The Churching of America - The Acton Institute. The award winning book The Churching of America, is a dramatic rewriting of American religious history with a free-market bent.
The authors write: “[the] most striking trend in the history of religion in America is growth–or what we call the churching of America.” Making use of a traditional church-sect distinction, Finke and Stark argue that historians have seen religion in decline in America because their assumptions led them to look at the wrong religious institutions. Finke and Stark charge that “frequently, a lack of religious activity is asserted when all that is lacking is the preferred brand of religious activity.” What they mean by “preferred brand” is the theologically sophisticated church institutions which are not in great tension with society.
The authors compare these institutions with “upstart sects” and argue that, This often acerbic work challenges many time-worn notions about the vitality of religion in this country. Religion Data Resources. There are many sources of census and social survey data on the web. Most of these sources are cataloged on other sites. Therefore some of the links on this page are to collections of links that we have found useful. The sites containing religion data are less plentiful but considerable information can be found on the listed links below. We have also found the various congregational locator sites to be of great benefit in our research efforts. Religious Data Resources Social and Census Data Resources Church Locators Religion Data Resources The Association of Religion Data Archives The Archive is the first place to go for religion data. Summary reports on the location of congregations and numbers of adherents (Religious Congregations Membership Study 1980, 1990, 2000 & 2010) for all participating denominations can be compiled by counties, states, metropolitan areas, and the nation in table and map formats.
Adherents.com A compendium of religious membership figures and other facts. The Pluralism Project: Statistics by Tradition. This is a working document compiling statistics from numerous sources.
Afro-Caribbean Statistics "Hundreds of thousands of African Americans and Caribbean immigrants in major cities throughout the country follow these [African-based] traditions. " Karen McCarthy Brown, "You Better Believe Federal Faith-Based Funding Is a Bad Idea," Los Angeles Times, 24 December 2002, 13(B). American Religious Identification Survey 2008. By Barry A.
Kosmin, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut Religion and the Intelligentsia The relationship between educational attainment and religious identity and behavior is contested in the academic literature.Both education and religion have been identified as independent variables.However, in general society, exposure to higher education is commonly regarded as a key explanatory factor in the decline or shift of an individual’s religious loyalty and belief.As a result it is common for some conservative religious groups to discourage their adherents from seeking higher education. At the other extreme, secularists have long believed that more education produces more rationality and so liberates people from “superstition.” People with advanced education are disproportionately represented among both non-believers and churchgoers.We have explained how the changing distribution of religious types among elites and the general population produced this shift.
Conclusions Bibliography. Four Mega-Trends Changing America's Religious Landscape by David. Four Mega-Trends Changing America’s Religious Landscape by David A.
Roozen Presented at the Religion Newswriters Association Annual Conference, Boston, MA September 22, 2001 It is always a pleasure to share the podium with George Gallup Jr. I began tracking national religious trends using public opinion survey in the early 1970s, and as at least a few of you may recall, prior to Jimmy Carter’s first presidential campaign virtually the only national polling organization that regularly asked about religion was the Gallup Poll. Given George’s presense today to represent the wonderful collection of Gallup Poll trend data on religion, it seemed advisable for me to take a slightly different tack. This national study, know as FACT for short, is less than a year old. The first trend I want to highlight was featured in the original March 13, 2001 release of the FACT data, but its salience has escalated untold fold with the events of the last two weeks [i.e., since September 11].
Conflict Thank you. Religion in American Culture. American Religion - American Religions - Academic Info. Directory of Online Resources for the Study of Religion in the United States Religion Gateway > America Table of Contents Related Subjects American Religious Experience "The American Religious Experience Project encourages the development and publication of American religion manuscripts and images on the World Wide Web. The project directors welcome manuscript submissions from instructors, students, and avocational scholars that inform our understanding and appreciation of American Religions. " Continue on with: American Religious Identification Survey 2008.