This study examines leadership transitions in the Zimbabwean Seventh-day Adventist Church, focusing on the experiences of pastors, their families, and church communities, and how removal or reassignment is interpreted through psychological, moral, and institutional frameworks. Using digital ethnography and discourse analysis of approximately 1,200 Facebook posts, alongside in-depth conversations with 10 participants, the study explores how leadership transitions are narrated and emotionally negotiated across online and offline contexts. Findings show that transitions generate grief, identity disruption, and family-level lifestyle changes. Emotional responses are shaped by theological interpretations that often frame grief as spiritual weakness, while digital platforms intensify scrutiny, moral judgement, and mockery. Structural inequalities and internal politics further shape these experiences. Integrating Role Theory and Social Identity Theory, the study demonstrates that leadership transitions are emotionally, morally, digitally, and structurally mediated, contributing African empirical insight to scholarship on religious leadership and lived religion.
Retirement among women in ministry remains underexplored in both retirement and religious research, particularly in non-Western contexts where institutional support systems are fragmented and uneven. This study examines how Korean women in ministry experience and negotiate retirement as a complex life transition shaped by vocation, gender, and institutional conditions. Using a grounded theory approach, this study draws on in-depth interviews with 10 Korean women in ministry, including pastors, associate pastors, and missionaries. The findings conceptualize retirement as a dynamic and negotiated process shaped by the interaction of vocational identity, institutional structures, and relational contexts. A central process emerged in which participants navigated the tension between an enduring sense of calling and insufficient institutional support. Retirement was often triggered by unplanned events and further shaped by gendered life trajectories and relational support systems. Participants adopted adaptive strategies, including continuing ministry and reconstructing meaning through faith, resulting in divergent outcomes ranging from continued engagement to structural vulnerability. This study reconceptualizes retirement as a vocationally sustained, relationally embedded, and gendered process. The findings highlight the need for more comprehensive and context-sensitive retirement support systems for women in ministry.
Catholic priestly formation constitutes the main context for the human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral development of seminarians. However, the perceived effectiveness of the formative process and its contributions to seminarians’ commitment to their vocational path remain underexplored. Grounded on Self-Determination Theory and Meaning in Life tridimensional model, this study seeks to examine the relationships between perceived effectiveness of formation process (human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral), basic psychological needs (BPN; autonomy, competence, and relatedness), and meaning in life (i.e., coherence, purpose, and significance). Data were collected through online questionnaires and analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in a sample of 549 Brazilian seminarians, aged 17 to 57 years. Findings showed that spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral formation favor the fulfillment of BPN, whereas human formation did not show a statistically significant effect. Furthermore, the fulfillment of BPN is the mechanism through which the perceived effectiveness of the formation process contributes to the seminarians’ development of meaning in life. The study offers relevant theoretical and practical implications, providing evidence-based insights to improve formative processes in Catholic seminaries while reducing the psychological distress and disengagement from vocational paths.
Recent Australian census data (2006-2021) indicate that identification with religion continues to decline across Australia's population. This is particularly seen among Christian adherents. To understand this phenomenon, religious switching needs to be considered in addition to migration, birth and mortality. This article uses the recently released Australian Census Longitudinal Dataset (ACLD) to provide important insights into religious switching and religious decline in Australia. The ACLD uniquely provides important demographic information on a tracked sample of almost 700,000 Australians across 4 censuses (2006, 2011, 2016 and 2021). Our study identifies that the no religion census category has been increasing between census years. However, it has the lowest level of retention from census to census of all the religion categories. That is, rather than maintaining 'no religion', many religious nones later return or adopt religious affiliation. This challenges assumptions that Australians who abandon their religious affiliation do so permanently. Christianity, although in decline, continues to attract people from Buddhism, no religion and other religions, especially the Australian-born. The analysis also reveals that earlier migrants to Australia tend to disaffiliate more than newer migrants. This article provides nuanced evidence about secularisation patterns in Australia, especially between Australian-born individuals who are more likely to move to no religion compared to those born overseas.
