Faith in Action: Religious Resources for Political Success in Three Congregations
Religious institutions and networks provide one of the key social bases out of which Americans' political affiliations take shape. Thus, religion is one of the crucial cultural bases for the organization and projection of political power in American society. But when a given congregation strive...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford Univ. Press
1994
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| In: |
Sociology of religion
Year: 1994, Volume: 55, Issue: 4, Pages: 397-417 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | Religious institutions and networks provide one of the key social bases out of which Americans' political affiliations take shape. Thus, religion is one of the crucial cultural bases for the organization and projection of political power in American society. But when a given congregation strives to organize for political participation, what factors influence its subsequent success or failure? This article investigates how two factors often considered irrelevant to political success — the liturgical experience and religious symbolism of the congregation — influence the success of political participation. The article compares political mobilization and success in three congregations centered around very different liturgical experiences and theological world views, using subjective data from in-depth interviews of congregation members and leaders. These interviews and the congregations' political experience suggest that the most politically successful congregation is not that with the most “politicized” faith, but rather the congregation whose liturgy leads to rich religious experience and who interprets its religious symbols in this-worldly terms. The article provides a theoretical account for this finding, drawing on the organizations and social movements concepts of shared networks of meaning, ambiguity processing, and organizational stability. |
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| ISSN: | 1759-8818 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Sociology of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/3711979 |