The Center Doesn't Hold: Church Attendance in the United States, 1940-1984

Hout, Michael; Greeley, Andrew M.

doi:10.2307/2095353

Cited by 215 publications

(105 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Similar to previous findings for the US (Hout and Greeley, 1987) and for the UK (Sawkins et al, 1997;Cameron, 1999) there is evidence that women in Germany attend church more often than men.…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 87%

The Determinants of Church Attendance and Religious Human Capital in Germany: Evidence from Panel Data

Heineck

2002

SSRN Journal

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Bamberg, Feldkirchenstr. 21, Bamberg, Germany, Terms of use: Documents in September 2001 AbstractThis paper explores determinants of church attendance and the formation of 'religious human capital' in Germany within a Becker-style allocation-of-time framework. The analysis is based on data derived from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). Taking advantage of the longitudinal structure of the data, we are able to control for unobservable heterogeneity by applying a random-effects ordered probit model to estimate separate attendance equations as well as 'faith intensity' equations for males and females. The results suggest support for previous findings based on British and North American data that age is a strong predictor for church attendance. Economic variables only weakly account for some of the variation inasmuch as high non-labour income releases time that can be devoted to religious activities.Results for differences in partnership status point to the complementary character of religious experience, whereas the findings for spouses with different religions are more ambiguous.Having at hand a presumably unique situation in the regional structure of religious traditions, we find, not too surprisingly, that strength of belief is much lower in the formerly atheistic East Germany. It is however not clear-cut that North-South or Protestant-Catholic divides exist in religious participation.JEL Classification: D12, J29, Z12 Keywords:Religious behaviour, allocation of time, random-effects ordered probit model * The author would like to thank Johannes Schwarze and Bernd Hayo for helpful comments on a first draft of the paper. Many thanks to the GSOEP-group at the DIW Berlin for their hospitality when setting up the research for this work. The usual disclaimer applies.

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Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 87%

The Determinants of Church Attendance and Religious Human Capital in Germany: Evidence from Panel Data

Heineck

2002

SSRN Journal

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“…Minorities in the U.S. are largely depending on attending church services to build up successful networks and gain self-confidence in the society [5,6]. Though this type of civic activities may only enhance what Putnam called the bonding social capital for certain social groups, especially the racial minorities, church attendance unfortunately was not included in Putnam's [2] original computation of SCI.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Capital, Race, and Income Inequality in the United States

2017

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Since the 1980s, the United States has witnessed increasing wealth concentration in the hands of the ultra-rich. Measured at the state level, the top 10 percent of income earners amassed roughly 43% of total income, and economic growth only enhanced this inequality between the ultra-rich and the rest of citizens. This paper examines whether social capital plays a positive role in mitigating income inequality at the state level, with an emphasis on racial diversity and its relation to church attendance. The empirical findings demonstrate that social capital, whether measured by Robert Putnam's state-level social capital index (SCI), or a new measure that improves SCI's original measurement, fails to improve income equality. In comparison, racial diversity is found to be a consistent contributor of income inequality. In states with a greater proportion of minority population, the ultra-rich tend to share more wealth and social capital potentially facilitates the ultra-rich to enjoy the benefit of economic growth.

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“…Sasaki and Suzuki (1987) examined attendance from 1952 to 1982 and found decline among post-1927 birth cohorts. In a paper published just three months later, Hout and Greeley (1987) argued that church attendance was stable from 1940 to 1984, with the exception of a drop among all Catholics between 1968and 1975. Chaves (1989, 1991 found evidence of both secularization (cohort-based decline) and revival (period-based increases among Protestants).…”

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confidence: 99%

Is the United States a Counterexample to the Secularization Thesis?

Voas

Chaves

2016

American Journal of Sociology

283

198

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Virtually every discussion of secularization asserts that high levels of religiosity in the United States make it a decisive counterexample to the claim that modern societies are prone to secularization. Focusing on trends rather than levels, we maintain that, for two straightforward empirical reasons, the U.S. should no longer be considered a counterexample. First, it has recently become clear that American religiosity has been declining for decades. Second, this decline has been produced by the generational patterns underlying religious decline elsewhere in the West: each successive cohort is less religious than the preceding one. The United States is not an exception. These findings change the theoretical import of the U.S. for debates about secularization.

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The Center Doesn't Hold: Church Attendance in the United States, 1940-1984

Cited by 215 publications

References 20 publications

The Determinants of Church Attendance and Religious Human Capital in Germany: Evidence from Panel Data

The Determinants of Church Attendance and Religious Human Capital in Germany: Evidence from Panel Data

Social Capital, Race, and Income Inequality in the United States

Is the United States a Counterexample to the Secularization Thesis?

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