Abstract
This chapter provides a theoretically-motivated overview of the association between social class and religion, primarily in the United States. I focus on three dimensions of this association. First, social-class stratification in religious affiliation, emphasizing both change and stability in the social-class hierarchy of religious traditions. Second, social-class differences in religious belief and participation, which indicate both positive and negative associations between social class and religiosity. Third, the influence of religion on views of social stratification, which in some ways support and in other ways conflict with expectations derived from classical theory. For each of these dimensions of the association between religion and social class, I review the relevant literature and provide empirical examples using the General Social Survey. I conclude by offering suggestions for future research.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahlstrom, S. E. (1972). A religious history of the American people. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Alston, J. P., & McIntosh, W. A. (1979). An assessment of the determinants of religious participation. Sociological Quarterly, 20(1), 49–62.
Alwin, D. F., & Krosnick, J. A. (1991). Aging, cohorts, and the stability of sociopolitical orientations over the life span. American Journal of Sociology, 97(1), 169–195.
Baker, J. O. (2008). An investigation of the sociological patterns of prayer frequency and content. Sociology of Religion, 69(2), 169–185.
Barro, R. J., & McCleary, R. M. (2003). International determinants of religiosity (Working Paper 10147). Retrieved from National Bureau of Economic Research website: www.nber.org/papers/w10147
Beckwith, B. P. (1985). The decline of U.S. religious faith, 1912–1984. Palo Alto: B.P. Beckwith.
Berger, P., Davie, G., & Fokas, E. (2008). Religious America, secular Europe? A theme and variations. Hampshire: Ashgate.
Bettendorf, L. J. H., & Dijkgraaf, E. (2010). Religion and income: Heterogeneity between countries. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 74(1–2), 12–29.
Bourdieu, P. (1987). What makes a social class? On the theoretical and practical existence of groups. Berkeley Journal of Sociology, 32, 1–17.
Braun, C. M. J. 2012. Explaining global secularity: Existential security or education. Secularism and Nonreligion, 1, 68–93. www.secularismandnonreligion.org
Bultena, L. (1949). Church membership and church attendance in Madison, Wisconsin. American Sociological Review, 14(3), 384–389.
Cheadle, J. E., & Schwadel, P. (2012). The “friendship dynamics of religion”, or the “religious dynamics of friendship”? A social network analysis of adolescents who attend small schools”. Social Science Research, 41(5), 1198–1212.
Cherlin, A. J. (2009). The marriage-go-round: The state of marriage and the family in America today. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Clydesdale, T. T. (1999). Toward understanding the role of bible beliefs and higher education in American attitudes toward eradicating poverty. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 38(1), 103–118.
Coleman, S. (2002). The faith movement: A global religious culture? Culture and Religion: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 3(1), 3–19. doi:10.1080/01438300208567180.
Darnell, A., & Sherkat, D. E. (1997). The impact of Protestant fundamentalism on educational attainment. American Sociological Review, 62(2), 306–315.
Davidson, J. D., & Koch, J. R. (1998). Beyond mutual and public benefits: The inward and outward orientations of non-profit organizations. In N. J. Demerath III, P. D. Hall, T. Schmitt, & R. H. Williams (Eds.), Sacred companies (pp. 292–306). New York: Oxford University Press.
Davidson, J. D., & Pyle, R. E. (1999). Public religion and economic inequality. In W. H. Swatos & J. K. Wellman (Eds.), The power of religious publics: Staking claims in American society (pp. 101–114). Westport: Praeger Publishers.
Davidson, J. D., & Pyle, R. E. (2011). Ranking faiths: Religious stratification in America. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Demerath, N. J., III. (1965). Social class in American Protestantism. Chicago: Rand McNally & Company.
Durkheim, E. ([1912] 1965). The elementary forms of the religious life. New York: The Free Press.
Edgell, P. (2006). Religion and family in a changing society. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Edmunds, J., & Turner, B. S. (2002). Generations, culture and society. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Ellison, C. G., & Musick, M. A. (1995). Conservative Protestantism and public opinion toward science. Review of Religious Research, 36(3), 245–262.
Finke, R., & Stark, R. (2005). The churching of America 1776–2005: Winners and losers in our religious economy. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Fischer, C. S., & Hout, M. (2006). Century of difference: How America changed in the last one hundred rears. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Fitzgerald, S. T., & Glass, J. (2012). Conservative Protestants, early transition to adulthood, and the intergenerational transmission of class. In L. A. Kesiter, J. McCarthy, & R. Finke (Eds.), Research in the sociology of work, volume 23: Religion, work, and inequality (pp. 49–72). Binkley: Emerald Press.
