Abstract
This chapter examines three typical forms of religious organization – congregations, denominations, and religious special purpose groups. Using insights from cultural and ecological theories of organizations, it is argued that religious organizations are always shaped both by their own internal cultural traditions and by the cultural, legal, and other contextual forces of their environments. Internal dynamics include size, resources, race, status, and gender, in addition to the official systems of authority prescribed by religious traditions. All of that exists within a pervasive organizational template that prescribes (through institutional isomorphism) the kinds of activities and functions congregations and denominations are expected to undertake. The external environment includes an organization’s niche in the social and geographic ecology, but it also includes the historical roles and legal regulations that constrain religious organizing. Denominations and religious special purpose groups are institutionalized forms of organization that extend religious work beyond local communities, but they depend on states that are willing to recognize plural and public forms of religious activity. Future research is needed to allow a more thoroughly comparative analysis of the organizational forms of religious life.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adler, G. (2012). An opening in the congregational closet? Boundary-bridging culture and membership privileges for gays and lesbians in Christian religious congregations. Social Problems, 59(2), 177–206. doi:10.1525/sp.2012.59.2.177.
Ammerman, N. T. (1987). Bible believers: Fundamentalists in the modern world. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Ammerman, N. T. (1994). Denominations: Who and what are we studying? In R. B. Mullin & R. E. Richey (Eds.), Re-imagining denominationalism (pp. 111–133). New York: Oxford University Press.
Ammerman, N. T. (1997). Congregation and community. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Ammerman, N. T. (1998). Culture and identity in the congregation. In N. T. Ammerman, J. Carroll, C. Dudley, & W. McKinney (Eds.), Studying congregations: A new handbook (pp. 78–104). Nashville: Abingdon.
Ammerman, N. T. (2001). Still gathering after all these years: Congregations in U.S. cities. In A. Walsh (Ed.), Can charitable choice work? Covering religion’s impact on urban affairs and social services. Hartford: The Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion and Public Life, Trinity College.
Ammerman, N. T. (2002). Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. In J. G. Melton & M. Baumann (Eds.), Religions of the world: A comprehensive encyclopedia of beliefs and practices (pp. 363–364). Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio.
Ammerman, N. T. (2005). Pillars of faith: American congregations and their partners. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ammerman, N. T. (2009). Congregations: Local, social, and religious. In P. B. Clarke (Ed.), Oxford handbook of the sociology of religion (pp. 562–580). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ammerman, N. T., Carroll, J. W., Dudley, C. S., & McKinney, W. (Eds.). (1998). Studying congregations: A new handbook. Nashville: Abingdon.
Analytica, O. (2006). Western Europe: New Islamic forms developing (p. 1). Oxford: Oxford Analytica Ltd.
Anderson, S. L., Martinez, J. H., Hoegeman, C., Adler, G., & Chaves, M. (2008). Dearly departed: How often do congregations close? Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 47(2), 321–328.
Asad, T. (1993). Genealogies of religion: Discipline and reasons of power in Christianity and Islam. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Bäckström, A., & Davie, G. (Eds.). (2010). Welfare and religion in 21st century Europe. Surrey: Ashgate.
Bane, M. J. (2005). The Catholic puzzle: Parishes and civic lives. In M. J. Bane, B. Coffin, & R. Higgins (Eds.), Taking faith seriously: Valuing and evaluating religion in American democracy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Becker, P. E. (1999). Congregations in conflict: Cultural models of local religious life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bendroth, M. (2002). Growing up Protestant: Parents, children, and mainline churches. Piscataway: Rutgers University Press.
Biney, M. O. (2011). From Africa to America: Religion and adaptation among Ghanaian immigrants in New York. New York: New York University Press.
Boone, C., Brouwer, A., Jacobs, J., van Witteloostuijn, A., & de Zwaan, M. (2012). Religious pluralism and organizational diversity: An empirical test in the city of Zwolle, the Netherlands, 1851–1914. Sociology of Religion, 73(2), 150–173. doi:10.1093/socrel/srr034.
Borell, K., & Gerdner, A. (2013). Cooperation or isolation? Muslim congregations in a Scandinavian welfare state: A nationally representative survey from Sweden. Review of Religious Research, 55, 557–571.
