Religion, Social Capital, and Health

Religion??s association with better physical health has been partially explained by health behaviors, psychosocial variables, and biological factors; but these factors do not fully explain the religion?Chealth connection. In concert with the religion and health literature, a burgeoning literature has linked social capital with salubrious health outcomes. Religious organizations are recognized in the social capital literature as producers and facilitators of social capital. However, few studies have examined the potential mediating role of social capital in the religion?Chealth relationship. Thus data from the 2006 Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey were analyzed for 10,828 adults. The composite unstandardized indirect effect from religion to social capital onto health was significant (???=?0.098; p?<?0.001). The unstandardized direct pathway from religion to self-reported health (???=?0.015; p?=?0.336) indicated that social capital is a mediator in the religion?Chealth relationship. Among the demographic variables investigated, only age and income had a significant direct effect on self-reported health.     

African Religion,Climate Change,and Knowledge Systems

This article argues that as humanity is now changing the composition of the atmosphere at a rate that is very exceptional on the geological time scale, resulting in global warming, humans must deal with climate change holistically, including the often overlooked religion factor. Human‐caused climate change has resulted primarily from changes in the amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, but also from changes in small particles (aerosols), as well as from changes in land use. In Africa, the entire relationship between humans and nature, including activities such as land use, has deep religious and spiritual underpinnings. In general, religion is central to many of the decisions people make about their own communities’ development. Hence, this contribution examines religion as a factor that can be tapped into to mitigate negative effects of climate change, discussing climate change and religion in the context of development practice. It argues that some of the difficulties encountered in development, including efforts to reverse global warming in Africa, directly speak to the relegation of African cosmovision and conversely of the need to adopt new epistemologies, concepts, and models that take religion into consideration.     

Minority Influence,Social Change,and Social Stability

From Moscovici (Social influence and social change. London, Academic Press; 1976) on, a growing body of research on minority influence has been conducted within the social psychology mainstream. A general guideline of most of the research on this topic associates minority influence with social change and innovation. Minorities have been considered as challengers to social stability, and their dynamics have been considered in relation to the mechanisms through which social changes occur and established norms are modified and evolve in human society. In the present paper, we try to extend this viewpoint by suggesting that it represents only one side of a much more complex story. We consider the conditions under which minorities produce social change as well as the conditions under which they are, instead, inclined to defend the status quo. We then suggest that an integrative account of different approaches – namely, social identity, social dominance, and system justification – might contribute to expanding the theoretical frame of minority influence.     

Reflections on Change in Science and Religion

Science and the Catholic Church are both conservative, slow-to-change institutions. However, science has institutionalized procedures that ensure that ample amounts of criticism of currently accepted theories and methodologies will always be present. This arrangement of continuous conjectures and refutation in science ensures often slow but steady change. Because supporters often think of religions as trafficking in timeless truths, criticism of church beliefs and practices (even when intended to stimulate reflection and improvement) is frequently seen as being disloyal to the institution. Because of the growing crises caused by world overpopulation, I argue that the Catholic Church's opposition to all artificial methods of birth control now lacks whatever moral force it might have had when originally promulgated. By highlighting theological perspectives that might be appropriate for the ecological realities of the 21st century, I hope the church will see the wisdom of reevaluating many of its positions in the light of rapidly approaching ecological imperatives.     

Rejecting Evolution: The Role of Religion,Education, and Social Networks

Large segments of the American public are skeptical of human evolution. Surveys consistently find that sizable minorities of the population, frequently near half, deny that an evolutionary process describes how human life developed. Using data from the National Study of Youth and Religion, I examine the role of religion and education in predicting who changes their beliefs about evolution between late adolescence and early emerging adulthood. I conclude that religion is far more important than educational attainment in predicting changing beliefs about evolution. Perhaps more importantly, I find that social networks play an important moderating role in this process. High personal religiousness is only associated with the maintenance of creationist beliefs over time when the respondent is embedded in a social network of co‐religionists. This finding suggests that researchers should pay far more attention to the social context of belief formation and change.     

Religion, Social Incorporation, and Civic Engagement: Second-Generation Indian American Christians

Recent studies have shown that participation in religious institutions facilitates the civic incorporation of contemporary immigrants. These studies have focused on either the immigrant generation or on the second generation. This paper contributes to the literature by showing how negotiations and disagreements between generations shape the civic engagement of multigenerational Christian congregations. The research is based on a study of congregations consisting of first- and second-generation immigrants belonging to the ancient Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Christian church based in Kerala, a state in south India. It shows how first- and second-generation Mar Thoma American conceptions regarding ethnic and religious identity and the social obligations mandated by religion were based on very different understandings about Christian worship, evangelism, social outreach, and their interrelationship. The immigrant generation’s ideas were shaped by the doctrines and practices of the Mar Thoma denomination in India, whereas those of the second generation were influenced by nondenominational American evangelicalism. This paper focuses on the second generation and shows how they developed ideas of American identity and Christian obligation in interaction with and often in opposition to those of their parents’ generation, with the result that contradictory forces affected the civic engagement of these multigenerational congregations.     

Reaching Higher in Community Psychology: Social Problems, Social Settings, and Social Change

Forty years after the founding of community psychology, we have yet to deliver on the full promissory note of our birth, where we were poised to address social problems, social settings, and social change. Despite some success, we are at risk for selling ourselves short, for dying out in the discipline of psychology, and for failing to improve the common good. Given changes in demographics and in the safety net, the problem of entrenched disparities is even more urgent—in perception of the other, in the provision of opportunities for development, and in outcomes. Envisioning and enabling will be critical as we work with unified purpose toward a cumulative science where failure will not be predictable.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the mid-west ECO Conference in Community Psychology held in Saugatuck, Michigan, October 2004.     

Religion, Meaning in Life, and Change in Physical Functioning During Late Adulthood

This study has two primary goals. The first is to see whether select aspects of religion are associated with meaning in life. The second goal is to see whether change in meaning in life is associated with change in physical functioning. Data from a nationwide longitudinal survey of older people provide support for the following relationships: (1) older adults who attend church services more often tend to develop a closer relationship with God; (2) older people who have a closer relationship with God are more likely to provide emotional support to others; (3) elders who give emotional support to their social network members are more likely to have a stronger sense of meaning in life; and (4) older individuals who have a deeper sense of meaning in life are less likely to experience a decline in their physical functioning over time.