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The religious lives of young adults have generally been investigated by examining what young people believe and their self-reported religious practices. Far less is known about young adults’ organizational involvement and its impact on religious identities and ideas about religious commitment. Using data from site visit observations of religious congregations and organizations, and individual and focus group interviews with college-age black and white Christians, we find differences in how black and white students talk about their religious involvement; and with how they are incorporated into the lives of their congregations. White students tended to offer “organizational biographies” chronicling the contours of belonging as well as disengagement, and emphasizing the importance of fulfilling personal needs as a criterion for maintaining involvement. On the other hand, black students used “family” and “home” language and metaphors to describe how their religious involvement, a voluntary choice, was tied to a sense of “calling” and community. We show that this variation is aligned with organizational differences in black and white congregations that situate white youth as separate and black youth as integrated into the larger church community.

Originally presented as a lecture—with copious illustrations accompanying an abbreviated text—this article argues that the concept of “religion” retains its theoretical value despite claims that religion has been eclipsed by “spirituality.” Presupposing that both religion and spirituality are valuable concepts in themselves, the article begins by reviewing critical literature that examines recent claims on behalf of spirituality and the spiritual. The article then presents case studies based on three recent monographs to illustrate the continued viability of the concept of religion.

This paper applies “interaction ritual” theory (Collins 2004) to the case of “Sacred Harp” singing in the United States. We first situate the paper in a tradition of theorizing traced to Durkheim's analysis of “collective effervescence,” the key to which is that instead of merely expressing social solidarity, physically intense rituals create it. Drawing on recent ethnographic literature as well as our observant participation, we depict Sacred Harp ritual. The music is sung loudly and with gusto, and singers employ their bodies both to produce the sound and to emphasize its significance. We apply Collins's theory to argue that Sacred Harp ritual produces solidarity in the absence of, or prior to, ideological consensus. Sacred Harp singers include evangelicals, atheists, and Jews, with a significant presence of gays and lesbians. Notwithstanding these differences, Sacred Harp constitutes a far-flung solidary community, an emergent shared identity that cross-cuts other, often conflicting identities. We close with suggestions for further applications of a promising theory.

This article informs students of urban religion about \"segmented assimilation theory\" and urges theorists of this persuasion to incorporate religion in their models. Segmented assimilation theory acknowledges the undeniable fact that children of post-1965 immigrants to the United States typically become American, but unlike older concepts of assimilation, the new theory recognizes diverse paths to assimilation, with the immigrant second generation assimilating to one or another segment of the highly unequal U.S. social structure. Heretofore, religion has played at best an implicit role in the theory. This article proposes ways that religion can be incorporated explicitly and complexly into the theory.

This article reviews recent literature on U.S. religious institutions and argues that a new paradigm is emerging in that field, the crux of which is that organized religion thrives in the United States in an open market system, an observation anomalous to the older paradigm's monopoly concept. The article has six sections: first, a brief survey of the paradigm crisis; second, a development of the concept of an open market in the historiography and sociology of U.S. religion; third, fourth, and fifth, arguments that U.S. religious institutions are constitutively pluralistic, structurally adaptable, and empowering; sixth, a consideration of recent religious individualism in the light of the new paradigm. A conclusion sketches some research implications.

As the audience entered the hall, a large screen displayed the title of the talk from an overhead projector. On the dais, about three feet above the floor, was a lectern, and next to it an arrangement of eight chairs facing each other in a square formation, two on each side of the square, the sides at a 45 degree angle from the side of the platform. At the appointed time, SSSR past-president Donald Miller climbed the steps to the lectern to introduce the speaker, Stephen Warner. When he had completed that task, Warner came forward to the lectern and a woman later identified as his wife, Anne Heider, began working the projector. A few minutes into the address, at Warner's cue, she and six others joined him on the dais, taking seats in the arrangement of chairs, from which position, facing each other with Warner standing facing toward them, they sang a song, as described below. When they were finished, they left the dais, and the rest of the address proceeded in a conventional manner. Prior to this singing demonstration, the address itself began as follows.

Investigates the ability of religious particularism to destroy Christian universalism in the contemporary US, drawing on review of research on particularism & immigration & ethnicity; findings reveal that religious issues of immigrants have been ignored. It is contended that contemporary minority religious groups will develop around linguistic boundaries; however, the eventual process of linguistic acculturation will jeopardize immigrant congregations. To preserve immigrant congregations, the structuring of religious communities must be examined; anecdotes supporting the argument, eg, experiences in a Korean Presbyterian congregation, a Hispanic Catholic celebration of Holy Week, & a group prayer among Muslims, are presented. Virgilio Elizondo's (1983) notion of mestizaje (mixing) is offered as an alternative to the standard US theory of assimilation of foreign cultures & religions, thus countering proponents of US monoculturalism & essentialists who contend that ethnic groups are incapable of or resistant to cultural assimilation. It is concluded that a dynamic notion of cultural assimilation must be advocated in the contemporary US. 1 Appendix, 63 References. J. W. Parker