This study explores the relationship between religion and anomie. The theoretical framework of Durkheim and Merton was used to suggest the hypothetical relationship between the two variables: as religiosity increases, anomie decreases. A secondary analysis was conducted using the 1991 General Social Survey (GSS). The GSS is one of the largest annual surveys conducted by the National Opinion Research Center. There were 1517 adult respondents composing the 1991 cross-national sample. Questions measuring both the belief and action dimensions of religion were used to measure respondents' level of religiosity. Questions from the Srole Scale of Anomia were used to measure respondents' level of anomia. Durkheim's theory that religion functions to integrate individuals into the larger society and therefore diminish levels of anomie was not supported with this data. While the lack of significant findings did not support the theory, neither did it disprove it. The hypothetical inverse relationship between class and anomie was supported with this data. Another hypothetical relationship, that of the most religious, women experience less anomie than men, was also not supported due to the lack of a significant relationship among the primary variables. Continued use of comprehensive and large scale surveys such as the General Social Survey is crucial. This research suggests the need for further testing of these hypotheses using more elaborate measures.

by Cheris, Shun-ching Chan. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 212-222). / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgements --- p.ii / Abbreviations --- p.iii / Introduction --- p.1 / Part I - Contexts for the Present Study --- p.1 / Disenchantment - Reenchantment Dialogue --- p.2 / Reenchantment in Hong Kong? --- p.16 / Part II - Methodological Note --- p.23 / Chapters / Chapter I --- "Enchantment, Disenchantment and Reenchantment" --- p.30 / The Concept of Sacredness and Sacred Order --- p.30 / A Review of the Relation between Sacred Order and Secular Reality --- p.33 / Sacred Order in the Enchanted World --- p.37 / Sacred Order in the Disenchanted World --- p.41 / New Religious Movements as a Manifestation of Reenchantment? --- p.48 / Chapter II --- Epitome of the New Sacred Order - The Emergence and the Worldview of the Lingsu Exo-Esoterics (靈修顯密宗） --- p.56 / The Emergence and Development --- p.56 / The Sacred Worldview --- p.65 / Chapter III --- Epitome of the New Sacred Order - The Ethos of the Lingsu Exo-Esoterics (靈修顯密宗） --- p.79 / Sacred Symbols --- p.79 / Sacred and Secular Orders of Life --- p.100 / Chapter IV --- Constitution and Location of the New Sacred Order --- p.120 / Sacred Basis of the Secular Ethos : Making Sense of the Secular Mode of Life --- p.121 / Constitution of the New Sacredness --- p.131 / Man as God / Inner-Worldly Eclecticism / Location of the New Sacred Order --- p.136 / Subjectivization and Privatization of the Sacred Order / Demagicifying Religious Practices / Sacralization of Secular Way of Life / Chapter V --- Reconstitution of Sacred Order and Social Reality --- p.146 / Sacred Order as a Model of Social Reality --- p.147 / As a Model of Hierarchy / As a Model of Individualism and Intellectualism / "As a Model of Pluralism, Subjectivism and Relativism" / Aa a Model of Secularism and Materialism / Role of Rationality and Intellect in the Sacred Model / Sacred Order as a Model for Social Reality --- p.167 / As a Model for Social Maintenance / As a Model for Social Transformation / As a Drawback to Social Integration / Sacred Order and Social Reality --- p.184 / Conclusion --- p.184 / New Sacred Order as a Manifestation of Reenchantment --- p.189 / Reenchantment in Dialectical Sense --- p.193 / Implications --- p.198 / Appendix / Chapter I --- The Lingsu Disciples' Attitudes towards My Field Research --- p.201 / Chapter II --- Some Personal Details of the Lingsu Disciples --- p.203 / Bibliography --- p.212

