Religious Communities and Their Mission

In the past thirty years, religious orders of men and women within the Roman Catholic Church have witnessed both the graying of its members and a decrease in the number of new vocations. Research has shown that only those communities with a clear focus in terms of charism and mission will survive. The present study reports the results of survey research conducted with 484 Roman Catholic religious which investigated three research questions: the uniqueness of the stated mission of seven religious communities, the awareness and experience of each community's unique charism, and an understanding of those lived experiences within community life which contribute to and predict a community's charism. The findings indicate that, while each of the religious communities surveyed can both identify and experience their community's stated charism, their mission statements poorly reflect the charism which is unique to each community. The data also indicates that time spent in prayer, both personal and communal, as well as the level of one's formal education, contribute to and predict and community's charism.     

A Proposed Psychological Assessment Protocol for Applicants to Religious Life in the Roman Catholic Church

This paper proposes a psychological assessment protocol for applicants to religious life in the Roman Catholic church. While most Catholic religious orders, seminaries, and dioceses require applicants to complete some type of psychological evaluation prior to entrance into seminary, there is no established standard or protocol suggested for conducting these evaluations. The current proposed assessment protocol provides those conducting or receiving these evaluations with a comprehensive foundation from which they can add or delete components to meet their specific needs. Furthermore, the utilization of a standard clergy assessment protocol creates the opportunity for the establishment of a national database useful for conducting research concerning clergy applicants.     

Organizational Revival From Within: Explaining Revivalismand Reform in the Roman Catholic Church

The most enduring theoretical model for explaining the rise and fall of religious movements has been some form of the church-sect theory. Yet this model offers little explanation for the continued vitality of the Roman Catholic Church. We argue that a key to this institutional success is the Church 's ability to retain sect-like revival movements within its boundaries. We demonstrate that religious orders, like Protestant sects, stimulate organizational growth, develop innovations for adapting the church to a new culture or era, and provide institutional support for a high tension faith. Unlike Protestant sects, however, they do so within the institutional church. This source of internal reform and revival helps to explain the long term vitality of the Roman Catholic Church and its ability to operaate effectively as a religiou monopoly.     

Organizational Revivalism: Explaining Metamorphosis of China's Catholic Church

The classical works of Troelsch and Niebuhr suggested that sect movements had been the origin of reform and revitalization of the church. More recently, Finke and Wittberg supplemented that thesis by suggesting that the Catholic Church was able to reform itself not through the sect development, but through the establishment of religious orders within the Catholic Church itself. This article suggests, from historical and contemporary archival sources, that the revitalization of the Catholic Church in China was through indigenization of the Church. The vitalization has been achieved despite tensions between the underground church committed to Rome and the national church, which advocated self-government without political and financial ties to the Catholic hierarchies outside China. Both the Chinese government's accommodation of the ecclesiastical authority of the papacy, and the Vatican's silence in response to the underground church's pleas to disregard the national church, had helped the indigenization process and the growth of the church without a possible schism.     

Catholic Women Religious Vocations in the Twentieth Century: The Slovenian Case

In the twentieth century, female monasticism in Slovenia enjoyed a dynamic period. In this paper, I present changes in numerical trends for the whole century and explore the broader social circumstances and conditions that influenced the dynamics of this phenomenon. The basic thesis is that the numbers of members of religious orders change depending on the manner in which monasticism is structured in the economic, political and cultural life of a certain society. The major part of the discussion focuses on the first half of the century, which saw the greatest growth. In comparing the Slovenian statistical regions, I found that the majority of women members came from regions in which the demographic imbalance favoring women over men and the influence of the Catholic Church on everyday life were the greatest. In Slovenia, the decline in female religious vocations started after WWII and, especially until the second Vatican Council, was part of a manifest secularization process rooted in political change. The numerical trend in Slovenian female monasticism differs from West European and USA trends; therefore, a different approach and explanation was needed. This enabled me to re-think the social circumstances and position of Catholic orders in Slovenian society.     