This study examines the relationship between religiosity and economic attitudes in Egypt, a highly religious society where informal norms strongly shape economic behavior and state-society relations. Using data from the last three waves of the World Values Survey (2005-2022), the analysis tests multiple hypotheses across three dimensions: redistribution and market attitudes, beliefs about hard work, and tolerance of corrupt practices. The findings show that religiosity is significantly associated with economic attitudes. Religious Egyptians are more supportive of government responsibility toward the needy and more likely to view market competition as harmful. Although they place high importance on work, they are also more inclined to believe that success depends on luck and social connections rather than hard work alone. Religiosity is further associated with lower acceptance of corrupt behavior. These findings suggest that religiosity operates as an important informal institution shaping economic preferences in Egypt, with selective rather than uniform effects across different economic attitudes.
Amid changing patterns of religiosity, marriage, and childbearing in American society, recent studies report mixed findings on the links between religion and family. This paper uses longitudinal data from 2000 to 2021 to investigate the effects of family formation on religiosity in the United States. Specifically, it leverages multiple rounds of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), a survey of over 8,000 Americans born between 1980 and 1984. Fixed effects regressions are employed to examine the sample of respondents with changes in religiosity across survey waves. All in all, the findings suggest that marriage and parenthood both increase religiosity. Becoming married is associated with higher religiosity along multiple dimensions, though it increases attendance more among men than women. Becoming divorced is associated with lower religiosity but manifests differently in men and women. Becoming widowed is associated with higher attendance. Moreover, an increase in the number of children is positively associated with religious attendance and importance of faith, mostly among women. For both men and women, the duration of parenthood is broadly associated with higher religiosity along multiple dimensions. In sum, despite the evolving nature of family and religion in the U.S., the two social institutions remain deeply linked.
The question of “who is an Evangelical” has occupied historians and social scientists with renewed urgency in the last 10 years. As Evangelical churches and international organizations have increasingly recognized the rise of a global South majority, they have also expressed a growing interest in accurately assessing the size and composition of this movement. This paper operationalizes Evangelicalism for the twenty-first century by analyzing demographic trends and religious taxonomies using data from the World Christian Database . It proposes a new threefold typology of Evangelicalism: denominational Evangelicals, Pentecostals/Charismatics, and Majority World Protestants. Taken together, this “Wider Evangelical” movement comprises approximately 930 million adherents, 87.2 percent of whom live in the global South (47.5% in Africa, 26.3% in Asia, and 12.3%in Latin America). Although the United States has been the country with the most Evangelicals for over a century, this new demographic assessment of shared family resemblances suggests that the new demographic center is the global South broadly, and specifically, sub-Saharan Africa.
Research on youth religiosity shows increasing distance from religious institutions alongside persistent forms of belief. In Catholic contexts, this gap often appears in how ecclesial language is perceived and understood. This study draws on 22 semi-structured interviews with Catholic young adults (18-30) in Rome, balanced by gender, education, and urban location. It combines sociological, sociolinguistic, and cultural-psychological perspectives, distinguishing between linguistic code (restricted vs. elaborated) and discursive register (catechetical vs. experiential), and relating these to religious socialization. Ecclesial language is frequently perceived as abstract and distant from lived experience, even among practicing Catholics. However, variation is significant: some participants translate effectively between catechetical and experiential registers, while others experience a clear disconnection. Differences are better explained by socialization trajectories and communicative repertoires than by geography or basic demographics. Perceptions of ecclesial language reflect differing capacities to mediate between institutional and experiential meanings. The findings highlight the importance of communicative translation across plural symbolic worlds.
