS: A CLASS ANALYSIS OF THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTION IN IRAN

Berch Berberoglu, University of Nevada, Reno

 

Situating the contemporary Iranian class structure in historic context, this paper provides a class analysis of the contending class forces in the period preceding the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and maps out the contours of class alliances and class conflict that came to define the nature of class relations in Iran during the decades of the 1960s and 1970s. Highlighting the clash of two contradictory modes of production, hence the strug­gle between two opposing class forces, in the “great transforma­tion” known as the White Revolution, the paper discusses how this struggle over the nature, policies, and projects of the state came to define the character of the devel­opment process that evolved during the course of this transforma­tion, and how this eventually led to the overthrow of the state that could no longer contain or suppress the contradictions embedded in this relation­ship. The paper concludes by way of an analysis of the class forces that were mobilized to form a popular alliance to topple the Shah’s regime and exposes the class basis of the movement that led the revolution to take state power.

 

 

INVISIBLE RELIGION REVISITED: CULTURE AND RELIGIOUS MODERNITY

Kelly Besecke, University of Wisconsin, Madison

 

Contemporary sociology conceptualizes religion along two dimen­sions: the institutional and the individual. Lost in this dichot­omy is religion’s noninstitutional, but collective and public, cultural dimension. As a result, theories of religious modernity, including both sides of the secularization debate, are unable to recognize or evaluate the social power of noninstitutionalized religious communication. This paper offers a reconceptualization of religion that highlights its cultural, communicative dimen­sion. Original research on religious talk provides an empirical ground for a theoretical discussion that highlights: (1) the “invisible” nature of religion in modern societies, as theorized by Thomas Luckmann, and (2) the social power attributed to communication by contemporary cultural sociologists and cultural theorists. I argue that conceptualizing religion as an evolving societal conversation about transcendent meaning broadens the empirical and theoretical grasp of the religion concept.

 

 

DEFINING RELIGION IN CROSS-NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE: IDENTITY AND DIFFER­ENCE IN OFFICIAL CONCEPTIONS

Peter Beyer, University of Ottawa

 

A common criticism of the concept of religion is that it is a Western Christian notion that is inapplicable to other cultures. It is, hence, seen more as a political tool for controlling populations than a useful category for scientific analysis. This paper argues that such criticisms are justified, but that they go too far, because they ignore how a more or less common idea of religion has become institutionalized in the languages and cultures of most countries around the world. The common concep­tion has been appropriated and transformed by Westerners and non-Westerners alike. Religion in this sense is not a scientific category so much as a popular and official one. The paper pres­ents an analysis of the origin of this modern conception of religion and illustrates its historical construction and fate through six examples: China, Japan, Indonesia, India, South Africa, and Canada. The paper concludes by showing that the clearest delineation of the concept is currently found in China or Indonesia, and less explicitly in Western countries.

 

 

A SOCIOCULTURAL ANALYSIS OF THE LEADERSHIP OF JOHN WIMBER AND THE VINEYARD MOVEMENT

William Bjoraker, Operation Ezekiel

 

While mainline Protestant denominations have been in marked decline during the last decades of the 20th century, new church movements have emerged and experienced phenomenal growth in this period. John Wimber (1934-1997) and the Vineyard church movement he founded and led until his death is a pioneering movement among these “new paradigm” churches. From 1982 to the present, the Vineyard movement of churches has grown from scratch in trend-setting Southern California, to approximately 700 churches in North America and around the world, attracting primarily the baby-boom generation. The sociocultural factors for the growth of this movement are examined. Causal factors are explained with a missiological assessment of how the evangelical Christian mission to post-Christian, postmodern America may succeed in the new millennium. Could we be on the cusp of a Third (or Fourth) Great Awakening in America?

