The blog post below was written by Congregational Studies’ Team Engaged Scholar Ria Van Ryn for her college newspaper. ——————————— In a 2014 article in the Observer Rachel Renz defends her decisions to attend a Catholic Christmas Eve service and to write about her experiences in a medium representing a Modern Orthodox institution. Renz notes with disappointment that these decisions…
My book The Spirit’s Tether: Family, Work and Religion among American Catholics, was the product of a comparative ethnographic project which began with the simple question: Why are contemporary conflicts about the family—such as abortion, women’s social roles, same-sex marriage, and contraception—so emotional, and so resonant among American Catholics? We know that the media and…
Question: Why are so few congregations racially integrated? Racial diversity in congregations is a popular topic among religious leaders and researchers of religion. Despite a desire for diversity, multiracial congregations are difficult to create and sustain. Less than one in ten U.S. congregations are classified as multiracial, meaning that no single racial group makes up…
Pilar spoke to us in a rapid clip as she gave us a parish campus tour at Queen of Heaven parish in Southern California (all names here are pseudonyms). As graduate assistant Liz Castro and I walked with her alongside the parish school, we learned that her children had attended the school, and that she…
Question: Why would anyone attend a Megachurch? It just seems to be about hype and money and the pastor promoting himself. That’s not what church should be about. I never expected to become an apologist for the Megachurch when I began my research years ago, but I’ve been shocked by the extent to which people…