Guide dogs enhance mobility and psychosocial participation for people who are blind, yet their use in Muslim-majority and minority settings remains contested because some hadith-based interpretations link dogs to ritual impurity and spiritual concerns, producing stigma and access disputes. We conducted qualitative, interpretive textual analysis of Qur'anic passages referencing dogs, 14 core hadith narrations, classical fiqh positions across the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali schools, and 21 contemporary fatwas on guide dogs (through April 2025). Sources were coded thematically (purity, worship, utility, necessity, welfare) and interpreted through a maq & amacr;sid al-shar & imacr;'a (objectives of Islamic law) lens emphasizing dar & umacr;ra (necessity) and maslaha (public welfare), supplemented by illustrative media-documented access controversies. Qur'anic evidence portrays dogs neutrally to positively and affirms trained-animal utility by analogy. Hadith evidence is mixed, combining mercy and practical-use reports with context-sensitive purity and public-safety narrations. While schools differ on impurity status, all permit dogs for recognized needs. Contamporary fatwas largely endorse guide dogs: 20/21 allow use, typically with manageable hygiene and mosque-space protocols. Islamic legal reasoning strongly supports guide dogs as permissible assistive partners when grounded in necessity and welfare; persistent exclusions are primarily social and institutional, suggesting the value of clearer guidance and accommodations.
What is the significance of a theological education for non-congregational and non-faith vocational contexts and roles? This question was the focus of a study to better understand the range of knowledges, skills, and dispositions-often called competencies-imparted by a theological education that are relevant to these vocational contexts, in which half of all alumni are employed. Ten in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of experts regarding competencies gained and needed in theological education for diverse vocational paths. Additional questions related to the kinds of roles and contexts emerging and present beyond the congregation and opportunities for how theological education might build upon its present offerings. Interviewee responses detailed the range of roles and contexts of graduates and the competencies both gained and needed in theological education, as well as four general opportunities suggested for theological schools to consider. While additional qualitative research is needed, this study contributes to an understanding of today's vocational landscape and how theological schools might build upon the value of a theological education to more holistically prepare students beyond graduation.
While most prior research assumes that if someone attends religious services, they only attend at one place of worship, a handful of studies suggest that some individuals do regularly attend multiple congregations. This paper seeks to answer the following questions: What percentage of U.S. adults who attend religious services attend multiple congregations? What are the socio-demographic and religious characteristics of those who attend multiple congregations and how do they compare to those who only attend one congregation? What are the reasons for attending additional congregations? And, how do the congregational activities of multiple attenders compare to those who only attend one congregation? We examine these research questions using a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults conducted in 2023. Most American adults who attend religious services attend multiple congregations at least occasionally. Comparing those who always attend services at the same congregation to those who attend multiple congregations, we found that they differ in terms of education, marital status, political ideology, sexual identity, religious identity, and overall religious service attendance. This paper provides interesting insights into the religious and socio-demographic profile of U.S. adults who attend multiple congregations.
Proselytization is an important expression of religious belief for many Christian denominations as well as a conduit through which to grow church membership. While there is a large body of literature examining religious identity and forms of religiosity, there is little sociological research investigating proselytization. This study begins to address that oversight by examining proselytization among Christian women and Christian men in the United States. Using recent General Social Surveys, we employ logistic regression analyses to test the significance of religious identity, religiosity, and various controls on the likelihood that Christian women (n = 662) and Christian men (n = 519) have engaged in proselytization. Findings show that although Christian women may report a higher level of having proselytized compared to Christian men, analyzing women and men separately revealed some similarities and differences. Religious identity, particularly evangelical Protestant, and religiosity are significant predictors of proselytization among both groups. For Christian men, however, age and a belief in traditional gender roles also emerged as significant predictors of proselytization. Our results underscore the importance of examining religious identity, religiosity, and gender in understanding who may engage in "saving souls."