Bowen, J. R. (2010). Can islam be French? Pluralism and pragmatism in a secularist state. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Brasher, B. E. (1998). Godly women: Fundamentalism and female power. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Brittain, C. C., & McKinnon, A. (2011). Homosexuality and the construction of “Anglican orthodoxy”: The symbolic politics of the Anglican communion. Sociology of Religion, 72(3), 351–373. doi:10.1093/socrel/srq088.
Burchardt, M. (2013). Faith-based humanitarianism: Organizational change and everyday meanings in South Africa. Sociology of Religion, 74(1), 30–55. doi:10.1093/socrel/srs068.
Butler, J. (1990). Awash in a sea of faith. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Cantrell, R. L., Krile, J. F., & Donohue, G. A. (1983). Parish autonomy: Measuring denominational differences. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 22, 276–287.
Carpenter, J. (1980). Fundamentalist institutions and the rise of evangelical Protestantism, 1929–1940. Church History, 49, 62–75.
Carroll, J. W., Dudley, C. S., & McKinney, W. (1986). Handbook for congregational studies. Nashville: Abingdon.
Chaves, M. (1993). Intraorganizational power and internal secularization in Protestant denominations. American Journal of Sociology, 99(1), 1–48.
Chaves, M. (1997). Ordaining women: Culture and conflict in religious organizations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Chaves, M. (1999a). Congregations’ social service activities. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute.
Chaves, M. (1999b). Religious congregations and welfare reform: Who will take advantage of ‘Charitable Choice’? American Sociological Review, 64, 836–846.
Chaves, M. (2004). Congregations in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Chaves, M., & Anderson, S. L. (2014). Changing American congregations: Findings from the third wave of the National Congregations Study. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 53(4), 676–686. doi:10.1111/jssr.12151.
Chaves, M., & Sutton, J. R. (2004). Organizational consolidation in American Protestant denominations, 1890–1990. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 43(1), 51–66.
Chen, C. (2008). Getting saved in America: Taiwanese immigration and religious experience. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Chong, K. H. (1998). What it means to be Christian: The role of religion in the construction of ethnic identity and boundary among second-generation Korean Americans. Sociology of Religion, 59(3), 259–286.
Chou, H. G., & Russell, R. (2006). The effects of organizational characteristics on the adoption of the contemporary worship style among Taiwanese congregations. Review of Religious Research, 48(1), 33–49.
Church of Sweden. (2005). Church of Sweden annual report. Retrieved February 7, 2007, from http://www.svenskakyrkan.se/ArticlePages/200508/16/20050816074719_svkhjs928/anuual_report2005.pdf
Cnaan, R. A., Boddie, S. C., Handy, F., Yancey, G. I., & Schneider, R. (2002). The invisible caring hand: American congregations and the provision of welfare. New York: New York University Press.
Cobb, R. J., Perry, S. L., & Dougherty, K. D. (2015). United by faith? Race/ethnicity, congregational diversity, and explanations of racial inequality. Sociology of Religion, 76(2), 177–198.
Collier-Thomas, B. (2010). Jesus, jobs, and justice: African American women and religion. New York: Knopf Doubleday.
Davie, G. (2000). Religion in modern Europe: A memory mutates. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Davie, G. (2006). Vicarious religion: A methodological challenge. In N. T. Ammerman (Ed.), Everyday religion: Observing modern religious lives (pp. 21–36). New York: Oxford University Press.
Davies, T. (2014). NGOs: A new history. New York: Oxford University Press.
Davis, S. P., Martinez, J. R., & Warner, R. S. (2007, March 1). The role of the Catholic church in the Chicago immigrant mobilization. Paper presented at the conference Marching for Change: Chicago in the National Immigrant Movement, University of Illinois Chicago.
DiMaggio, P. J. (1998). The relevance of organization theory to the study of religion. In N. J. Demerath, P. D. Hall, T. Schmitt, & R. Williams (Eds.), Sacred companies (pp. 7–23). New York: Oxford University Press.
DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. (1983). The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48, 147–160.
DiSalvo, K. (2008). Understanding an outlier: How parish culture matters in a highly participatory Catholic church. Review of Religious Research, 49(4), 438–455.
Djupe, P. A., & Gilbert, C. P. (2009). The political influence of churches. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Dolan, J. P. (1994). Patterns of leadership in the congregation. In J. P. Wind & J. W. Lewis (Eds.), American congregations (pp. 225–256). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Dollhopf, E. J., & Scheitle, C. P. (2013). Decline and conflict: Causes and consequences of leadership transitions in religious congregations. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 52(4), 675–697. doi:10.1111/jssr.12075.