Fitzgerald, S. T., & Glass, J. (2014). Conservative Protestants, normative pathways, and adult attainment. In L. A. Keister & D. E. Sherkat (Eds.), Religion and inequality in America: Research and theory on religion’s role in stratification (pp. 97–118). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Garneau, C. R. H., & Schwadel, P. (2013). Pentecostal affiliation. Review of Religious Research, 55(2), 339–353.
Glass, J., & Jacobs, J. (2005). Childhood religious conservatism and adult attainment among black and white women. Social Forces, 84(1), 555–579.
Glock, C. Y., & Stark, R. (1965). Religion and society in tension. Chicago: Rand McNally.
Goode, E. (1966). Social class and church participation. American Journal of Sociology, 72(1), 102–111.
Greeley, A. M. (1981). Catholics and the upper middle class: A comment on roof. Social Forces, 59(3), 824–830.
Greeley, A. M., & Hout, M. (1999). Americans’ increasing belief in life after death: Religious competition and acculturation. American Sociological Review, 64(6), 813–835.
Greenstone, M., Looney, A., Patashnik, J., & Yu, M. (2013). Thirteen economic facts about social mobility and the role of education. Policy Memo. The Hamilton Project. http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/reports/2013/06/13-facts-higher-education/thp_13econfacts_final.pdf. Accessed 13 Nov 2015.
Hackworth, J. (2010). Compassionate neoliberalism: Evangelical Christianity, the welfare state, and the politics of the right. Studies in Political Economy, 86, 83–108.
Hadden, J. K. (1969). The gathering storms in the churches. Garden City: Doubleday and Company, Inc.
Halman, L., & Draulans, V. (2006). How secular is Europe? The British Journal of Sociology, 57(2), 263–288.
Hill, J. P. (2009). Higher education as moral community: Institutional influences on religious participation during college. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 48(3), 515–534.
Hill, J. P. (2011). Faith and understanding: Specifying the impact of higher education on religious belief. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 50(3), 533–551.
Hladky, K. (2012). I double-dog dare you in Jesus’ dame! Claiming Christian wealth and the American prosperity gospel. Religion Compass, 6(1), 82–96.
Hoge, D. R., & Carroll, J. W. (1978). Determinants of commitment and participation in suburban Protestant churches. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 17(2), 107–127.
House, J. S., Umberson, D., & Landis, K. R. (1988). Structures and processes of social support. Annual Review of Sociology, 14, 293–318.
Hout, M., & Fischer, C. S. (2002). Why more Americans have no religious preference. American Sociological Review, 67(2), 165–190.
Hout, M., & Fischer, C. S. (2014). Explaining why more Americans have no religious preference: political backlash and generational succession, 1987–2012. Sociological Science, 1, 423–447. doi:10.15195/v1.a24.
Jackman, M. R., & Jackman, R. W. (1973). An interpretation of the relation between objective and subjective social status. American Sociological Review, 38(5), 569–582.
Jelen, T. G. (1989). Biblical literalism and inerrancy: Does the difference make a difference? Sociological Analysis, 49(4), 421–429.
Johnson, D. C. (1997). Formal education vs. Religious belief: Soliciting new evidence with multinomial logit modeling. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 36(2), 231–246.
Keister, L. A. (2007). Upward wealth mobility: Exploring the Roman Catholic advantage. Social Forces, 85(3), 1195–1226.
Keister, L. A. (2008). Conservative Protestants and wealth: How religion perpetuates asset poverty. American Journal of Sociology, 113(5), 1237–1271.
Keister, L. A. (2011). Faith and money: How religious belief contributes to wealth and poverty. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Keister, L. A., & Borelli, E. P. (2014). Religion and wealth mobility: The case American Latinos. In L. A. Keister & D. E. Sherkat (Eds.), Religion and inequality in America: Research and theory on religion’s role in stratification (pp. 119–145). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Kellstedt, L., & Smidt, C. (1991). Measuring fundamentalism: An analysis of different operational strategies. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 30(3), 259–278.
Kosmin, B. A., & Keysar, A., with Cragun, R., & Navarro-Rivera, J. (2009). American nones: The profile of the no religion population. Trinity College. http://commons.trincoll.edu/aris/files/2011/08/NONES_08.pdf
Kraus, M. W., Piff, P. K., & Dacher, K. (2009). Social class, sense of control, and social explanation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(6), 992–1004.
Layman, G. C., & Carsey, T. M. (2002). Party polarization and ‘conflict extensions’ in the American electorate. American Journal of Political Science, 46(4), 786–802.
Lazerwitz, B. (1961). A comparison of major United States religious groups. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 56(295), 568–579.
Lehrer, E. (1999). Religion as a determinant of educational attainment: An economic perspective. Social Science Research, 28(4), 358–379.
Lindsay, D. M. (2007). Faith in the halls of power: How evangelicals joined the American elite. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Marsden, P. (1987). Core discussion networks of Americans. American Sociological Review, 52(1), 122–131.
