Encyclopedia of Religion and Society

William H. Swatos, Jr. Editor

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Additional Information

Encyclopedia of Religion and Society

William H. Swatos, Jr.
Editor

Peter Kivisto
Associate Editor

Barbara J. Denison
James McClenon
Assistant Editorsbreak

Copyright © 1998 by AltaMira Press, A Division of Sage Publications, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

For information contact:

AltaMira Press
A Member of the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group
1630 North Main Street #367
Walnut Creek, CA 94596

www.altamirapress.com 

Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group
4501 Forbes Boulevard Suite 200
Lanham, MD 20706
PO Box 317
Oxford  OX2 9RU, UK

At the time of publication:

AltaMira Press
A Division of Sage Publications, Inc.
1630 North Main Street, Suite 367
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
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SAGE Publications Ltd.
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Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Main entry under title:

Encyclopedia of religion and society / edited by William H. Swatos, Jr.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7619-8956-0 (alk. paper)
1. Religion and sociology-Encyclopedia. I. Swatos, William H.
BL60.E53 1998
306.6’03-dc21                                                       97-33724

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

98 99 00 01 02 03 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Editorial Management: Erik Hanson
Production Editor: Astrid Virding
Production Assistant: Karen Wiley
Designer/Typesetter: Janelle LeMaster
Cover Designer: Ravi Balasuriya
Print Buyer: Anna Chin

Editor-in-Chief

William H. Swatos, Jr ., Executive Officer, Association for the Sociology of Religion and Religious Research Association. Coauthor, Icelandic Spiritualism: Mediumship and Modernity and For Democracy ; editor or coeditor of numerous volumes in the sociology of religion. Editor of the journal Sociological Analysis (1989-1992), Sociology of Religion (1993-1994).

Associate Editor

Peter Kivisto , Professor and Chair of Sociology, Augustana College of Illinois. Author, Key Ideas in Sociology, Illuminating Social Life and Americans All as well as other books and articles in ethnicity, theory, and political sociology. Secretary-Treasurer of the Theory Section of the American Sociological Association, Executive Board Member of the Immigration History Society.

Assistant Editors

James McClenon , Associate Professor of Sociology, Elizabeth City State University of North Carolina. Author, Deviant Science: The Case of Parapsychology and Wondrous Events: Foundations of Religious Belief.

Barbara J. Denison , Director of Continuing and Distance Education, Penn State Harrisburg-Capital College. Executive Officer, Association for the Sociology of Religion, 1988-1995; North Central Sociological Association, 1985-1993.

Editorial Board

David G. Bromley , Professor of Sociology and Religious Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University. Coauthor and coeditor of books and articles in the area of new religious movements, including The Handbook of Cults and Sects . President, Association for the Sociology of Religion (1994). Editor, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (1993-1995).

Roberto Cipriani , Professor of Sociology, Third University of Rome. Author of Sociology of Legitimation, La religione dei valori , and numerous articles on a variety of topics within the sociology of religion. President, Research Committee 22, International Sociological Association (1990-1994). Editor-in-Chief of the journal International Sociology (1994-1998).

James D. Davidson , Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Purdue University. Coauthor, American Catholic Laity in a Changing Church and Laity: American and Catholic . President, Religious Research Association (1989-1990). Executive Officer, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (1988-1993). Editor, Review of Religious Research (1977-1980).

Grace Davie , Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of Exeter. Author, Religion in Britain Since 1945: Believing Without Belonging ; coeditor, Identités religieuses en Europe . Secretary General, International Society for the Sociology of Religion (1993-1997).

Doyle Paul Johnson , Professor of Sociology and Chair of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas. Author, Sociological Theory: Classical Founders and Contemporary Perspectives plus journal articles in sociology of religion and gerontology. Editor, Review of Religious Research (1990-1999).

Edward C. Lehman , Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus, State University College of New York at Brockport. Author, Gender and Work, Women in Ministry: Receptivity and Resistance , and Women Clergy: Breaking Through Gender Barriers . President, Association for the Sociology of Religion (1992); Religious Research Association (1999-2000). Editor, Review of Religious Research (1984-1990).

Armand L. Mauss , Professor of Sociology and Religious Studies, Washington State University. Author, The Angel and the Beehive: The Mormon Struggle with Assimilation and other works in Mormon studies. Editor, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (1989-1992).