Dougherty, K. D., & Huyser, K. R. (2008). Racially diverse congregations: Organizational identity and the accommodation of differences. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 47(1), 23–44.
Douglass, H. P. (1927). The church in the changing city. New York: Doran.
Dudley, C. S. (1998). Process: Dynamics of congregational life. In N. Ammerman, J. W. Carroll, C. S. Dudley, & W. McKinney (Eds.), Studying congregations: A new handbook (pp. 105–131). Nashville: Abingdon.
Ebaugh, H. R., & Chafetz, J. S. (1999). Agents for cultural reproduction and structural change: The ironic role of women in immigrant religious institutions. Social Forces, 78(2), 585–613.
Ebaugh, H. R., & Chafetz, J. S. (2000a). Dilemmas of language in immigrant congregations: The tie that binds or the tower of Babel? Review of Religious Research, 41(4), 432–452.
Ebaugh, H. R., & Chafetz, J. S. (2000b). Structural adaptations in immigrant congregations. Sociology of Religion, 61(2), 135–153.
Ebaugh, H. R., O’Brien, J., & Chafetz, J. S. (2000). The social ecology of residential patterns and membership in immigrant churches. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 39(1), 107–116.
Ebaugh, H. R., Pipes, P. F., Chafetz, J. S., & Daniels, M. (2003). Where’s the religion? Distinguishing faith-based from secular social service agencies. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 42(3), 411–426.
Ecklund, E. H. (2006). Organizational culture and women’s leadership: A study of six Catholic parishes. Sociology of Religion, 67(1), 81–98.
Edgell, P. (2005). Religion and family in a changing society. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Edwards, K. E. (2008). The elusive dream: The power of race in interracial churches. New York: Oxford University Press.
Eiesland, N. L. (1997). Contending with a giant: The impact of a megachurch on exurban religious institutions. In P. E. Becker & N. L. Eiesland (Eds.), Contemporary American religion (pp. 191–220). Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press.
Ellison, C. G., Krause, N., Shepherd, B. C., & Chaves, M. (2009). Size, conflict, and opportunities for interaction: Congregational effects on members’ anticipated support and negative interaction. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 48(1), 1–15.
Ellison, C. G., & George, L. K. (1994). Religious involvement, social ties and social support in a southeastern community. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 33(1), 46–61.
Emerson, M. O., & Kim, K. C. (2003). Multiracial congregations: An analysis of their development and a typology. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 42(2), 217–228.
Etzioni, A. (1961). A comparative analysis of complex organizations. New York: Free Press.
Evans, J. (2006). Cooperative coalitions on the religious right and left: Considering the resilience of sectarianism. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 45(2), 195–215.
Farnsley, A. E., II. (2000). Congregations, local knowledge, and devolution. Review of Religious Research, 42(1), 96–110.
Farnsley, A. E., II. (2003). Rising expectations: Urban congregations, welfare reform, and civic life. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Finke, R. (1994). The quiet transformation: Changes in size and leadership of Southern Baptist churches. Review of Religious Research, 36(1), 3–22.
Finke, R., & Martin, R. R. (2014). Ensuring liberties: Understanding state restrictions on religious freedoms. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 53(4), 687–705. doi:10.1111/jssr.12148.
Foley, M. W., & Hoge, D. (2007). Religion and the new immigrants: How faith communities form our newest citizens. New York: Oxford University Press.
Friedland, R., & Alford, R. R. (1991). Bringing society back in: Symbols, practices, and institutional contradictions. In W. Powell & P. DiMaggio (Eds.), The new institutionalism in organizational analysis (pp. 232–263). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Froese, P. (2004). After atheism: An analysis of religious monopolies in the post-communist world. Sociology of Religion, 65(1), 57–75.
Gamm, G. (1999). Urban exodus: Why the Jews left Boston and the Catholics stayed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
George, S. (1998). Caroling with the Keralites: The negotiation of gendered space in an Indian immigrant church. In R. S. Warner & J. Wittner (Eds.), Gatherings in diaspora (pp. 265–294). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Gilkes, C. T. (2001). “If it wasn’t for the women…”: Black women’s experience and womanist culture in church and community. Maryknoll: Orbis Books.