Higher Education as Moral Community: Institutional Influences on Religious Participation During College

Borrowing from the literature on religion and deviance, the concept of moral communities is applied to religious and secular postsecondary education to explain institutional influences on student religious participation. Results from nationally representative panel data indicate that students attending Catholic and mainline Protestant affiliated institutions decline in religious participation at a faster rate than students attending evangelical institutions or students attending nonreligious public colleges and universities. This finding is consistent with Catholic and mainline Protestant institutions less successfully providing a shared moral order that legitimates religious language, motive, and behavior when compared to conservative Protestant colleges. At the same time, the religious and ethnic pluralism that activates minority religious identity at nonreligious public institutions is also less likely to be present on Catholic and mainline Protestant college campuses. Additional results indicate that evangelical students' religious participation declines while attending Catholic colleges and universities, while Catholic students increase their participation while attending evangelical institutions. The religious composition of students may act to alter friendship networks, and thus participation rates, on these campuses, although further research is necessary to validate the proposed institutional mechanisms.     

Some religious beliefs and behaviours of Australian Catholic school students

Students in Catholic schools make up a significant sub group of the Australian population. As such, studies of this group provide valuable information about the religious beliefs and practices of some Australian youth. Many students in Catholic schools express traditional religious views and have relatively high levels of religious behaviours. Over time these levels diminish but in a fashion that invites careful analysis and comparison with standard theories of secularisation. An important finding suggests that student responses are indicative of a loosening of religious affiliation rather than a complete disengagement. These results suggest a more nuanced view of students in Catholic school be adopted with implication for the conduct of Catholic schools in secular cultural contexts.     

How Christian upbringing divides the religious nones in Britain: exploring the imprints of Christian upbringing in the 2016 EU referendum

ABSTRACT

Over the last few decades, Britain has witnessed a significant decline in Christian affiliation and the corresponding growth in the number of religiously unaffiliated individuals. Relatively little attention has, however, been paid to ‘former Christians’ who were brought up in a Christian household but now identify as having no religion. This study focuses on the effects of Christian upbringing on the voting behaviour of religious nones in the EU referendum of 2016. Using data from the 2016 British Social Attitudes survey, the empirical analysis in this article examines the socio-cultural characteristics of Anglican, Catholic, and ‘Other Christian’ households as well as their role in shaping the voting turnout and the voting intentions of individuals who are religiously unaffiliated. The results suggest that Anglican upbringing and Catholic upbringing serve as salient proxies for national identities among the secular groups. Additionally, in the EU referendum, the voting behaviour of religious nones with different kinds of Christian upbringing was very distinct. This reveals that religious upbringing is a source of within-group variety among British religious nones and that Britain’s Christian heritage still has important socio-political implications despite the decrease in the country’s Christian population.     

Intrinsic Religiosity and Volunteering During Emerging Adulthood: A Comparison of Mormons with Catholics and Non‐Catholic Christians

Emerging adulthood is a period when religious beliefs are likely to be shaped. Studying the influence of religious culture on prosocial behavior among emerging adults aids our understanding of the process and effects of religious socialization. Mormon religious culture places a particularly strong emphasis on caring for family and fellow Mormons. Because intrinsically religious individuals internalize their religious community's values, we hypothesized that the relationship between intrinsic religiosity and volunteering would be stronger among Mormons than among Catholics or non‐Catholic Christians. We tested this hypothesis using a sample of Mormon (N = 118), Catholic (N = 304), and non‐Catholic Christian (N = 542) emerging adults (18–29 year olds) across three volunteering contexts (religious, family, and secular). Controlling for extrinsic religiosity and worship attendance, the relationship between intrinsic religiosity and frequency of volunteering was greater among Mormons than Catholics and non‐Catholic Christians in the context of religious and family volunteering. However, intrinsic religiosity was not a significant predictor of secular volunteering. Our findings suggest that Mormon culture influences the frequency and type of volunteering engaged in by young Mormon adults.     

Religious polarization: contesting religion in secularized Western European countries

In light of recent claims about increasing religious polarization in secularized countries, we study the extent to which the non-religious contest religion in Western European countries and whether and how the Protestant and Catholic heritage of these countries plays a role in this. Analyzing data from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP 1998 and 2008) data by means of multilevel analysis, we demonstrate that religious polarization is stronger in the most secularized countries and in countries with a Catholic religious heritage. Moreover, in secular countries, polarization stems from religious fervency, whereas in countries with a Catholic heritage, it stems from anti-religious fervency.     