 

 

MAKING THE TRANSITION: THE ENGLISH CHURCH IN POSTMODERNITY

Ryan Bolger, Fuller Theological Seminary

 

Current statistics reveal that church attendance in England has reached a new low (less than 10 percent church attendance in all counties). In addition, when one examines attendance among younger ages, the numbers decrease further. Relying on statistics alone, there is no cause for optimism for the future of the church in England. However, when one looks below the surface, another story emerges. During the months of April and May 2001, I interviewed English church leaders who are starting and/or leading churches and movements that are embedded in popular culture. Faced with a culture that is “post-Christendom” as well as postmodern, these leaders are creating novel forms of church that communicate in this emerging culture. In my presentation, I will analyze these “postmodern” churches in light of social theory, theology, and missiology. I hope that these analytical tools will reveal the extent to which these churches are prepared to engage the culture of 21st century England.

 

 

COMFORTABLE ON THE MARGINS: THE CHURCHES’ COMPLICI­TY IN THE MARGINALIZA­TION OF RELIGION

Gary D. Bouma, Monash University

 

Much has been made of the marginalization and privatization of religion in the last 200 years. In discussing this change in the position of the church in society using Australian, American, and European examples, the argument of this paper is that this marginalization and privatization, while decried by the church, can be seen to suit the interests of the hierarchy and other entrenched vested ecclesiastical interests. The church has cooperated in its own marginalization, finding a position on the edges of society more comfortable and less risky than a more demanding central position. An example of the benefits to the church would be the opportunity to criticize without having to take seriously the implications of the critique for itself. The different paths to the margins of society taken by formerly established churches, and by denomina­tions and sects, are com­pared. Finally, the image of the church as “divorced” from society is developed as a way of seeing the process of marginali­zation and privatization of religion.

 

 

MAKING SENSE OF IT ALL: SOME THOUGHTS ON THE INTER­SECTION OF ETHNOGRAPHY AND ETHICS

Elizabeth Bounds, Emory University

 

Ethnographers and ethicists frequently are found staring at one another across the division between descriptive and normative work. Ethnographers provide thick description of humans doing moral meaning making, but are shy about moving inductively to any possible ethical prescriptions. Ethicists, on the other hand, provide critical moral principles that are deductively applied to cases, but rarely suggest that there is any prior experiential grounding for these principles. Even when they do work inductively from experience (as is common in feminist ethics), this experience tends to be presented without any suggestion of its origins in and mediations through the researcher. In our collaborative qualitative research project, Responding to Commu­nity Crises, my colleague, a sociologist, and myself, an ethicis­t, hope to move across the descriptive/normative division. Drawing on preliminary findings from our research, I will suggest ways in which our study is a model of an ethnographically-sensi­tive ethics reflecting upon processes of moral formation in congregational settings.

 

 

ALIENATION IN THE RESEARCH TOOL KIT: STUDYING THE CHURCH YOU LEFT BEHIND

Karen Bradley, Central Missouri State University

 

Years after having conquered the internal bruising of an adoles­cent moment of rejection as a Baptist youth, I reenter the Baptist church to conduct fieldwork. It is a familiar place I know deeply but have for many years stood (comfortably) outside of it. My familiarity is a sword I use to prick the public skin of the congregation, to open it in a way that exposes the inner workings not usually known to the outside. But this sword is two-edged. I also find myself pricked open and exposed. This paper follows is an exploration of how being an ex-insider makes her way into the life space of a growing, contemporary Baptist church. Two specif­ic issues are discussed: First, I discuss how my own history magnifies the role of gender in my congregational observations. Second, I discuss the way my ex-insider status creates a need to position myself in such a way that I can optimally use by insider and outsider status for the benefit of the research. In addition, it becomes clear that my emotions and gut reactions were not something to be “managed,” rather they eventually began to supply a kind of rudder to the research.

 

 

BABY BOOMERS AND THEIR MILLENNIAL KIDS: HOW PARENTS DEFINE AND INCULCATE RELIGION

Lynn Schofield Clark, University of Colorado

 

In every generation, parents must consider how they are going to raise their children in the context of an environment that is largely beyond their control. Drawing upon qualitative interview research with more than 250 people, this paper discusses six different ways that parents seek to shape the religious beliefs of their children, focusing on how they envision their own beliefs in relation to what they perceive as outside influences on their offspring. The paper employs Anthony Giddens’ discussion of self-identity as an increasingly reflexive process in moderni­ty, suggesting that “reflexive parenting” is a dominant mode of that socialization process.