Joseph B. Tamney , Professor of Sociology, Ball State University. Author, American Society in the Buddhist Mirror, The Resilience of Christianity , and The Struggle for Singapore’s Soul . Editor of the journal Sociology of Religion (1995-2000).

 

Hans A. Baer
University of Arkansas-Little Rock
Little Rock, Arkansas

Edward I. Bailey
Network for the Study of Implicit Religion
Bristol, England

Eileen Barker
London School of Economics
London, England

Peter Beyer
University of Ottawa
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Anthony J. Blasi
Tennessee State University
Nashville, Tennessee

Edward F. Breschel
Morehead State University
Morehead, Kentucky

David G. Bromley
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, Virginia

Steve Bruce
University of Aberdeen
Aberdeen, Scotland

Joseph M. Bryant
University of New Brunswick
Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada

Colin Campbell
University of York
Heslington, York, England

Melodie Campbell
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Jackson W. Carroll
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina

Kevin J. Christiano
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana

Roberto Cipriani
Third University of Rome
Rome, Italy

Kevin J. Corn
Indiana University
Indianapolis, Indiana

Madeleine R. Cousineau
Mount Ida College
Newton Centre, Massachusetts

M. Herbert Danzger
Lehman College and the Graduate Center,
City University of New York
New York, New York

Arnold M. Dashefsky
University of Connecticut
Storrs, Connecticut

James D. Davidson
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana

Grace Davie
University of Exeter
Exeter, England

Lorne Dawson
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Barbara J. Denison
Penn State Harrisburg-Capital College
Middletown, Pennsylvania

Frederick M. Denny
University of Colorado
Boulder, Colorado

Karel Dobbelaere
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Leuven, Belgium

Michael J. Donahue
Donahue Research Associates
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Helen Rose Ebaugh
University of Houston
Houston, Texas

Joel Elliott
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Kieran Flanagan
University of Bristol
Bristol, England

Razelle Frankl
Rowan University
Glassboro, New Jersey

William R. Garrett
St. Michael’s College
Colchester, Vermont

Peter Gee
Overseas Development Institute
London, England

Robin Gill
Darwin College, The University of Kent
Canterbury, Kent, England

Stephen D. Glazier
University of Nebraska
Kearney, Nebraska

Charles Y. Glock
University of California-Berkeley (Emeritus)
Berkeley, California

John C. Green
University of Akron
Akron, Ohio

Paul M. Gustafson
Hiram College (Emeritus)
Hiram, Ohio

James L. Guth
Furman University
Greenville, South Carolina

Durk H. Hak
University of Groningen
Groningen, The Netherlands

John Hannigan
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

W. E. Hewitt
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario, Canada

Ralph W. Hood, Jr.
University of Tennessee-Chattanooga
Chattanooga, Tennessee

Julie Ingersoll
Millsaps College
Jackson, Mississippi

Larry Ingram
University of Tennessee-Martin
Martin, Tennessee

Janet Jacobs
University of Colorado
Boulder, Colorado

Ted G. Jelen
University of Nevada-Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada

Doyle Paul Johnson
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, Texas

Steven M. Kane
University of Rhode Island-Providence
Providence, Rhode Island

Bruce Karlenzig
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Lyman B. Kellstedt
Wheaton College
Wheaton, Illinois

James R. Kelly
Fordham University
Bronx, New York

Stephen A. Kent
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

David A. Kingma
Gonzaga University
Spokane, Washington

Aaron Kivisto
Rock Island, Illinois

Peter Kivisto
Augustana College
Rock Island, Illinois

Jerome Koch
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, Texas

Frank J. Lechner
Emory University
Atlanta, Georgia

Gary Mann
Augustana College
Rock Island, Illinois

Martin E. Marty
University of Chicago (Emeritus)
Chicago, Illinois

Armand L. Mauss
Washington State University
Pullman, Washington

Ronald McAllister
Elizabethtown College
Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania

James McClenon
Elizabeth City State University
Elizabeth City, North Carolina

William McKinney
Pacific School of Religion
Berkeley, California

Hugo Meynell
University of Calgary
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

David O. Moberg
Marquette University (Emeritus)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Matthew C. Moen
University of Maine
Orono, Maine