This study examines the attitudes of both instructors and attendees of the confessional Orthodox Christian religion class in Romania toward yoga. It examines whether individuals are more familiar with religious or secular forms of yoga and whether they approach it with curiosity, neutrality, or opposition. As yoga is rooted in Hindu traditions and is often associated with Hinduism when viewed in a religious context, the study also examines the attitudes of students and teachers toward Hinduism. It draws on data collected in two field studies involving students and educators. The findings reveal a significant gap: students generally exhibit curiosity and openness despite limited knowledge, while teachers tend to adopt a more cautious or critical stance aligned with Orthodox discourses. This contrast reflects broader societal tensions between emerging pluralistic tendencies and longstanding religious norms in Romania. The study highlights how negative attitudes, shaped in part by Orthodox media narratives, underscore the importance of educator training to counter exclusivist viewpoints.
Previous research has shown that empathic concern has positive implications for psychological well-being. The purpose of this research is to examine how masculine God imagery moderates this association. Using data from a nationwide sample of adults in South Korea (n = 1,498), the analyses reveal that empathic concern is positively associated with both life satisfaction and happiness net of religious and demographic controls. Importantly, masculine God imagery modifies the association between empathic concern and life satisfaction. Specifically, empathic concern is positively associated with life satisfaction among individuals who do not endorse beliefs in a masculine God. By contrast, empathic concern is not associated with life satisfaction among those who believe that God is masculine. Yet, this moderating effect of masculine God imagery does not emerge with regard to happiness. Collectively, these observations suggest that masculine God imagery is a critical contingency in the relationship between empathic concern and life satisfaction.
Cultural tools are socially acquired skills, styles, and habits individuals use to navigate their lives. Since cultural tools are mastered through practice, individuals tend to be more adept with some tools than others. Social groups have normative frames, or shared expectations, specifying how cultural tools should be used. To become adept with a cultural tool, individuals must comply with the normative frames governing its use. In this paper, I document the shared expectations organizing prayer at a Pentecostal church in Orange County, California. Drawing on data collected through participant observation, I find that congregants expected supplicants to speak to God in an intimate yet reverent tone, develop a dedicated prayer practice, and remain highly observant while waiting for God to answer their prayers. These findings suggest that social groups do not use a single normative frame to organize the use of particular cultural tools across all situations, as previous research claims, but instead organize the use of specific cultural tools with a collection of shared expectations, each addressing a different aspect of performance. Future research should continue investigating the multiple shared expectations various social groups develop to govern the use of the same cultural tools.
Along with parents and schools, congregations are part of a "religious transmission ecosystem" with children. Using case study data with a Catholic parish in Canada, this article explores how this parish defines and approaches various roles and initiatives across the religious transmission ecosystem, along with its perceived and experienced obstacles and responses related to religious transmission. I argue that while parents are seen as the central socialization influence, with parishes and Catholic schools playing supportive roles, a perceived problem is that many parents along with teachers in Catholic schools are cultural Catholics. As a result, this parish seeks to reassert itself as the dominant socialization influence in the religious transmission ecosystem toward (re)socializing children and their parents and teachers. Despite best efforts to help with religious transmission, this parish has resigned itself to a "planting seeds" approach, in hopes that something takes root and grows for parents and their children. The confluence of macro- and micro-level factors beyond parish control alongside cultural assumptions and behaviors within the parish together yield weak starting points to set children and their parents on a trajectory for higher rates of Catholic religious transmission.
This study examines factors associated with clergy job dissatisfaction and thoughts of leaving ministry, using nationally representative data from the National Survey of Religious Leaders (NSRL). While most U.S. clergy report high job satisfaction, substantial variation exists. Contrary to expectations, factors like gender and differences in theology or politics show weak associations with dissatisfaction and exit intentions. Instead, three factors emerge as robust predictors: feeling less cared for by one's congregation, poor mental health, and religious doubts. Notably, many clergy who consider leaving think about transitioning to other religious work rather than exiting ministry entirely, suggesting position-specific rather than vocation-wide discontent. Among the key predictors, feeling cared for by one's congregation shows the strongest and most consistent associations across outcomes. These findings highlight how relational support, psychological well-being, and belief-role congruence relate to satisfaction and retention in occupations that blend professional demands with personal calling. The results challenge assumptions about what drives clergy from their posts and offer insights for understanding worker well-being in demanding service professions.