The increased presence of religious diversity among the population of the United Kingdom, particularly over the past century, is particularly noticeable through population studies such as the national census, and tangible signs including the increase in public celebrations of religious festivals, the increase in the presence of religious dress and food, and the increase in construction of religious architecture for faiths other than the historic religion of Christianity. This change in the United Kingdom signifies the need to assess and understand attitudes toward this evident religious diversity among young people living in the United Kingdom. This dissertation is contextualised and conducted through a studentship role on the Young People’s Attitudes Toward Religious Diversity Project, funded by the AHRC/ESRC as part of the Religion and Society Programme, conducted by the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit. This mixed methods project employed quantitative methods to profile students aged 13- to 15-years in the different nations and school types of the United Kingdom, alongside findings from qualitative focus group interviews among 13- to 16 year-old students. The findings draw two conclusions; first, that attitudes toward religious diversity vary according to nation, with students in London and Northern Ireland exhibiting signs of particular difference in attitudes from the students in the other nations of the United Kingdom; and second, that attitudes toward religious diversity vary according to school type. The mixed methodology of the research in the setting of the United Kingdom, the comparison of nations and school types, and the large scale on which the research was conducted all offer an innovative contribution to scholarship within the field of the social scientific study of religion. The conclusions also contribute to a better understanding of the national contexts of the United Kingdom and the different values which the different methods of educating young people in the United Kingdom can promote.

The thesis considers the career of the Student Christian Movement (SCM) which was founded in 1892 to promote missions and to recruit students for missionary work. As it grew, the SCM extended its operations to the founding and servicing of Christian Unions in colleges and progressively abandoned its evangelical roots and come to play a major part in the development of liberalism and ecumenism. In the nineteen sixties it became more radical than liberal and developed an interest in Marxism and alternative life styles. The career of the conservative evangelical Inter-Varsity Fellowship (IVF), formed as a result of a number of schisms from SCM, is also charted. These two movement organisations are considered in the light of ideas derived from the sociology of social movements. In the Introduction a brief critical account of various dominant theories of social movement origination is presented and elements of an alternative, voluntaristic, and essentially processual account are advanced. The careers of SCM and IVF are used to suggest correctives to a number of theoretical insights that have been developed on the basis of an exaggeration of the division between stable society and social movement. Particular topics dealt with include the growth and spread of social movements, goal transformation, schism and decline. It is argued that the rapid rise of SCM can be understood as resulting from (a) the existence of a wealthy milieu which accepted the movement as legitimate and (b) the SCM's attitude towards its own purpose and ideology which was open and inclusive. This denominationalism allowed the SCM to utilise the resources of the milieu and to recruit rapidly. It also laid the foundation for an erosion of purpose and identity. Many of the problems that promoted the decline of the SCM were caused by the particular nature of its constituency, recruiting as it did among students and experiencing therefore a high membership turnover, but a full understanding of the contrast between the decline of SCM and the stability of lVF requires consideration of the ideologies that informed the two organisations. For this reason the final chapter is concerned with the reasons for the precariousness of liberal protestantism and the strength of conservative evangelicalism.

劉義. / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 190-225). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Liu Yi.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 165-180). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

