Abstract
The family until now has been the social institution most closely linked to religion. Yet, the extent and direction of these ties in the modern United States have been only sporadically examined. Explanations for what religion does in family and society are found in each of the three major theoretical orientations in sociology—structural-functionalism, conflict theory, and interactionism—as well as in newer world-system theory.1 The study of religion in the past 30 years, however, has been marked by a shift from structural to personal levels of meaning, from Parsonian to interactionist frameworks. Luckmann’s “invisible religion” (1967), which locates the functions of religion in personal meanings, and Bellah’s “civil religion” (1967), the cultural backdrop of religious symbols providing new legitimation for American unity, are major instances of the new sociological approach. These have, however, been challenged for their sufficiency. Lemert (1975), for example, questioned their assumptions, in which he saw a failure to elaborate person-structure relationships. Lemert saw the need to hold onto person-and-meaning, “but now in a necessary dialectical relationship to social structure which . . . retains its capacity to convey religious meanings.” (p. 104, italics in original). Another view locates civil religion as an activist dimension of religions (e.g., the Unification Church) that appeal to community-oriented youth (Robbins, Anthony, Doucas, & Curtis, 1976).
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Marciano, T.D. (1987). Families and Religions. In: Sussman, M.B., Steinmetz, S.K. (eds) Handbook of Marriage and the Family. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-7151-3_11
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