God’s Embassy International. (2015). The embassy of the blessed kingdom of god for all nations. Retrieved July 28, 2015, from http://www.godembassy.com/.
Greeley, A. M. (1972). The denominational society. Glenview: Scott-Forsman.
Hamilton, M. S. (2000). More money, more ministry: The financing of American evangelicalism since 1945. In L. Eskridge & M. Noll (Eds.), More money, more ministry: Money and evangelicals in recent North American history (pp. 104–138). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Harrison, P. M. (1959). Authority and power in the free church tradition. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Hartman, K. (1998). Congregations in conflict: The battle over homosexuality. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Heilman, S. C. (1976). Synagogue life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hoge, D. R., Johnson, B., & Luidens, D. A. (1994). Vanishing boundaries: The religion of mainline Protestant baby boomers. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox.
Holifield, E. B. (1994). Toward a history of American congregations. In J. P. Wind & J. W. Lewis (Eds.), American congregations: New perspectives in the study of congregations (pp. 23–53). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hoover, B. C. (2014). Shared parish: Latinos, Anglos, and the future of US Catholicism. New York: New York University Press (NYU Press).
Horii, M. (2006, March 15). Deprofessionalisation of Buddhist Priests in Contemporary Japan. Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies. Retrieved January 26, 2007, from http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/articles/2006/Horii.html
Huang, K. (2014). Dyadic nexus fighting two-front battles: A study of the microlevel process of the official-religion-state relationship in China. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 53(4), 706–721. doi:10.1111/jssr.12149.
Hutchison, W. R. (1987). Errand to the world: American Protestant thought and foreign missions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Idler, E. L. (Ed.). (2014). Religion as a social determinant of public health. New York: Oxford University Press.
Independent Sector. (2015). Scope of the nonprofit sector.Retrieved from https://www.independentsector.org/scope_of_the_sector.
Jeavons, T. H. (1998). Identifying characteristics of ‘religious’ organizations: An exploratory proposal. In N. J. Demerath III, P. D. Hall, T. Schmitt, & R. H. Williams (Eds.), Sacred companies: Organizational aspects of religion and religious aspects of organizations (pp. 79–96). New York: Oxford University Press.
Jödicke, A., & Rota, A. (2014). Patterns of religious education policy in Switzerland: The long arm of distanced Christians? Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 53(4), 722–738. doi:10.1111/jssr.12150.
Kim, S. (2010). A faith of our own: Second generation spirituality in Korean American churches. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
King, D. R. (2012). The New Internationalists: World Vision and the revival of American evangelical humanitarianism, 1950–2010. Religions, 3(4). doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel3040922
Knippenberg, H. (2006). The political geography of religion: Historical state-church relations in Europe and recent challenges. GeoJournal, 67(4), 253–265. doi:10.2307/41148123.
Kniss, F., & Numrich, P. D. (2007). Sacred assemblies and civic engagement: How religion matters for America’s newest immigrants. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Krause, N., & Hayward, R. D. (2015). Awe of God, congregational embeddedness, and religious meaning in life. Review of Religious Research, 57(2), 219–238. doi:10.1007/s13644-014-0195-9.
Kurien, P. A. (2007). A place at the multicultural table: The development of an American Hinduism. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Kwon, H.-Y., Kwang, C. K., & Warner, R. S. (Eds.). (2001). Korean Americans and their religions: Pilgrims and missionaries from a different shore. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Lam, P.-Y. (2009). Bound by denominational ties: Dilemmas of Asian ministry in the Episcopal Church. Review of Religious Research, 51(2), 134–155.
Lehmann, K. (2015). Religious presence in the context of the United Nations Organization: A survey. In S. D. Brunn (Ed.), The changing world religion map (pp. 2925–2939). Springer: Netherlands.
Leong, P. (2006). Religion, flesh, and blood: Re-creating religious culture in the context of HIV/AIDS. Sociology of Religion, 67(3), 295–311.
Levine, L. I. (2000). The ancient synagogue: The first thousand years. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Lichterman, P. (2007). Beyond dogmas: Religion, social service, and social life in the United States. American Journal of Sociology, 113(1), 243–257.
Lichterman, P. (2012). Religion in public action: From actors to settings. Sociological Theory, 30(1), 15–36. doi:10.1177/0735275112437164.
