Journal Article Making Charisma: The Social Construction of Paul's Public Image, by Anthony Blasi. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1991, x + 170 pp. $21.95 Get access Richard K. Fenn Richard K. Fenn Princeton Theological Seminary Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 53, Issue 3, Fall 1992, Pages 339–341, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711715 Published: 01 October 1992
Journal Article The Assemblies of God at the Crossroads: Charisma and Institutional Dilemmas, by Margaret M. Poloma. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1989, xxi + 309 pp. $19.50 Get access H. Wesley Perkins H. Wesley Perkins Hobart and William Smith Colleges Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 53, Issue 1, Spring 1992, Pages 113–115, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711638 Published: 01 March 1992
Journal Article Response to Young and Schoenherr Get access Dean R. Hoge, Dean R. Hoge Catholic University of America Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Joseph J. Shields, Joseph J. Shields Catholic University of America Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Mary Jeanne Verdieck Mary Jeanne Verdieck Catholic University of America Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 53, Issue 1, Spring 1992, Pages 89–90, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711630 Published: 01 March 1992
Journal Article The Democratization of American Christianity, by Nathan G. Hatch. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989. $14.95 (paper) Get access Paul M. Gustafson Paul M. Gustafson Hiram College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 53, Issue 4, Winter 1992, Pages 455–456, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711441 Published: 01 December 1992
"A major contribution to the growing literature on fundamentalism and American life." --Wade Clark Roof, University of California, Santa Barbara Many of us assume that Christian day schools foster a strict and conservative environment that is very different from the rest of the United States. Christian educators themselves foster this view when they say that following biblical strictures requires that they not always conform to this world. Melinda Wagner goes beyond this stereotype to portray the way these schools foster American popular culture and "professional education culture" as well as "Christian culture." In her participant observation study of a variety of Christian schools (sponsored by fundamentalist, evangelical, new charismatic, Holiness, and pentacostal Christians), Wagner describes and interprets how such compromises are made. In American culture, children are taught to meet challenges, to compete, and are rewarded for individual achievement. Conservative Christians label this individualism as "secular humanism," and find it antithetical to their view of the self. Instead, these Christians seek a culture of love, compassion, orderliness, noncompetitiveness, and separation from the material trappings of this world. But in reality, Wagner finds that the schools mix Christian values with the values of American culture. She discovers that even in Christian schools students compete fiercely and are recognized for individual achievements. Christian schools incorporate norms and strategies from mainstream American education. Alternative Christian schools are not as alternative as they could be; they are walking the Christian walk the American way. The Christian schools serve as a case study of the process of culture building. Conservative Christians are trying to revitalize their culture. Yet all along the way, they quite consciously compromise. Melinda Bollar Wagner is a professor of anthropology at Radford University.
Journal Article Continuity and Change in the Rhetoric of the Moral Majority, by David Snowball. New York: Praeger, 1991, xii + 181 pp. $39.95 Get access Michael W. Hughey Michael W. Hughey Moorhead State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 53, Issue 1, Spring 1992, Pages 115–116, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711639 Published: 01 March 1992
Journal Article God's Schools: Choice and Compromise in American Society, by Melinda Bollar Wagner. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1990, xiii + 271 pp. $37 Get access Cecil Greek Cecil Greek University of South Florida Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 53, Issue 2, Summer 1992, Pages 230–231, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711127 Published: 01 July 1992
Journal Article Women in the Sanctuary Movement, by Robin Lorentzen. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991, vii + 229 pp. $34.95 Get access Christy M. Ponticelli Christy M. Ponticelli University of California, Santa Cruz Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 53, Issue 1, Spring 1992, Pages 118–119, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711642 Published: 01 March 1992
Journal Article Religious Regimes and State Formation: Perspectives from European Ethnology, edited by Eric R. Wolf. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991. $49.50 Get access Ahmad Sadri Ahmad Sadri Lake Forest College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 53, Issue 4, Winter 1992, Pages 465–466, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711449 Published: 01 December 1992
Journal Article Habermas and the Public Sphere, edited by Craig Calhoun. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992, x + 498 pp. $45 Get access David Harrington Watt David Harrington Watt Temple University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 53, Issue 4, Winter 1992, Pages 466–468, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711450 Published: 01 December 1992
Journal Article Fundamentalisms Observed, edited by Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991, xvi + 872 pp. $40 Get access Richard R. Lee Richard R. Lee Florida State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 53, Issue 3, Fall 1992, Pages 335–336, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711712 Published: 01 October 1992
Data from a random digit dialing telephone survey of 502 adults residing in a nonmetropolitan northern California community were used to examine the association of religiosity and perceived stress. Religion variables included importance of religion, Christian rebirth, affiliation, and frequency of attendance. A question from the national Harris Poll was used to assess perceived stress. Greater church attendance showed a weak significant individual association with perceived stress, and significant interactions were found between importance of religion and both Christian rebirth and attendance. Findings are discussed in terms of attribution and social support theories.
