A Mosaic of Believers: Diversity and Innovation in a Multiethnic Church

Martí, Gerardo

doi:10.1525/nr.2007.10.3.122

Cited by 64 publications

(161 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

154

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Prejudicial ideas regarding race and ethnicity are persistently upheld because of structural arrangements that continue to keep races separated in American society. We know that beliefs/ideas/constructs related to race keep people separated and are reinforced through segregation and social settings, such as the housing market [20], the educational system [29,30], occupational structures [31] and religious assemblies [2,5]. Christian churches are the most segregated social institution in our society today, with less than 10% of all congregations having any significant degree of diversification.…”

Section: Ethnic-racial Identity Congregational Practices and Ethnicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A prominent concept for understanding the process of achieving congregational diversity is ethnic transcendence [5][6][7][8][9]. The concept relies on acknowledging identity as consisting of multiple facets and behavioral repertoires, how saliency affects the accentuating or obscuring of different aspects of identity, and that congregations foster religious identities that assume primacy over particularistic ethnoracial affiliations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Conceptual Pathways to Ethnic Transcendence in Diverse Churches: Theoretical Reflections on the Achievement of Successfully Integrated Congregations

Martí¹

2015

Religions

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:The concept of ethnic transcendence-defined as the process of co-formulating a shared religious identity among diverse members that supersedes their racial and ethnic differences through congregational involvement-captures a critical aspect of successfully integrating different racial and ethnic groups into a single, commonly shared, multi-ethnic congregation. Drawing on classic theoretical resources from Max Weber and Emile Durkheim, this paper expands on previous scholarship by conceptually articulating two different paths for the achievement of ethnic transcendence in multiracial congregations. In the first path, ethnic transcendence supports and encourages congregational diversification by inspiring members and mobilizing them to contribute their efforts to accomplish a common religious mission. In the second path, the achievement of ethnic transcendence involves the sublimation of congregational members' religious selves to an overarching moral collective. Both paths involve privileging religious identities in favor of a particularistic ethnic or racial identity. Moreover, through both paths, the development of congregationally specific religious identities results in joining with co-members of different ethno-racial ancestries as a type of spiritually-derived kinship. Due to the fact that ethnic transcendence is an interactive process, congregational diversity is a bi-directional phenomenon representing the extent to which members allow for the integration of separate ethnicities/races into a common congregation through idealized and richly-symbolic notions of connection and belonging to a congregation. Overall, this paper suggests a heuristic framework that productively expands the concept of ethnic transcendence, allows an approach for observing cross-ethnic/inter-racial organizational processes, and ultimately contributes toward understanding how congregations (whether church, temple, or mosque) OPEN ACCESSReligions 2015, 6 1049 pursue alternative identity reconstruction projects to sustain cohesive collective identities.

show abstract

Section: Ethnic-racial Identity Congregational Practices and Ethnicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptual Pathways to Ethnic Transcendence in Diverse Churches: Theoretical Reflections on the Achievement of Successfully Integrated Congregations

Martí¹

2015

Religions

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The first in-depth study of a multiracial church is sociologist Gerardo Marti's A Mosaic of Believers: Diversity and Innovation in a Multiethnic Church [12]. Through interviews with members, Marti examines Mosaic-a thriving, youthful, evangelical church in Los Angeles with a very racially diverse membership.…”

Section: Review Of Scholarshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because their members come primarily from Generation X and Y and thus grew up in a post-Civil Rights era, they are more likely to value multiraciality and espouse non-prejudicial attitudes [8,12]. For these younger Americans, segregated churches are a relic from the ugly history of race relations in the United States.…”

Section: Overcoming Barriers To Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Asian American Evangelicals in Multiracial Church Ministry

Garces-Foley

Jeung

2013

Religions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:Since the 1990s, evangelical efforts to create multiracial churches (MRCs) have grown exponentially. This article analyzes the experiences of Asian American evangelical ministers leading MRCs. Through interviews we explore how Asian American evangelicals came to be involved in MRC-ministry and how they approach issues of racial diversity in this context. We compare the racial attitudes of Asian American evangelical ministers leading MRCs with those of White and Black evangelicals delineated in Emerson and Smith's Divide by Faith. Rather than conform to the colorblind approach of many White evangelicals, the majority of our respondents utilize structural explanations for social inequality and promote a colorconscious approach to diversity. We conclude that Asian American evangelicals utilize a unique framework for MRC-ministry, what we call a 'racialized multiculturalism,' that has much to offer American evangelicalism.

show abstract

“…Finally, religious identity could supplant or replace ethnic identity. Drawing from Gerardo Marti's (2005) concept of ethnic transcendence, religious groups can acknowledge the significance of ethnic and racial identity but subsume those identities under the larger universal identity of a shared Christian faith.…”

Section: Sacralizing Rejecting and Transcending Ethnicitymentioning

confidence: 99%