 

 

TRANCE STATES AMONG NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS: HOW SHOULD WE STUDY THEM?

Bernard G. Comeau, South Puget Sound College

 

Many religious groups subsumed under the category of New Reli­gious Movements make extensive use of “trance states” as part of their exploration of the spiritual. As researchers, we are confronted with the issue of how best to study the experiences that adherents report. Many of us are uneasy taking adherents’ reports completely at face value, but are also unsure how best to proceed in examining their experiences, other than with simple descriptive summaries. An alternative approach to studying trance states among NRMs, however, may be garnered by turning to re­search in hypnosis. Drawing upon my own work, among others, into this specific trance state, the paper articulates a social scientific approach which may help to frame the study of the experiential aspect of trance states, as they are typically employed by members of NRMs.

 

 

FESTIVE IDENTITIES: THE FESTIVAL OF THE FALLAS OF SAINT JOSEPH IN VALÈNCIA, SPAIN

Xavier Costa, University of València

 

The “Fallas” is a Fire Festival which is organized by an extended network of community associations, involving more than 100,000 people. The Festival period (14-19 March) brings together more than 1.5 million people annually on the streets and squares of the city to watch the burning of critical and satirical monuments called “Fallas,” which are made out of wood, cardboard, and fiberglass. This paper focuses on the participants’ festive identity, which is rooted in a specific “festive sociability”—the core of the mechanisms of the transmission of the festive tradition across generations. The Falla’s identity has a distinc­tive sense of the “ephemeral” which is expressed by means of the core symbols of the festivity. A carnivalesque form of satirical criticism, which is linked to old satire and tragedy characteriz­es this festive identity as well. Finally, myths and the gro­tesque body are central features of this “ephemeral identity”: they are part of the sculptural monuments which are able to “dialogue” with contemporary experience. These elements interact with other institutional figures, such as Our Lady and St. Joseph.

   

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AMONG AMERICAN CATHOLICS, ESPECIALLY THE POST-VATICAN II GENERATION

James D. Davidson, Purdue University

 

This paper examines three questions: (A) To what extent are Catholics involved in civic groups, and is their rate of partici­pation any higher or lower than it was 50 years ago? (B) To what kinds of civic organizations are Catholics most/least likely to belong? (C) To what extent is Catholics’ involvement in civic groups related to generation, gender, income, parish membership, and commitment to the Catholic Church? I address these questions using data from two national surveys, one done in 1955, the other done in 1999. The paper reports my findings related to each question and explores the implications the findings have for debates about Putnam’s “bowling alone” thesis, Catholicism’s role (if any) in the public square, and the similarities and differ­ences between pre-Vatican II, Vatican II, and post-Vatican II Catholics.

 

 

REFLECTIONS ON MODERN TURKEY

Grace Davie, University of Exeter

 

For a Western European to visit Istanbul—particularly one who has just completed a book describing the patterns of religion in modern Europe—is a formative experience. It is like seeing your own history in a mirror. The siege of Vienna in 1683, for exam­ple, is a pivotal moment in European history and depicted as such in the Museum of Vica. A visit to Topkapi Palace in Istanbul turns the whole thing round the other way. Europe is seen from the outside rather than from within, shedding an entirely differ­ent sociological perspective. Turkey, however, has borrowed from Western Europe: it is a secular state, built very largely on the French model. One aspect of this model raises the question of the right of women to wear the Muslim veil in state institutions, including schools and universities. This has caused considerable distress (just as it has in France), a point that has new meaning when you meet the women in question. It is, moveover, central to a discussion of religious identity.