Liebman, R. C., Sutton, J. R., & Wuthnow, R. (1988). Exploring the social sources of denominationalism: Schisms in American denominations, 1890–1980. American Sociological Review, 53, 343–352.
Lim, C., & MacGregor, C. A. (2012). Religion and volunteering in context: Disentangling the contextual effects of religion on voluntary behavior. American Sociological Review, 77(5), 747–779. doi:10.1177/0003122412457875.
Lim, C., & Putnam, R. D. (2010). Religion, social networks, and life satisfaction. American Sociological Review, 75(6), 914–933.
Lincoln, C. E., & Mamiya, L. H. (1990). The Black church in the African American experience. Durham: Duke University Press.
Lindenberg, M., & Bryant, C. (2001). Going global: Transforming relief and development NGOs. Bloomfield: Kumarian Press.
Livezey, L. W. (Ed.). (2000). Public religion and urban transformation: Faith in the city. New York: New York University Press.
Mahmood, S. (2005). Politics of piety: The Islamic revival and the feminist subject. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Manow, P., & van Kersbergen, K. (2009). Religion and the western welfare state: The theoretical context. In K. van Kersbergen & P. Manow (Eds.), Religion, class coalitions and welfare state regimes (pp. 1–38). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
March, J. (1978). Bounded rationality, ambiguity, and the engineering of choice. Bell Journal of Economics, 9, 587–608.
Marler, P. L. (1995). Lost in the fifties: The changing family and the nostalgic church. In N. T. Ammerman & W. C. Roof (Eds.), Work, family, and religion in contemporary society (pp. 23–60). New York: Routledge.
Marti, G. (2005). A mosaic of believers. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Marti, G. (2012). Worship across the racial divide. New York: Oxford University Press.
Marti, G., & Ganiel, G. (2014). The deconstructed church: Understanding emerging Christianity. New York: Oxford University Press.
Martin, D. (1990). Tongues of fire: The explosion of Protestantism in Latin America. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
McGreevy, J. T. (1996). Parish boundaries: The Catholic encounter with race in the twentieth-century urban north. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
McKinney, W. (1998). Resources. In N. T. Ammerman, J. W. Carroll, C. S. Dudley, & W. McKinney (Eds.), Studying congregations: A new handbook (pp. 132–166). Nashville: Abingdon.
McRoberts, O. M. (2003). Streets of glory: Church and community in a black urban neighborhood. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Merino, S. M. (2013). Religious social networks and volunteering: Examining recruitment via close ties. Review of Religious Research, 55(3), 509–527.
Messner, F. (2015). Public funding of religions in Europe. Farnham/Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
Monsma, S. V. (1996). When sacred and secular mix: Religious nonprofit organizations and public money. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.
Moon, D. (2004). God, sex, and politics: Homosexuality and everyday theologies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Mooney, M. (2009). Faith makes us live: Surviving and thriving in the Haitian diaspora. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Morris, A. (1996). The Black church in the civil rights movement: The SCLC as the decentralized, radical arm of the Black church. In C. Smith (Ed.), Disruptive religion (pp. 29–46). New York: Routledge.
Morris, A. D., & Lee, S. (2004). The National Baptist Convention: Traditions and contemporary challenges. In D. Roozen & J. Nieman (Eds.), Adaptive change in national denominational structures: Practiced theology. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Munson, Z. W. (2008). The making of pro-life activists: How social movement mobilization works. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Murillo, L. E. (2009). Tamales on the Fourth of July: The transnational parish of Coeneo, Michoacan. Religion and American Culture, 19(2), 137–168.
Neitz, M. J. (2005). Reflections on religion and place: Rural churches and American religion. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 44(3), 243–248.
Nelson, T. J. (2005). Every time I feel the spirit: Religious experience and ritual in an African American Church. New York: New York University Press.
Niebuhr, H. R. (1929). The social sources of denominationalism. New York: World Publishing.
Numrich, P. D., & Wedam, E. (2015). Religion and community in the new urban America. New York: Oxford University Press.
Offutt, S. (2015). New centers of global evangelicalism in Latin America and Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Olshan, M. A. (1990). The old order Amish steering committee: A case study in organizational evolution. Social Forces, 69(2), 603–616.
Pattillo-McCoy, M. (1998). Church culture as a strategy of action in the black community. American Sociological Review, 63, 767–784.
