The Restructuring of American Religion

The Restructuring of American Religion PDF

Author: Robert Wuthnow

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-02-09

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 0691224218

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The description for this book, The Restructuring of American Religion: Society and Faith since World War II, will be forthcoming.

Rediscovering the Sacred

Rediscovering the Sacred PDF

Author: Robert Wuthnow

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 9780802806338

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Claiming that the realm of the sacred in modern societies is characterized more by rediscovery than by revival, Wuthnow examines the main theoretical approaches toward religion that have emerged of late in the social sciences and shows how these approaches can help explain the shifting location of the sacred.

After Heaven

After Heaven PDF

Author: Robert Wuthnow

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2023-04-28

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 0520924444

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The evolution of American spirituality over the past fifty years is the subject of Robert Wuthnow's engrossing new book. Wuthnow uses in-depth interviews and a broad range of resource materials to show how Americans, from teenagers to senior citizens, define their spiritual journeys. His findings are a telling reflection of the changes in beliefs and lifestyles that have occurred throughout the United States in recent decades. Wuthnow reconstructs the social and cultural reasons for an emphasis on a spirituality of dwelling (houses of worship, denominations, neighborhoods) during the 1950s. Then in the 1960s a spirituality of seeking began to emerge, leading individuals to go beyond established religious institutions. In subsequent chapters Wuthnow examines attempts to reassert spiritual discipline, encounters with the sacred (such as angels and near-death experiences), and the development of the "inner self." His final chapter discusses a spirituality of practice, an alternative for people who are uncomfortable within a single religious community and who want more than a spirituality of endless seeking. The diversity of contemporary American spirituality comes through in the voices of the interviewees. Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, and Native Americans are included, as are followers of occult practices, New Age religions, and other eclectic groups. Wuthnow also notes how politicized spirituality, evangelical movements, and resources such as Twelve-Step programs and mental health therapy influence definitions of religious life today. Wuthnow's landmark book, The Restructuring of American Religion (1988), documented the changes in institutional religion in the United States; now After Heaven explains the changes in personal spirituality that have come to shape our religious life. Moreover, it is a compelling and insightful guide to understanding American culture at century's end.

A Particular Place

A Particular Place PDF

Author: Nancy L. Eiesland

Publisher: Rutgers University Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9780813527383

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Focusing on how the religious congregations (all Protestant) of a particular town adapted to a rapid influx of newcomers, this book makes a significant contribution to sociological literature, in an interesting narrative style. . . . Eiesland's work is the perfect complement to that of other major contributors in the field, such as Robert Wuthnow, Wade Clark Roof, William McKinney, David A. Rootzen, Jackson Carroll, and Nancy T. Ammerman.

Red State Religion

Red State Religion PDF

Author: Robert Wuthnow

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 502

ISBN-13: 0691150559

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What Kansas really tells us about red state America No state has voted Republican more consistently or widely or for longer than Kansas. To understand red state politics, Kansas is the place. It is also the place to understand red state religion. The Kansas Board of Education has repeatedly challenged the teaching of evolution, Kansas voters overwhelmingly passed a constitutional ban on gay marriage, the state is a hotbed of antiabortion protest—and churches have been involved in all of these efforts. Yet in 1867 suffragist Lucy Stone could plausibly proclaim that, in the cause of universal suffrage, "Kansas leads the world!" How did Kansas go from being a progressive state to one of the most conservative? In Red State Religion, Robert Wuthnow tells the story of religiously motivated political activism in Kansas from territorial days to the present. He examines how faith mixed with politics as both ordinary Kansans and leaders such as John Brown, Carrie Nation, William Allen White, and Dwight Eisenhower struggled over the pivotal issues of their times, from slavery and Prohibition to populism and anti-communism. Beyond providing surprising new explanations of why Kansas became a conservative stronghold, the book sheds new light on the role of religion in red states across the Midwest and the United States. Contrary to recent influential accounts, Wuthnow argues that Kansas conservatism is largely pragmatic, not ideological, and that religion in the state has less to do with politics and contentious moral activism than with relationships between neighbors, friends, and fellow churchgoers. This is an important book for anyone who wants to understand the role of religion in American political conservatism.

Contemporary American Religion

Contemporary American Religion PDF

Author: Penny Edgell

Publisher: Rowman Altamira

Published: 2000-01-01

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0585189870

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No single narrative or theory can describe the varieties of religious experience in North America today. The tidy dichotomies of liberal/ conservative, public/private, local/global, and renewal/secularization make little sense once specific congregations are examined closely. To understand the shifting boundaries of contemporary religious expressions, new tools are needed. Contemporary American Religion collects qualitative, on-the-ground studies of local congregations by up-and-coming religious scholars. Ethnography combined with more traditional sociological methods, help make sense of complex religious communities—from Messianic Jews to evangelical feminists, from Gospel Hour at a gay bar to exurban megachurches. This collection covers a wide span of the religious landscape, always trying to uncover new theoretical insights. Essential reading for classes in sociology of religion, contemporary American religion, and anthropology of religion.

"I Come Away Stronger"

Author: Robert Wuthnow

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 9780802807373

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These portraits are powerful and highly personal because they tell the stories. both collective and personal, of each group, revealing agreement and dissension, closeness and alienation, growth and stagnation. The result is an intimate inside look at the dynamics of small groups.

The End of White Christian America

The End of White Christian America PDF

Author: Robert P. Jones

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2016-07-12

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1501122290

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"The founder and CEO of Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and columnist for the Atlantic describes how white Protestant Christians have declined in influence and power since the 1990s and explores the effect this has had on America, "--NoveList.

The Struggle for America's Soul

The Struggle for America's Soul PDF

Author: Robert Wuthnow

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 9780802804693

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Discusses the schism between the religious right and mainstream Protestantism, the separation of church and state, and the relationship between science and religion.

Reinventing American Protestantism

Reinventing American Protestantism PDF

Author: Donald E. Miller

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2023-04-28

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 0520922662

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During the past thirty years the American religious landscape has undergone a dramatic change. More and more churches meet in converted warehouses, many have ministers who've never attended a seminary, and congregations are singing songs whose melodies might be heard in bars or nightclubs. Donald E. Miller's provocative examination of these "new paradigm churches"—sometimes called megachurches or postdenominational churches shows how they are reinventing the way Christianity is experienced in the United States today. Drawing on over five years of research and hundreds of interviews, Miller explores three of the movements that have created new paradigm churches: Calvary Chapel, Vineyard Christian Fellowship, and Hope Chapel. Together, these groups have over one thousand congregations and are growing rapidly, attracting large numbers of worshipers who have felt alienated from institutional religion. While attempting to reconnect with first-century Christianity, these churches meet in nonreligious structures and use the medium of contemporary twentieth-century America to spread their message through contemporary forms of worship, Christian rock music, and a variety of support and interest groups. In the first book to examine postdenominational churches in depth, Miller argues that these churches are involved in a second Reformation, one that challenges the bureaucracy and rigidity of mainstream Christianity. The religion of the new millennium, says Miller, will connect people to the sacred by reinventing traditional worship and redefining the institutional forms associated with denominational Christian churches. Nothing less than a transformation of religion in the United States may be taking place, and Miller convincingly demonstrates how "postmodern traditionalists" are at the forefront of this change.