 

 

AN OUTSIDER AMONG OUTSIDERS: THE “WASP” RESEARCHER NEGOTIATES RELIGION AND RESEARCH AMID THE NEW IMMIGRATION

Ann M. Detwiler-Breidenbach, University of Missouri

 

In the white rural reaches of the midwestern United States, communities are experiencing a significant influx of new immi­grants of Latin-American descent. Institutions of research, in an attempt to illuminate the processes of this new immigration, are sending researchers out into the field to gather stories from on the ground. Like the new immigrants and the community members she studies, the researcher also beings her own cultural and reli­gious identity to bear on her research. She is, at times, an outsider twice removed: outside of the local community and outside of the community of immigrants. For the sociologist of religion, she can also be an outsider to the common faith experi­ence of the groups she is studying. And, unexpectedly, she can have glimpses of being inside. Like the immigrants, the research­er can realize that her cultural and religious identities are not static, but rather open to a state of fluidity, susceptible to permeable boundaries. Ultimately she leaves the field, returns home with stories reflective of this dynamic present in both the research and the researcher.

DISREGARDING RELIGION: THE CASE OF THE HANDBOOK OF SOCIAL PSY­CHOLOGY

Michael Donahue, Azusa Pacific University

 

The current Handbook of Social Psychology (1998, 4th ed.) pres­ents itself as the epitome of current thought in the field. The topics it considers are exactly those familiar in the empirical study of religion: emotions, the self, gender, social influence, aggression and stereotyping, small groups, health, world poli­tics, the cultural matrix of social psychology. Each of these topics is given a separate chapter. And yet none of the chapters examines research incorporating religion variables. Even C. Daniel Batson’s chapter on altruism makes no reference to his own seminal research on religious orientation and helping. This presentation will note the most obvious lacunae in the Handbook, will suggest some reasons for the omission, and will reflect on the effect social psychology’s apparent deliberate exclusion of the topic has had on its ability to address important social phenomena.

 

 

IDENTITY INTEGRATION AND MINISTRY: AN EXAMINATION OF ROLE IDENTI­TIES OF PERMANENT DEACONS IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Robert Durel, Christopher Newport University

 

This paper takes up a question raised by DeRego and Davidson on role conflict and ambiguity experienced by permanent deacons in the Roman Catholic Church. In their analysis of three earlier studies by the National Conference of Bishops and the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), they discussed the conflicting expectations associated with the emerging role of deacons in ministry and the lack of role-rele­vant information with specific regard to ecclesiastical expecta­tions. This paper deals with the problem of identity integration, revolving around two general questions: (1) Do deacons view their status in the church ministry as functional (doing ministry) or ontological (being an ordained minister)? (2) Do deacons evaluate their ministerial/ecclesiastical roles or their secu­lar/profes­sional roles as primary in terms of their identities? 

 

 

THE POLITICS OF MEMORY AND MARGINALITY: THE GUILT OF CANADIAN CHURCHES

Alain P. Durocher, Graduate Theological Union

 

Memories from the past have recently become political issues open for scrutiny. Thanks to secularization, churches are just like any other institutions and have to address the wrongs they have committed—some- times far back in the past. In this paper, using a sociological approach, I examine the reformulation of collective memories into collective apologies. The Canadian population could not deal with the otherness of Native peoples. The only option seemed to be coerced assimilation. Looking at the possibilities for evangelization, four Christian denominations, along with the federal government, developed a network of residential schools for Native children. Today, more than a century after the first school opened, churches and the government feel compelled to apologize or make amends. But that has not stopped Native peoples from introducing more than 7,000 lawsuits against the federal government and those mainline denominations. Now, these lawsuits threaten powerful religious institutions with marginalization.

RESPONDING TO CRISIS: FRAMING A COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PROJECT

Nancy L. Eiesland, Emory University

 

Understanding the organizational capacities and actions of churches, synagogues, and other religious groups is at the heart of this four-year qualitative and quantitative research project, funded by the Lilly Endowment. I discuss here the research design and define the terms that shaped the project, including “organi­za­tional capacities” which included internal systems of beliefs, rituals, and practices; intraorganizational groups; networks of engagement within the local environment; and systems of support that are translocal, regional, national, and transnation­al. Our focus has been on organizational capacities, particularly in response to meaning-threatening events and/or circumstances. In this study, we have sought to understand the decisions, defini­tions, and theologies at work during times of trial or stress. We have identified different definitions of “crisis” within communi­ties and how these definitions enable us to understand the other groups to which communi­ties see them­selves related, the operative meaning of organizational agency, and the awareness and defini­tion of resources within the ecology and beyond.