Perl, P., & Chang, P. M. Y. (2000). Credentialism across creeds: Clergy education and stratification in Protestant denominations. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 39(2), 171–188.
Perrin, A. J. (2005). Political microcultures: Linking civic life and democratic discourse. Social Forces, 84(2), 1049–1082.
Pinto, L. J., & Crow, K. E. (1982). The effects of size on other structural attributes of congregations within the same denomination. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 21, 304–316.
Polson, E. C. (2008). The inter-organizational ties that bind: Exploring the contributions of agency-congregation relationships. Sociology of Religion, 69(1), 45–65.
Powell, W. W., & DiMaggio, P. J. (Eds.). (1991). The new institutionalism in organizational analysis. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Prell, R. E. (2000). Communities of choice and memory: Conservative synagogues in the late twentieth century. In J. Wertheimer (Ed.), Jews in the center: Conservative synagogues and their members (pp. 269–358). New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Priest, R. J., & Priest, K. B. (2007). Divergent worship practices in the Sunday morning hour: Analysis of an “interracial” church merger attempt. In R. J. Priest & A. L. Nieves (Eds.), This side of heaven: Race, ethnicity, and Christian faith. New York: Oxford University Press.
Primer, B. (1978). Protestants and American business methods. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press.
Putnam, R. D., & Campbell, D. E. (2010). American grace: How religion divides and unites us. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Qadir, A. (2015). When heterodoxy becomes heresy: Using Bourdieu’s concept of doxa to describe state-sanctioned exclusion in Pakistan. Sociology of Religion, 76(2), 155–176.
Reimer, S. H. (2007). Class and congregations: Class and religious affiliation at the congregational level of analysis. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 46(4), 583–594.
Rinaldo, R. (2013). Mobilizing piety: Islam and feminism in Indonesia. New York: Oxford University Press.
Robert, D. L. (1997). Women in mission: A social history of their thought and practice. Macon: Mercer University Press.
Roozen, D. A., McKinney, W., & Carroll, J. W. (1984). Varieties of religious presence. New York: Pilgrim Press.
Sack, D. (2000). Whitebread Protestants: Food and religion in American culture. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Sample, T. (1996). White soul: Country music, the church and working Americans. Nashville: Abingdon.
Sargeant, K. H. (2000). Seeker churches: Promoting traditional religion in a nontraditional way. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Scheitle, C. P. (2013). Beyond the congregation: The world of Christian nonprofits. New York: Oxford University Press.
Scheitle, C. P., & Dougherty, K. D. (2008). Density and growth in a congregational population: Reformed churches in New York, 1628–2000. Review of Religious Research, 49(3), 233–250.
Schwadel, P. (2012). Social class and finding a congregation: How attendees are introduced to their congregations. Review of Religious Research, 54(4), 543–554. doi:10.1007/s13644-012-0073-2.
Scott, A. F. (1993). Natural allies: Women’s associations in American history. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Seymour, J. M., Welch, M. R., Gregg, K. M., & Collett, J. (2014). Generating trust in congregations: Engagement, exchange, and social networks. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 53(1), 130–144. doi:10.1111/jssr.12083.
Shin, E. H., & Park, H. (1988). An analysis of causes of schisms in ethnic churches: The case of Korean-American churches. Sociological Analysis, 49, 234–248.
Sinha, J. W., Hillier, A., Cnaan, R. A., & McGrew, C. C. (2007). Proximity matters: Exploring relationships among neighborhoods, congregations, and the residential patterns of members. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 46(2), 245–260.
Smidt, C. (Ed.). (2003). Religion as social capital: Producing the common good. Waco: Baylor University Press.
Spires, A. J. (2011). Contingent symbiosis and civil society in an authoritarian state: Understanding the survival of China’s grassroots NGOs. American Journal of Sociology, 117(1), 1–45. doi:10.1086/660741.
Tamadonfar, M., & Jelen, T. G. (Eds.). (2013). Religion and regimes: Support, separation, and opposition. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Thiemann, R. F. (2005). What’s faith got to do with it? Lutheran social ministry in transition. In M. J. Bane, B. Coffin, & R. Higgins (Eds.), Taking faith seriously. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Thumma, S. (1999). What God makes free is free indeed: Nondenominational church identity and its networks of support. Retrieved January 4, 2002, from http://www.hirr.hartsem.edu/bookshelf/thumma_article5.html.