Catholic Schooling, Protestant Schooling, and Religious Commitment in Young Adulthood

If and how Catholic and Protestant schools influence the religious lives of their students once they have graduated is unclear. Methodological limitations and inconsistencies in previous studies have resulted in confusing and often contradictory findings. Using data from two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health ( N  = 11,212), I compare the religious lives of young adults who attended Catholic, Protestant, and secular schools as adolescents. The results suggest that Protestant schoolers are far more religious as young adults than those who attended a secular school, a difference that is at least partially explained by the schools' religious environment. But young adults who attended Catholic schools report levels of religiosity that are similar to those educated in a secular school, and are actually lower for some outcomes. Studies of religious schoolers that ignore the religious tradition of the school overlook these differing effects and forfeit statistical explanatory power.     

Religiosity and Adolescent Substance Use in Central Mexico: Exploring the Influence of Internal and External Religiosity on Cigarette and Alcohol Use

This study explores the multidimensional nature of religiosity on substance use among adolescents living in central Mexico. From a social capital perspective, this article investigates how external church attendance and internal religious importance interact to create differential pathways for adolescents, and how these pathways exert both risk and protective influences on Mexican youth. The data come from 506 self-identified Roman Catholic youth (ages 14–17) living in a semi-rural area in the central state of Guanajuato, Mexico, and attending alternative secondary schools. Findings indicate that adolescents who have higher church attendance coupled with higher religious importance have lower odds of using alcohol, while cigarette use is lower among adolescents who have lower church attendance and lower religious importance. Adolescents are most at risk using alcohol and cigarettes when church attendance is higher but religious importance is lower. In conclusion, incongruence between internal religious beliefs and external church attendance places Mexican youth at greater risk of alcohol and cigarette use. This study not only contributes to understandings of the impact of religiosity on substance use in Mexico, but highlights the importance of understanding religiosity as a multidimensional phenomenon which can lead to differential substance use patterns.     

The changing image of Catholic women

The characteristics of Roman Catholic women in today's society were investigated. Subjects were 154 Catholic women, both religious and lay, who participated on a volunteer basis. The Catholic lay women (111) were divided into two groups: those who attended a Catholic elementary school (63) and those who attended a non-Catholic elementary school (48). Catholic women religious were found to be more dominant and independent minded than in previous research. All of the women studied were found to be more aggressive and more critical of authority than in previous studies. Likewise, Catholic women no longer see themselves in the role of nurturers.     

Innovating from Traditions: The Emergence of a Ritual Field of Collective Commemoration in the Netherlands

This article demonstrates that tradition has a more profound effect on religion in liquid modernity than might be expected. The recent emergence in the Netherlands of a new ritual field aimed at collective commemoration of the dead is used as an example to investigate the dynamic relationship between religious tradition and creative ritualising. The comparison between Catholic, Protestant, and non‐ecclesial ritualising shows how Catholic ritual traditions associated with All Souls’ Day, among other traditions, serve as loose templates for ritual innovation in all three of these settings. Finally, on the basis of these findings, it is argued that ‘innovating from traditions’ presents a more adequate approach to future research into the roles traditions play in liquid modernity than Eric Hobsbawm’s ‘invention of tradition’.     

New Directions in Catholic Historical Research: Saints in Social Work

For over half a century now, the profession of social work has ignored calls to develop critical infrastructures for strengthening and expanding historical research in schools of social work. Since World War II, for example, doctoral dissertations involving significant historical research in schools of social work have become virtually extinct. The vanishing of these dissertations represents a simultaneous vanishing of social work's capacity to detect historical figures who are indigenous to and yet have remained undetected in social work history. As a result, and unintentionally, social work scholars have been seemingly unable to detect Louise de Marillac as the patron saint of social workers or Ellen Gates Starr as a popular folk saint among social workers in Catholic religious orders. The study includes the rare, post-mortem photograph of Ellen Gates Starr, dressed in the full habit of a Catholic Benedictine nun.     

