Jerome P. Baggett
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195326956
- eISBN:
- 9780199870301
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326956.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter shows that parishioners are unaware of the ways their parish cultures often delimit the role the church's social justice teachings might otherwise play in influencing Catholics' sense of ...
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This chapter shows that parishioners are unaware of the ways their parish cultures often delimit the role the church's social justice teachings might otherwise play in influencing Catholics' sense of obligation and contributions to civil society.Less
This chapter shows that parishioners are unaware of the ways their parish cultures often delimit the role the church's social justice teachings might otherwise play in influencing Catholics' sense of obligation and contributions to civil society.
Nancy T. Ammerman
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780823284351
- eISBN:
- 9780823285952
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823284351.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
While Catholic parishes are distinctive in culture and polity, they also share organizational characteristics with American congregations. Borrowing tools and concepts developed over the past thirty ...
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While Catholic parishes are distinctive in culture and polity, they also share organizational characteristics with American congregations. Borrowing tools and concepts developed over the past thirty years in “congregational studies” can provide a useful resource to a revitalized study of American Catholic parishes and important comparative data on American religious life. This chapter argues that parishes can be better understood by paying attention both to the cultural toolkits parishioners bring from outside (ethnicity and social class, for example) and to the way they shape the larger tradition into their own local ways of doing things through their “artifacts,” “accounts,” and “activities.” In addition, the study of parishes can benefit from attention to the external social context and internal dynamics such as size, commitment, and power.Less
While Catholic parishes are distinctive in culture and polity, they also share organizational characteristics with American congregations. Borrowing tools and concepts developed over the past thirty years in “congregational studies” can provide a useful resource to a revitalized study of American Catholic parishes and important comparative data on American religious life. This chapter argues that parishes can be better understood by paying attention both to the cultural toolkits parishioners bring from outside (ethnicity and social class, for example) and to the way they shape the larger tradition into their own local ways of doing things through their “artifacts,” “accounts,” and “activities.” In addition, the study of parishes can benefit from attention to the external social context and internal dynamics such as size, commitment, and power.
Gary J. Adler Jr., Tricia C. Bruce, and Brian Starks (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780823284351
- eISBN:
- 9780823285952
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823284351.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Parishes are the missing middle in studies of American Catholicism. Between individual Catholics and a global institution, the thousands of local parishes are where Catholicism gets remade. American ...
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Parishes are the missing middle in studies of American Catholicism. Between individual Catholics and a global institution, the thousands of local parishes are where Catholicism gets remade. American Parishes showcases what social forces shape parishes, what parishes do, how they do it, and what this says about the future of Catholicism in the United States. Expounding an embedded field approach, this book displays the forces currently reshaping American parishes. It draws from sociology of religion, culture, organizations, and race to illuminate basic parish processes—like leadership and education—and ongoing parish struggles—like conflict and multiculturalism. American Parishes brings together contemporary data, methods, and questions to establish a sociological reengagement with Catholic parishes and a Catholic reengagement with sociological analysis. This book highlights how community, geography, and authority intersect within parishes. It illuminates and analyzes how growing racial diversity, an aging religious population, and neighborhood change influence the inner workings of parishes. Five parts explore thematic topics: (1) seeing parishes with a sociological lens; (2) parish trends; (3) race, class, and diversity in parish life; (4) young Catholics in (and out) of parishes; and (5) the practice and future of a sociology of Catholic parishes. Contributors explore the history of sociological studies on parishes; consider parish research vis-à-vis the larger field of congregational studies; empirically examine parishes using multiple methods; highlight parish diversity and particularity; explore cultural and identity production within parishes; consider the tenuous relationship of younger Catholics to parishes; and provide direction for future sociological research on parishes.Less
Parishes are the missing middle in studies of American Catholicism. Between individual Catholics and a global institution, the thousands of local parishes are where Catholicism gets remade. American Parishes showcases what social forces shape parishes, what parishes do, how they do it, and what this says about the future of Catholicism in the United States. Expounding an embedded field approach, this book displays the forces currently reshaping American parishes. It draws from sociology of religion, culture, organizations, and race to illuminate basic parish processes—like leadership and education—and ongoing parish struggles—like conflict and multiculturalism. American Parishes brings together contemporary data, methods, and questions to establish a sociological reengagement with Catholic parishes and a Catholic reengagement with sociological analysis. This book highlights how community, geography, and authority intersect within parishes. It illuminates and analyzes how growing racial diversity, an aging religious population, and neighborhood change influence the inner workings of parishes. Five parts explore thematic topics: (1) seeing parishes with a sociological lens; (2) parish trends; (3) race, class, and diversity in parish life; (4) young Catholics in (and out) of parishes; and (5) the practice and future of a sociology of Catholic parishes. Contributors explore the history of sociological studies on parishes; consider parish research vis-à-vis the larger field of congregational studies; empirically examine parishes using multiple methods; highlight parish diversity and particularity; explore cultural and identity production within parishes; consider the tenuous relationship of younger Catholics to parishes; and provide direction for future sociological research on parishes.
Tia Noelle Pratt
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780823284351
- eISBN:
- 9780823285952
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823284351.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
The experiences of African American Catholics are grossly underrepresented in the sociological literature on both race and religion. This is due, in part, to the perception that being both Black and ...
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The experiences of African American Catholics are grossly underrepresented in the sociological literature on both race and religion. This is due, in part, to the perception that being both Black and Catholic is a disparate identity. This chapter asserts that while the approximately three million Black Catholics in the U.S. are indeed a minority, their historically rich past and dynamic present make them an integral part of both American Catholicism and the African American religious experience. This chapter explores how Black Catholics in predominantly African American parishes use liturgy to actively combine their dual heritages in forming a distinct Black Catholic identity. Participant observation research identified three distinct styles of liturgy—Traditionalist, Spirited, and Gospel—that highlight the diversity of religious expression among African American Catholics while also heeding the mandate of the Black Bishops of the U.S. to be “authentically Black” and “truly Catholic.”Less
The experiences of African American Catholics are grossly underrepresented in the sociological literature on both race and religion. This is due, in part, to the perception that being both Black and Catholic is a disparate identity. This chapter asserts that while the approximately three million Black Catholics in the U.S. are indeed a minority, their historically rich past and dynamic present make them an integral part of both American Catholicism and the African American religious experience. This chapter explores how Black Catholics in predominantly African American parishes use liturgy to actively combine their dual heritages in forming a distinct Black Catholic identity. Participant observation research identified three distinct styles of liturgy—Traditionalist, Spirited, and Gospel—that highlight the diversity of religious expression among African American Catholics while also heeding the mandate of the Black Bishops of the U.S. to be “authentically Black” and “truly Catholic.”