Trinitapoli, J., & Weinreb, A. (2012). Religion and AIDS in Africa. Oxford: New York.
Troeltsch, E. (1931). The social teaching of the Christian churches. London: George Allen.
Verba, S., Schlozman, K. L., & Brady, H. E. (1995). Voice and equality: Civic voluntarism in American politics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Warner, R. S. (1988). New wine in old wineskins. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Warner, R. S. (1993). Work in progress toward a new paradigm for the sociological study of religion in the United States. American Journal of Sociology, 98(5), 1044–1093.
Warner, R. S. (1994). The place of the congregation in the contemporary American religious configuration. In J. Wind & J. Lewis (Eds.), American congregations: New perspectives in the study of congregations (pp. 54–99). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Warner, R. S. (1999). Changes in the civic role of religion. In N. J. Smelser & J. C. Alexander (Eds.), Diversity and its discontents: Cultural conflict and common ground in contermporary American society (pp. 229–243). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Warner, R. S., & Wittner, J. G. (Eds.). (1998). Gatherings in diaspora: Religious communities and the new immigration. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Warren, M. R. (2001). Dry bones rattling: Community building to revitalize American democracy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Weber, M. (1922 [1963]). The sociology of religion. Boston: Beacon.
Weber, M. (1947). The theory of social and economic organization (A. M. Henderson and T. Parsons, Trans.). New York: Free Press.
Wedam, E. (2003). The ‘religious district’ of elite congregations: Reproducing spatial centrality and redefining mission. Sociology of Religion, 64(1), 47–64.
Weeks, L. B. (1992). The incorporation of the Presbyterians. In M. J. Coalter, J. M. Mulder, & L. B. Weeks (Eds.), The organizational revolution: Presbyterians and American denominationalism (pp. 37–54). Louisville: Westminster/John Knox.
Wellman, J. K., Jr. (1999). The Gold Coast church and the ghetto: Christ and culture in mainline Protestantism. Champagne: University of Illinois Press.
Whitehead, A. L. (2013a). Gendered organizations and inequality regimes: Gender, homosexuality, and inequality within religious congregations. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 52(3), 476–493. doi:10.1111/jssr.12051.
Whitehead, A. L. (2013b). Religious organizations and homosexuality: The acceptance of gays and lesbians in American congregations. Review of Religious Research, 55(2), 297–317. doi:10.1007/s13644-012-0066-1.
Wilford, J. G. (2012). Sacred subdivisions: The postsuburban transformation of American evangelicalism. New York: New York University Press.
Williams, M. D. (1974). Community in a Black Pentecostal church. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Wind, J. P., & Lewis, J. W. (Eds.). (1994). American congregations: Portraits of 12 religious communities (Vol. 1). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Wineburg, B. (2001). A limited partnership: The politics of religion, welfare, and social service. New York: Columbia University Press.
Winter, G. (1967). Religious organizations. In W. L. Warner (Ed.), The emergent American society (pp. 408–491). New Haven: Yale University Press.
Wittberg, P. (2006). From piety to professionalism--and back? Lanham: Lexington Books.
Wood, J. R. (1970). Authority and controversial policy: The church and civil rights. American Sociological Review, 35, 1057–1069.
Wood, R. L. (2002). Faith in action: Religion, race, and democratic organizing in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Wuthnow, R. (1994). Producing the sacred. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Wuthnow, R. (2007). After the baby boomers: How twenty- and thirty-somethings are shaping the future of American religion. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Yamane, D. (2005). The Catholic church in state politics: Negotiating prophetic demands and political realities. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Yang, F. (2004). Gender and generation in a Chinese Christian church. In T. Carnes & F. Yang (Eds.), Asian American religions: The making and remaking of borders and boundaries (pp. 205–222). New York: New York University Press.
Yang, F. (2012). Religion in China: Survival and revival under communist rule. New York: Oxford University Press.
Young, M. P. (2002). Confessional protest: The religious birth of U.S. national social movements. American Sociological Review, 67(5), 660–688.
Zuckerman, P. (1998). Strife in the sanctuary. Walnut Creek: Alta Mira.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ammerman, N.T. (2016). Denominations, Congregations, and Special Purpose Groups. In: Yamane, D. (eds) Handbook of Religion and Society. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31395-5_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31395-5_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-61816-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31395-5
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)