Rodney Stark's article on the relation of early Christianity to cities produces impressive statistical results showing that population had some relation to where Christianity spread, but that distance from Jerusalem and Romanization were strong negative factors, and that there was a high correlation between presence of a synagogue in a city and the establishment of Christianity there. The statistical base of that study needs to be corrected, and other factors need to be considered. Making these changes leads to the conclusions that both population and the presence of Judaism were irrelevant for the spread of early Christianity, and that Hellenization needs to be investigated.
This article presents evidence that many of the factors that lead to cohesive, long-lasting, economically healthy communal groups also produce structural changes within the groups that in turn alter the gender roles of their members. While Kanter (1973) and Solomon (1975) have recognized that the basic structure of the cohesive community, including its gender roles, differs drastically from that of the larger society, a longitudinal study of eight such groups reveals that they separated themselves from society in four distinct developmental stages. In the third stage, when male labor was needed for physical expansion, the proportion of men in the groups increased. In the last stage, the proportion of women increased as the groups' distinctive new structure allowed greater freedom and equality for women while restricting the power and opportunities of men.
Hoge et al. (1988) analyze the changing age distribution and theological attitudes of Catholic priets. They conclude that Schoenherr and Sorensen (1982) overestimated the number of older priets in 1985 and incorrectly projected a shift toward conservative attitudes between 1970 and 1985. Based upon newly available data, we conclude that Schoenherr and Sorensen did not overestimate the number of older priests. We also argue that Hoge et al. did not use the appropriate analysis to test whether shifts in theological attitudes were due to a cohort effect or an aging effect. We reanalyze Hoge's data and conclude that the source of the error in the original Schoenherr-Sorensen projections of theological attitudes is more complex than specified by Hoge et al. Specifically, while Hoge et al. correctly identify a cohort effect that helps explain the inaccuracy of the original Schoenherr-Sorensen projections, Hoge et al. incorrectly reject the influence of an aging effect. Based upon the simultaneous operation of the cohort and aging effects, as well as the growing conservation of younger priests, we conclude that an increasingly conservative clergy is to be expected.
Journal Article Religion and Power: Decline and Growth, edited by Peter Gee and John Fulton. London: Chameleon Press, 1991, 141 pp. £9.50 Get access Daniel C. McDonald Daniel C. McDonald Marquette University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 53, Issue 3, Fall 1992, Page 333, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711709 Published: 01 October 1992
Throughout the history of an NRM remarkable for its social experiments and its ritual, sexual, and economic innovations, therapy has played a prominent role. On the basis of data collected through interviews and participation in Rajneesh therapy groups, it is postulated that, during the Rajneeshpuram phase, the function of therapy was to forge new identities through the ritual breaking of taboos, to educate new members in the alternative sexual ethics of the commune, and to initiate these members into the charismatic community. Also, this study will address the apparently irreconcilable conflict between an Esalen-style humanism and an oriental-style veneration for the guru found in this NRM, and will argue that therapy groups provided a forum in which the ongoing struggle between an individualistic-therapeutic focus and a collective-devotional focus could be resolved.
Journal Article Politisierter Glaube? Zum Spannungsverhältnis zwischen katholischer Soziallehre und politischer Theologie, by Wolfgang Ockenfels. Walberberg, Germany: Institut für Gesellschaftswissenschaften Verlagsgesellschaft, 1990, 346 pp. DM93 Get access Franz Mueller Franz Mueller University of St. Thomas Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 53, Issue 2, Summer 1992, Pages 241–243, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711136 Published: 01 July 1992
In discussing missionary motivation, H. Richard Niebuhr presented the "love of the distant" as one of the manifold motives for overseas missionary service. The allure of the far, the strange, and the foreign was contrasted with "love of the near. " North American children of missionaries have a high percentage of return or "call" back overseas upon reaching adulthood. Would missionary children left in the home culture experience the "call" to overseas missions in such a high percentage? This article begins with a summary of previous research, includes a discussion of Ruth E. Slifer's concept of "cultural empathy, " and centers on findings using a sample of 35 former inhabitants of the Basel Mission's Children's Home. The findings substantiate the influence of the social matrix of a mission-oriented community in the homeland. Unlike Niebuhr's thesis, the present research concludes that missionary Motivation as "love of the distant" can be seen in dialectical synthesis with "love of the near. "