Institutional Vision in Christian Higher Education: A Comparison of ACCU,ELCA, and CCCU Institutions

Most religious colleges and universities have made a conscientious effort to embed a declaration of religious identity and its defining values and guiding principles into their institutional vision. School administrators have been less successful at clearly and effectively articulating this message. A content analysis of the mission and vision statements from a nation-wide sample of Catholic, Evangelical, and “Christ-centered” schools was performed, and key linguistic components found to constitute a well conceived, viable, and easily diffused institutional vision were isolated. Findings reveal significant stylistic differences across religious institution types in terms of vision, clarity, complexity, pragmatics, optimism, and their use of language to unify the campus community. How mission and vision statements can better serve as guiding, governing and promotional documents is discussed.     

A category mistake: why contemporary Australian religious education in Catholic schools may be doomed to failure

Assuming religious education to be the same as other subject areas of a Catholic school’s curriculum by, for example, applying the outcomes based philosophy and language of other subject areas to religious education renders a category mistake. A prominent notion in the work of metaphysical philosopher Gilbert Ryle, a category mistake arises when facts of one kind are presented as if they belong to another. This is significant. When Australian Catholic diocesan syllabus documents treat and describe religious education as being like other subjects comprising the curriculum, a category mistake is made, the effects of which may be damaging for student learning. Following an examination of relevant Church documents to describe its purpose, a brief analysis of contemporary Australian Catholic diocesan religious education syllabi (cases in point) indicates that a series of category mistakes have been made. These findings have significance in informing the development and refinement of theory, policy and practice in religious education.     

Social judgment of abortion: a black-sheep effect in a Catholic sheepfold.

French Catholic participants (N = 340) with high or low religious identification read 1 of 8 scenarios presented as an interview with a female target 2 months after she had had an abortion. The experimental device varied situational pressure (pressure vs. no pressure), the target's religious social identity (Catholic vs. neutral), and the consequences of abortion for the target (positive vs. negative). The participants then rated the acceptability of the target's decision. The participants judged abortion more negatively in the no-pressure condition. Moreover, the participants with high religious identification judged abortion more negatively than did those with low religious identification. In partial support of a black-sheep effect, the participants with high religious identification judged the Catholic target more negatively than they judged the neutral one in some conditions (pressure, negative consequences). In other conditions (no pressure, both positive and negative consequences), the participants with low religious identification judged the Catholic target more positively than they judged the neutral one.     

“I don't reject the Catholic Church—the Catholic Church rejects me”: How Twenty- and Thirty-somethings in Poland Re-evaluate their Religion

Abstract

Given measures of religious belief and participation, young adults in Poland are becoming increasingly disengaged from the Catholic Church. Broad theories of secularisation are less useful for making sense of this trend than an analysis of the role of Catholicism in Polish society in the twentieth century, which demonstrates the ways in which forms of belief are contingent upon wider social and political transformations. This article argues that, since 1989, attempts by the Catholic Church in Poland to influence public life through conservative social and political interventions have alienated young people who are looking for religious resources with which to make sense of their lives in a rapidly changing social milieu. Alongside disengagement from conservative, propositional forms of Catholic truth and rejection of direct authority, young people still possess ‘religious capital’ and look upon religious ideas to orientate their personal lives. However, disaffection from the propositional truths offered by the Church and disengagement from rituals and practices of ‘folk Catholicism’ at the level of the family and local parish have not led to widespread expressions of atheism among young people. Instead, there is a sacralisation of everyday life and there are attempts to use ‘religious capital’ to help young people make choices for life. The reconfigured ‘religious capital’ is often expressed through diffuse Catholic symbols and sentiment as well as the periodic use of major religious festivals as a means of finding access to some form of collective religious experience. The article concludes by reflecting on the implications of these changes for the future religious landscape of Polish society.     

The naked truth: mindfulness and the purification of religion

To arrive at an understanding of what drives the much debated spiritual turn in Western Europe, we study the spiritual trajectories and identifications of mindfulness practitioners in the formerly predominantly Roman Catholic context of Flanders in Belgium. Fifteen semi-structured interviews addressed their religious and spiritual biographical trajectories as well as the symbolic boundaries they draw with adjacent religious and spiritual groups. We find marked evidence of a process of ‘religious purification’, which unfolds as a critique of the formal and external aspects of both religion (organisations, dogmas, ritual) and spirituality (woolly and frivolous New Age word games). To validate and justify, alternatively, the ‘pure’ and ‘grounded’ spirituality that results, those concerned consistently invoke the authority of science.