Marx, K. (1972[1844]). Contribution to the critique of Hegel’s philosophy of right: Introduction. In R. C. Tucker (Ed.), The Marx-Engels Reader (pp. 53–65). New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Mayrl, D., & Uecker, J. E. (2011). Higher education and religious liberalization among young adults. Social Forces, 90(1), 181–208.
McPherson, M., Smith-Lovin, L., & Cook, J. M. (2001). Birds of a feather: Homophily in social networks. Annual Review of Sociology, 27, 415–444.
Miller, S. H. (1967). Oppositions between religion and education. In T. R. Sizer (Ed.), Religion and public education (pp. 112–124). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Mueller, G. H. (1980). The dimensions of religiosity. Sociological Analysis, 41(1), 1–24.
Mueller, C. W., & Johnson, W. T. (1975). Socioeconomic status and religious participation. American Sociological Review, 40(6), 785–800.
Nako, K., & Treas, J. (1990). Computing 1989 occupational prestige scores (GSS methodological report no. 70). Chicago: NORC.
Nako, K., Hodge, R. W. Hodge, & Treas, J. (1990). On revising prestige scores for all occupations (GSS methodological report no. 69). Chicago: NORC.
Nelson, T. J. (2009). At ease with our own kind: Worship practices and class segregation in American religion. In S. McCloud, & W. A. Mirola (Ed.), Religion and class in America: Culture, history, and politics (pp. 45–68). Leiden: Brill.
Niebuhr, H. R. (1929). The social sources of denominationalism. Gloucester: Peter Smith.
Norris, P., & Inglehart, R. (2004). Sacred and secular: Religion and politics worldwide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nudelman, A. E. (1971). Dimensions of religiosity: A factor-analytic view of Protestants, Catholics, and Christian scientists. Review of Religious Research, 13(1), 42–56.
Peek, C. W., Lowe, G. D., & Williams, L. S. (1991). Gender and God’s word: Another look at religious fundamentalism and sexism. Social Forces, 69(4), 1205–1221.
Pew Research Center. (2014). The shifting religious identity of Latinos in the United States. Available at http://www.pewforum.org/files/2014/05/Latinos-Religion-07-22-full-report.pdf. Accessed 13 Nov 2015.
Pope, L. (1942). Millhands and preachers. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Pope, L. (1948). Religion and class structure. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 256, 84–91.
Putnam, R. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Pyle, R. E. (1993). Faith and commitment to the poor: Theological orientation and support for government assistance measures. Sociology of Religion, 54(4), 385–401.
Pyle, R. E. (2006). Trends in religious stratification: Have religious group socioeconomic distinctions declined in recent decades? Sociology of Religion, 67(1), 61–79.
Roof, W. C., & McKinney, W. (1987). American mainline religion. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Rosin, H. (2009, December). Did Christianity cause the crash? The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/12/did-christianity-cause-the-crash/307764/. Accessed 13 Nov 2015.
Rubin, M., Denson, N., Kilpatrick, S., Mathews, K. E., Stehlik, T., & Zyngier, D. (2014). “I am working-class”: Subjective self-identification as a missing measure of social class and socioeconomic status in higher education research. Educational Researcher, 43(4), 196–200.
Ryder, N. B. (1965). The cohort as a concept in the study of social change. American Sociological Review, 30(6), 843–861.
Sacerdote, B., & Glaeser, E. L. (2001). Education and religion (Working Paper 8080). National Bureau of Economic Research. http://www.nber.org/papers/w8080. Accessed 13 Nov 2015.
Sakalas, J. (1999). Face to face: Transforming faith-based outreach. In E. M. Bounds, P. K. Brubaker, & M. E. Hobgood (Eds.), Welfare policy: Feminist critiques (pp. 201–212). Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press.
Schieman, S. (2010). Socioeconomic status and beliefs about God’s influence in everyday life. Sociology of Religion, 71(1), 25–51.
Schieman, S., & Jung, J. H. (2012). “Practical divine influence”: Socioeconomic status and belief in the prosperity gospel. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 51(4), 738–756.
Schwadel, P. (2008). Poor teenagers’ religion. Sociology of Religion, 69(2), 125–149.
Schwadel, P. (2009). Neighbors in the pews: Social status diversity in religious congregations. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, 5(article 2), 1–24. http://www.religjournal.com
Schwadel, P. (2011). The effects of education on Americans’ religious practices, beliefs, and affiliations. Review of Religious Research, 53(2), 161–182.
Schwadel, P. (2012). Race, class, congregational embeddedness, and civic and political participation. In L. A. Kesiter, J. McCarthy, & R. Finke (Eds.), Research in the sociology of work, volume 23: Religion, work, and inequality (pp. 253–279). Binkley: Emerald Press.
