Denominations as Dual Structures: An Organizational Analysis
The central thesis of this article is that denominations are composed of two parallel structures overlying congregations: a religious authority structure and an agency structure. This article elaborates the notion of religious authority structure, provides a brief overview of agency structure origin...
| Published in: | Sociology of religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford Univ. Press
1993
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| In: |
Sociology of religion
Year: 1993, Volume: 54, Issue: 2, Pages: 147-169 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | The central thesis of this article is that denominations are composed of two parallel structures overlying congregations: a religious authority structure and an agency structure. This article elaborates the notion of religious authority structure, provides a brief overview of agency structure origins, and sociologically distinguishes the two structures. Placing denominational dual structure at the center of organizational analysis: (a) leads to a heretofore elusive sociological definition of religious organizations; (b) reveals the horizontal rather than vertical nature of intradenominational power shifts, thereby challenging the common (mis)perception that congregations are increasingly beholden to agencies; (c) highlights both the largely ignored role of agencies and the often overlooked top-down component in intradenominational conflict and schism; and (d) makes it easier to conceptualize and investigate processes of internal secularization. This approach to denominational organization is in line with a recent development in the sociology of organizations in which organizational subunits rather than organizational wholes occupy the center of attention. |
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| ISSN: | 1759-8818 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Sociology of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/3712137 |