Robert L. Montgomery
Ridgewood, New York

Loretta M. Morris
Loyola Marymount University
Los Angeles, California

Nancy Nason-Clark
University of New Brunswick
Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada

André Nauta
University of North Texas
Denton, Texas

Mary Jo Neitz
University of Missouri
Columbia, Missouri

Hart M. Nelsen
Penn State University
State College, Pennsylvania

Paula D. Nesbitt
University of Denver
Denver, Colorado

William M. Newman
University of Connecticut
Storrs, Connecticut

Donald A. Nielsen
State University of New York College at Oneonta
Oneonta, New York

Roger O’Toole
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Enzo Pace
University of Trieste
Trieste, Italy

Susan J. Palmer
Dawson College
Montréal, Québec, Canada

Michael H. Peckham
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Everett L. Perry
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Glenwood, Florida

Ralph E. Pyle
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan

Edward B. Reeves
Morehead State University
Morehead, Kentucky

James T. Richardson
University of Nevada—Reno
Reno, Nevada

Thomas Robbins
Rochester, Minnesota

Keith A. Roberts
Hanover College
Hanover, Indiana

David A. Roozen
Hartford Seminary
Hartford, Connecticut

Barry Sandywell
University of York
Heslington, York, England

Ross P. Scherer
Loyola University Chicago (Emeritus)
Chicago, Illinois

Eugen Schoenfeld
Georgia State University (Emeritus)
Atlanta, Georgia

Robert Segal
Lancaster University
Lancaster, England

Mark A. Shibley
Loyola University Chicago
Chicago, Illinois

Anson Shupe
Indiana University/Purdue University—Fort Wayne
Fort Wayne, Indiana

William Silverman
Hicksville, New York

John H. Simpson
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Corwin Smidt
Calvin College
Grand Rapids, Michigan

James V. Spickard
University of Redlands
Redlands, California

Phillip Stanworth
University of York
Heslington, York, England

Peter Staples
University of Utrecht
Utrecht, The Netherlands

William H. Swatos, Jr.
Association for the Sociology of Religion and Religious Research Association
Holiday, Florida

Joseph B. Tamney
Ball State University
Muncie, Indiana

Robert Tessier
Université du Québec à Montréal
Montréal, Québec, Canada

Luigi Tomasi
Università degli Studi di Trento
Trento, Italy

C. N. Venugopal
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi, India

James K. Wellman, Jr.
Bainbridge Island, Washington

Rhys H. Williams
Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, Illinois

Ronald C. Wimberley
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, North Carolina

J. Alan Winter
Connecticut College
New London, Connecticut

Richard L. Wood
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico

David Yamane
University of Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin

Susan Zickmund
University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa

The social scientific study of religion began in earnest a scant century ago. Although precedents for a “scientific attitude” toward religion may be found at least as far back as the pre-Socratics of ancient Greece, it is principally with the works of Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Sigmund Freud that we can begin to chart something of the development of today’s insights into the “phenomenon” of religion.

 

The Encyclopedia of Religion and Society marks a unique venture in that it attempts to bring together in a single-volume compendium a state-of-the-art summary of the insights gained by the principal social sciences of religion: anthropology, psychology, and sociology. To do so is to take, admittedly, a “one-sided” approach to the religion-and-society nexus. One could perhaps consider an alternative posture, more ethical in nature-namely, one that considers what religions think about society. This would really be an encyclopedia of religious social ethics, and it is not within the scope of this project.

 

We have tried to assemble entries, both lengthy and brief, that survey as broadly as possible the different theoretical traditions and research styles that have emerged over the century. Although more heavily oriented toward North America, the scope is global, and an effort has been made to address the major traditions of world religious experience.

 

We also have attempted to provide a historical reference tool particularly with regard to the major professional societies in the social scientific study of religion: the Association for the Sociology of Religion, the Religious Research Association, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, and the Société Internationale de Sociologie des Religions-and as much as possible the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry and Research Committee 22 (sociology of religion) of the International Sociological Association. Entries are also provided for the sections of the major professional organizations, the American Psychological Association and the American Sociological Association. This resource is intended to aid each of these organizations in historical retrieval, and we hope that subsequent editions of this work may increase the detail that can be provided.