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Numerous studies show that religion has a strong association with gender role attitudes and family ideology in the U.S. Some religious traditions have fostered changes toward modern gender ideologies and others resisted. However, most studies are limited to Judeo-Christian contexts. It is not clear whether these patterns apply to societies where other religious traditions have been dominant or where gender issues are different -- for example in a Confucian society like Taiwan. The goal of this study is to understand the role of religion in gender and family relations in Chinese societies -- particularly marital gender roles, educational aspirations, and abortion attitudes and decisions. I utilize two large scale nationally representative surveys: the Taiwan Social Change Survey and the Knowledge of, Attitudes toward, and the Practice of Contraception Survey. My research shows that religion is significantly associated with gender roles and family relations in Taiwan. After controlling socio-demographic factors, conservative religious groups such as Taiwan Protestants and Yi-Guan-Dao members are more likely to support traditional gender role ideologies. They view women's fulltime work outside of the home as a negative influence on children and family life and are more likely to support a traditional men-as-breadwinner women-as-home-maker division of labor, compared with Chinese traditional religionists and secular people. Catholics tend to hold more liberal views that encourage men's participation in housework and both spouses' contribution to family finance. On abortion attitudes, both devout Christians and Yi-Guan-Dao members tend to strongly oppose abortion compared with Chinese traditional religionists and secular groups; however, there is no significant association between religion and either timing of abortion or patterns of abortion. Nominal Christians actually reported slightly higher number of abortions than other groups. Finally, there is no significant gender gap between the educational aspirations for boy and girl of different religious groups; the difference is in overall educational aspirations. Taiwanese Protestants show the highest aspirations and Yi-Guan-Dao members the lowest. Catholics and Chinese religionists are in the middle and do not have significant differences in their educational attitudes. Qualitative interviews with knowledgeable Taiwanese informants strengthens these arguments and helps explain mechanisms for the religion-family associations.

Taking as a given the general decline of organized religion in Canada, this thesis attempts to document the present lack of commitment towards organized religion among adolescents. Four questions are explored: (1) how committed are Canada's adolescents toward organized religion relative to other social options? (2) to what degree has religious commitment amond Canadian adolescents shifted over time? (3) in what ways does adolescent religious commitment vary according to religious group? and (4) do adolescent religiosity patterns follows those of adults? The major finding of this study, based on national Project Teen Canada and Project Canada data, is that organized religion is seldom experienced or valued by the vast majority of Canadian youth. Furthermore, adolescent religious commitment decreased from 1984 to 1992. Conservative Protestants reported higher religious commitment than did other youth and adolescent religiosity generally reflected adult levels. Lastly, tentative evidence suggest that Canada may experience future social consequences if adolescent religious disinterest continues. Despite being tentative and exploratory in nature, it is believed that the thesis gives social scientists their first national, in depth, sociological analysis of Canadian youth and organized religion. As such the findings provide a solid launching pad for further research. The thesis concludes with a plea for innovative study of Canadian adolescent religiosity and offers a list of potential projects. / v, 101 leaves ; 28 cm.

<p> Facing the threat of schism in a globalized church by a proposed ban on bishops in openly gay relationships, a parish rector turned to reconstructive rhetoric to promote a unified identity among members of his congregation. This case study uses a sampling of sermons delivered by the Reverend James Nutter, former rector of Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church, to examine how <i> rhetoric was used to address his congregation, to promote and support collective identity in a potentially divisive atmosphere.</i> The research asks, what was accomplished by the rhetoric and what resources did the congregants themselves bring into play in constructing and maintaining the collective identity of their community? The goal of this research was to find a resonant <i> representative anecdote</i> summing up the parish's organizational identity. The study uses Burke's theory of identification, which involves a systematic clustering of terms that denote <i>association, disassociation,</i> and <i>transcendence.</i> Data sources consist of 37 primary sample documents from sermons, personal interviews, and a focus group analyzed as a Hermeneutic Unit in the Social Scientific Program, ATLAS.ti. The multi-step qualitative research included close reading, content analysis, and coding of <i>umbrella constructs, constructs,</i> and <i>coding themes, </i> which were clustered into semantic maps of <i>coding networks. </i> The study also drew from discourse, church identity, and organizational theories. It contributes to rhetorical theory in the use of parables as analogical extensions that validate the Christian tenet of &ldquo;families&rdquo; gathering at the table despite diversity, and the resistance at Palmer to the actions of global church leaders that were perceived to marginalize gay members of the community. Congregants echoed the cognitive patterns embedded in the parables, connecting them to their own experience and practice of being members of the congregation. When identity work includes a seasoned preacher effectively addressing a competent audience in the pews, parish identity is found to be similar to, but not identical with the denominational identity. The result was an alignment of shared values in Palmer`s representative anecdote, <i> In my Father's mansion, there is room for you.</i></p>