Yesterday, I reviewed Rodney Stark's latest book: The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World’s Largest Religion (2011). Throughout the book he offers considerable sociological insight, including the following paragraph on the shortcomings of low commitment religious groups: The conclusion that competition among faiths will favor "low cost" religious organizations mistakes price for value. As is evident in most consumer markets, people do not Read More …
mainline
Restoring the Protest to Protestantism (#0580)
Dianna Butler Bass is the author of seven books, a sought after speaker, and independent scholar specializing in American religion and culture. Earlier this year she blogged about the need to restore the idea of protest within Protestantism. Bass places the current situation in context: in recent years the percentage of Americans who self-identity as Protest has declined from roughly 2/3 to 1/2. Furthermore, Protestantism has "often been torn between the impulse to Read More …
A Free Mainline Seminary Education (#0577)
Recently Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary announced that they will become the first mainline seminary to charge no tuition for "students in its master’s degree programs in divinity, marriage and family therapy and religion beginning in 2015." Rather than cutting costs or quality, the school intends to finance this initiative by increasing its endowment and decreasing the number of students admitted (moving from 150 to 130). So What? Many students begin their seminary Read More …
Liberal Protestant Decline – Fact Check (#0506)
Yesterday, I wrote a review of Mark Chaves' new book American Religion: Contemporary Trends (2011). In that post, I included a quote that offers a basic overview of something most people take for granted: the decline of liberal Protestant churches over the last several decades. As a result of this shift, there were twice as many Americans who "claimed affiliation with conservative denominations as with theologically more liberal ones" (p. 87). Chaves goes on to Read More …
Education & Religion — It’s Complicated (#0472)
Two weeks ago, I blogged about Philip Schwadel's latest research that shows that while education does influence religion (religious participation, belief, and affiliation) the nature of that influence is far more complicated than the commonly held view suggests. My original post was based on a summary of his findings. After writing that post and engaging in a few discussions, I sought out a copy of the journal article: "The Effects of Education on Americans’ Religious Practices, Read More …
High Levels of Education and Religion (#0458)
The claim that as levels of education increase levels of religious belief and practice decrease is stated so often that many simply assume it is true. Earlier this year, I shared Barry A. Kosmin's (Trinity College) work that provides substantive data suggesting the relationship between religion and education is far more complex than this generalization. In fact, in some areas those with post-graduate degrees have higher rates of belief or practice than those with less education, Read More …
Marketing a Mainline Congregation (#0443)
Martin Thielen, Senior Pastor of the 7,600-member Brentwood United Methodist Church, wrote the cover story for the July 26 (2011) edition of the Christian Century about his experience marketing his previous parish. Initially a Southern Baptist, he left that denomination when it took a fundamentalist turn to become a United Methodist pastor. In the article he shares what he learned while Senior Pastor of Lebanon First United Methodist Church in Read More …
Is Christianity on a Path Toward Extinction? (#0398)
John Shelby Spong served as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark for 24 years before his retirement in 2001. In retirement, he has been a prolific writer and speaker. He concluded a recent essay outlining his thoughts on the future of Christianity with these words: The problems facing institutional Christianity today in the Western world cannot be addressed by tinkering around the edges of our theological formularies or structures . . . We are not today in a temporary Read More …
Imagine an Institution (#0386)
A short illustration, posted on April 20 by Jerry Bowyer on the forbes.com blog, was printed in the May 31, 2011 edition of the Christian Century: Imagine an institution that requires its leaders to attend not only college, but graduate school. Imagine that the graduate school in question is constitutionally forbidden from receiving any form of government aid, that it typically requires three years of full-time schooling for the diploma, that the nature of the schooling bears almost no Read More …
One Big Step for the PCUSA (#0361)
After many years of debate and movement toward change, this denomination has now reached the point at which it is certain that effective July 10, 2011, "a person in a same gender relationship can be considered for ordination as deacon, elder, or Minister of the Word and Sacrament." This news comes after many years of discussion and attempted change. So What? I grew up in a Presbyterian (PCUSA) congregation. It was at First Presbyterian Church in Arlington, TX Read More …