 

 

THE ONE AND THE MANY: THE DOMESTICATION OF INSTITU­TIONAL RELIGION AND THE NEGOTIATION OF THE SACRED IN PUBLIC LIFE

Arthur E. Farnsley II, The Polis Center, IUPUI

 

Until the middle of the twentieth century, institutional religion and civil religion were linked in a strong Protestant establish­ment in Indianapolis. A variety of social forces oriented toward metropolitan political and economic expansion weakened this establishment hegemony, generating three outcomes: (1) Catholics and Jews have become significant components of the establishment, while white evangelicals and the black churches have become more effective negotiatiors for their own interests from the periph­ery. (2) Religion has become a less exclusive and less conten­tious social marker in Indianapolis public life precisely because it matters less at this level. (3) Traditional religious identi­ties are still important, however, but now largely at the local, domestic level of small communities and congregations. These elective identities are still tied to race, ethnicity, and class, and are still important to the negotiation of public life, but religious identities are now stronger at the most local level and weaker at the broader levels of public, civic engagement.

 

 

THE DELICATE ISSUE OF THE END TIMES IN A CONSERVATIVE EVANGELICAL/ FUNDAMENTALIST PARACHURCH ORGANIZA­TION

Dana Fenton, CUNY

 

Parachurch evangelical organizations, such as Campus Crusade for Christ, the Navigators, and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, have been mobilizing lay missionaries to evangelize and teach basic Christianity in a variety of settings  using a combination of fixed curriculum materials designed to be taught by laypeople, lecture courses by missionaries, guest lecturers from the Evan­gelical circuit, and testimonies from local members and honored guests. These organizations draw their supporters and partici­pants from a large variety of denominational backgrounds, some of which have very particular visions for the end times, others go no further than the creedal “await His coming again.” Using both results of fieldwork and analysis of curriculum materials, this paper will report how one organization, Executive Ministries of Campus Crusade for Christ attempted to maintain evangelical urgency while avoiding eschatological controversy. This is the heart of what I call Fundamentalist Ecumenism.

 

 

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE TRANSNATIONAL ADVOCA­CY NETWORK AGAINST CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN THE UNITED STATES

Lisa Ferrari-Comeau, University of Puget Sound

 

Networks of social activists can span sovereign borders, seeking to affect policy change within an individual country. Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink refer to these principled actors as transnational advocacy networks. They further argue that such networks can be most effective when they address issues of harm to a vulnerable population and when there are fairly straightfor­ward legal remedies for equality of opportunity. Keck and Sikkink mention that, based on the first criterion, networks addressing capital punishment are unlikely to be effective. I am interested in how the capital punishment abolitionist network attempts to remedy that weakness in their approach. My paper explores the role of the Roman Catholic Church (and the Holy See in particu­lar) in the transnational advocacy network seeking abolition of the death penalty in the United States. I argue that the Catholic Church maintains an important, perhaps unique, role in the network because of its ability to reframe “the vulnerable” to include death row inmates.

 

 

VEILED POWER: HENRIETTE DELILLE AND THE SOCIAL TERRAIN OF AMERI­CAN SAINTHOOD

Tracy Fessenden, Arizona State University

 

The Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans, an order of African-American nuns, have since 1988 assiduously promoted the cause for the canonization of their founder, Henriette Delille (1813-1862), which, if successful, will make Delille the first North American black woman saint. The contrast between the official canonization campaign, which proceeds painstakingly under the Vatican’s watchful eye, and the Lifetime Channel’s unauthorized “biopic” The Courage to Love, starring defrocked Miss America Vanessa Williams as Delille, mirrors the confluence of official and popular currents not only in contemporary devo­tions to Delille, but in the strategies Delille herself used to gain ground for her Order and for women of color generally. My paper focuses on the convergences (and occasional conflicts) between popular and institutional strategies of legitimation in the canonization effort, and on the window these open to the vexed social and racial terrains negotiated by Delille and her Order.