Schwadel, P. (2014a). Are white evangelical Protestants lower class? A partial test of church sect theory. Social Science Research, 46, 100–116.
Schwadel, P. (2014b). Birth cohort changes in the association between college education and religious non-affiliation. Social Forces, 93(2), 719–746.
Schwadel, P. (2015). Explaining cross-national variation in the effect of higher education on religiosity. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 54(2), 402–418.
Schwadel, P., McCarthy, J. D., & Nelsen, H. M. (2009). The continuing relevance of family income for religious participation: U.S. white Catholic church attendance in the late 20th century. Social Forces, 87(4), 1997–2030.
Sherkat, D. E. (2000). “That they be keepers of the home”: The effect of conservative religion on early and later transitions into housewifery. Review of Religious Research, 41(3), 344–358.
Sherkat, D. E. (2012). Religion and the American occupational structure. In L. A. Kesiter, J. McCarthy, & R. Finke (Eds.), Research in the sociology of work, volume 23: Religion, work, and inequality (pp. 75–102). Binkley: Emerald Press.
Sherkat, D. E. (2014). Changing faith: The dynamics and consequences of Americans’ shifting religious identities. New York: New York University Press.
Simmel, G. (1905). A contribution to the sociology of religion. American Journal of Sociology, 11(3), 359–376.
Singh-Manoux, A., Adler, N. E., & Marmot, M. G. (2003). Subjective social status: Its determinants and its association with measures of ill-health in the Whitehall II9 study. Social Science & Medicine, 56(6), 1321–1333.
Smith, T. (1990). Classifying Protestant denominations. Review of Religious Research, 31(3), 225–245.
Smith, D. R. (2001). Churches and the urban poor: Interaction and social distance. Sociology of Religion, 62(3), 301–313.
Smith, A. (2007[1776]). An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. Edited by S. M. Soares. MetaLibri Digital Library. http://www.ibiblio.org/ml/libri/s/SmithA_WealthNations_p.pdf. Accessed 13 Nov 2015.
Smith, C., & Faris, R. (2005). Socioeconomic inequality in the American religious system: An update and assessment. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 44(1), 95–104.
Smith, C., & Snell, P. (2009). Souls in transition: The religious and spiritual lives of emerging adults. New York: Oxford University Press.
Smith, T. W., Marsden, P. V., & Hout, M. (2015). General social surveys, 1972–2014 cumulative codebook. Chicago: National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago.
Stark, R. (1963). On the incompatibility of religion and science: A survey of American graduate students.”. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 3(1), 3–20.
Stark, R., & Bainbridge, W. S. (1985). The future of religion: Secularization, revival, and cult formation. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Steensland, B., Park, J. Z., Regnerus, M. D., Robinson, L. D., Wilcox, W. B., & Woodberry, R. D. (2000). The measure of American religion: Toward improving the state of the art. Social Forces, 79(1), 291–318.
Stoll, D. (1990). Is Latin America turning Protestant? The politics of evangelical growth. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Sullivan, S. C. (2011). Living faith: Everyday religion and mothers in poverty. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Troeltsch, E. (1992 [1931]). The social teaching of the Christian churches volume I and volume II. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press.
Uecker, J. E., Regnerus, M. D., & Vaaler, M. L. (2007). Losing my religion: The social sources of religious decline in early adulthood. Social Forces, 85(4), 1667–1692.
Wald, K. D., & Calhoun-Brown, A. (2007). Religion and politics in the United States (5th ed.). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publisher, Inc.
Weber, M. (1946[1906]). The Protestant sects and the spirit of capitalism. In H. H. Gerth, & C. W. Mills (Ed.), From Max Weber: Essays in sociology (pp. 302–322). New York: Oxford University Press.
Weber, M. (1992[1930]). The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. New York: Routledge.
Weber, M. (1993 [1922]). The sociology of religion. Boston: Beacon Press.
Wilcox, W. B., Cherlin, A. J., Uecker, J. E., & Messel, M. (2012). No money, no honey, no church: The deinstitutionalization of religious life among the white working class. In L. A. Kesiter, J. McCarthy, & R. Finke (Eds.), Research in the sociology of work, volume 23: Religion, work, and inequality (pp. 227–250). Binkley: Emerald Press.
Wright, E. O. (1993). Typologies, scales, and class analysis: a comment on Halaby and Weakliem’s ‘ownership and authority in the earnings function’. American Sociological Review, 58(1), 331–334.
Wright, E. O. (2005). Social class. In G. Ritzer (Ed.), Encyclopedia of social theory. (pp. 718–725). Thousand Oaks: SAGE. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412952552.n270
Acknowledgment
The author thanks David Yamane for his invaluable comments on this chapter and his exhaustive work in compiling the volume.
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
Schwadel, P. (2016). Social Class. 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_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31395-5_18
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-61816-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31395-5
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)