 

The encyclopedia began its course initially in the spring of 1993, more in earnest from 1994 to the present. Charting new ground called for a number of decisions to be made about inclusion and exclusion; some of the decisions were purely practical, but for most at least an attempt was made at rationality. The work began with an extensive citation study of various journal indexes, texts, and bibliographies in the field. These generated a quantitative measure from which decisions about initial subject inclusion and the length of subsequent entries were determined. To these were added the names of those persons who had been elected president of any one of the major societies mentioned above, even if the individual did not qualify by the quantitative index. Subsequently, the publisher and editors consulted about modifications based upon more subjective criteria.

 

We have not taken up the philosophical background to the social sciences. There are no entries for Plato or Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas or Ibn Khaldun* , or Hobbes, Locke, Hume, or Kant. We pick up with brief entries for Rousseau in the French tradition and Hegel in the German. One could say the American tradition actually begins with the Frenchman Tocqueville, but more so H. Richard Niebuhr, on the one hand, and H. Paul Douglass, on the other.

 

Similarly, we have not taken up religion “in itself.” Neither the great religious founders nor subsequent generations of theologians are to be found here. When an exception is made to this rule, it is because of a unique encounter with the social sciences, as in the case of Paul Tillich or Gayraud Wilmore. There are certainly great encyclopedias of both philosophy and theology for those who wish to pursue these lines. The index to this volume will provide the names of those figures in both philosophy and theology of whose work the social scientific study of religion has taken account.

 

A word on usage: The actual commissioning of entries had to depend on the persons with time available and how things could be conceived by them. In some cases, topics are taken up under biographical entries; in others, there are separate entries for both a topic and an individual closely associated with that topic. In general, topics associated with a single individual are taken up in his or her biography only. For example, the “dilemmas of institutionalization” are almost uniquely associated with Thomas O’Dea, hence they are discussed there; “civil religion,” by contrast, although certainly given new birth by Robert Bellah, has also taken on a life quite its own-a separate entry is called for.

 

Also with regard to usage, the word religious normally should be presumed as a modifier. With the exception of the professions of religious education and religious studies, there are no entries under “religious.” Readers interested in religious roles, for example, should refer to the entry on “roles”; those interested in religious evolution should refer to evolution ; and so on. There is also no entry on “religion.” Depending on one’s interest, this topic will be treated either in the “definition of religion” entry or that for “religious studies.” There is similarly no entry for “society”; the reader should consult that aspect of the social structure that is of interest-for example, attitudes, status, stratification, values.

 

This encyclopedia owes much to the goodwill of the contributors, none of whom was paid for his or her work. All have contributed from a sense of professional responsibility and dedication. Those of us who have worked closely over the years with the men and women who keep the social scientific study of religion alive and vital recognize a great esprit de corps among them, and this project has certainly benefitted from that. A total of 109 authors have contributed. These individuals range from some exceptionally talented students to world-renowned senior and emeritus professors. Most of the members of the editorial board also have contributed entries; all have worked enormously hard to bring out the best in the entries they have reviewed. For myself, mindful that Samuel Johnson ended the entry on “lexicographer” in his pioneering Dictionary (1755) with the words “a harmless drudge,” I hope I have been perhaps a helpful drudge in bringing it all together.

 

It is the case, nevertheless, that in breaking new ground as we are, there is a moment of trial and error. And that is about to come upon us. So we share with you our hope that what you find here is readable, meets your needs, and is also a bit inspirational, that you might join with us in a vocation that challenges humanity’s highest hopes and greatest dreams.

 

To that end, finally, we also invite you to become a participant in this project. If there are entries you think should be included in a future edition, entries you would like to see expanded, or entries you found particularly helpful, contact us at  bill4329@hotmail.com  through the end of 1999.

 

-WILLIAM H. SWATOS, JR

Encyclopedia of Religion and Society

William H. Swatos, Jr.
Editor

Copyright © 1998 by AltaMira Press, A Division of Sage Publications, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

For information contact:

AltaMira Press
A Member of the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group
1630 North Main Street #367
Walnut Creek, CA 94596

www.altamirapress.com

Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group
4501 Forbes Boulevard Suite 200
Lanham, MD 20706
PO Box 317
Oxford OX2 9RU, UK

Editorial Management: Erik Hanson