 

 

WHY DO MAINSTREAM SOCIAL ACTORS GET INVOLVED IN MARGINAL RELI­GIONS?

Dorothea M. Filus, University of Tokyo

 

This study is based on field research conducted in Sotome (near Nagasaki), Japan, where a hidden form of Christianity (Kakure Kirishitan) survived after brutal suppression in the seven­teenth century. Thirteen other religions present in Sotome were also investigated. Research was also conducted on social strati­fica­tion. It was found that the larger the lower and working strata in the district, the more people were affiliated with deviant religions. However, some members of the middle and upper strata were also attracted to nonconventional religions. Thus social class proved unable to explain religious involvement. The find­ings point out the importance of other factors, such as “depriva­tion” and “facilitators of religious in­volvement,” that result in participation in reli­gion. Main­stream social actors will be attracted to marginal religions when they suffer from psychologi­cal, physiological, or philosophical deprivation, and/or loneli­ness/uprootedness. Their conversion will be facilitated by such factors as weak social ties, exposure to a deviant religion, social networks with other converts, and favorable environment.

 

 

A COMPARATIVE HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF THREE EPISCO­PAL CAMPUS MINISTRIES

Catherine Fobes, Alma College

 

Drawing on archival data, I examine the initial organization of three campus ministries founded in the Diocese of Florida from 1920-1940. One ministry was founded at a then all-white female college for women; the second ministry was organized at a then all white male college; and the third ministry was created on the campus of a historically black university. I am interested in what we can learn about gender, race, class and organizations by comparing how and why ministries located in the same diocese (under the same bishop) were organized so differently.

 

 

AUTONOMY, AUTHENTICITY, AND INDIVIDUAL PROBATION: PATTERNS OF A SECULAR­IZED CONDUCT OF LIFE—THE CASE OF AN AUSTRIAN MOUNTAINEER

Manuel Franzmann, University of Dortmund

 

In his examination of the role of Protestant ethics for the rise of Western capitalism, Max Weber points to the importance of the “doctrine of proof” for an individual’s life conduct. Ulrich Övermann’s structural model of religiosity deepens this analyti­cal approach—stressing the individual’s probation (Bewährung). He argues that in the course of the process of secularization a dilemma emerges: On the one hand, the individual can no longer hold onto former beliefs in religious myths, because of their lack of compatibility to scientific knowledge and modern standards of rationality and consistency. On the other hand, scientific theories cannot substitute myths, as they provide only knowledge but no meaning for the individual’s life. Focussing on this dilemma of the modern individual, I investigate how secularized individuals deal with this problem. I analyze the case of Thomas Bubendorfer, an alpine mountain­eer from Austria, a specialist in climbing up steep faces without ropes.

 

 

“GOD’S HOUSE” OR “OUR COMMUNITY”? FACTORS INFLUENCING HOW TWO IMMIGRANT CONGREGATIONS DEFINE AND RESPOND TO CRISIS

Marie Friedmann Marquardt, Emory University

 

By comparing two congregations in Doraville, Georgia, this paper explores how religious organizations deter­mine both what consti­tutes a crisis and how to respond to a crisis. Both congregations share a similar demography, being comprised primar­ily of undocu­mented Latin Ameri­cans, and both are members of large denomina­tions, being Catholic and Lutheran, respectively. However, the two congrega­tions diverge signifi­cant­ly in their understanding of and re­sponse to crisis. This paper suggests that three interre­lated factors contribute to their divergence: pastoral leadership styles, congregational narratives of “who we are,” and the role each congregation plays in facili­tating immigrant adaptation to the local and national context. Both churches provide recent immigrants with a comfort­able space that serves, in part, as an oasis from the sometimes threatening local context. However, Sagrada Familia, the Lutheran congrega­tion, like a household, uses the space to train members for participa­tion in the broader public sphere, while the Roman Catholic Mision Catolica uses the space for critical engagement with that public sphere.