Anna Holleman
Biographic Data
| ID | 240662 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Anna Holleman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Anna |
| FAMILY NAME | Holleman |
| SIGNATURE | HOLLEMAN A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Duke University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4893-7463 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 78 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Who Becomes a Deacon? Gendered Vocational Discernment and the Feminization of the United Methodist Diaconate
Gender disparities in religious leadership remain persistent across denominations. While most research emphasizes barriers to women’s advancement into senior leadership roles (vertical segregation), less attention has been paid to gendered sorting across parallel ministry roles (horizontal segregation). Focusing on the vocational diaconate in the United Methodist Church (UMC), this study examines how gendered sorting across ordination tracks is p…
A brief report on the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences among United Methodist clergy
These results contribute to the study of ACEs and career choice, highlighting the need for targeted support and training for clergy with these experiences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Walking the Tightrope: How White United Methodist Clergy Approach Race and Racial Justice
LGBTQ Inclusion Among Religious Congregations and Religious Leaders in the United States
Religiosity remains a central predictor of public opinion concerning the rights of individuals identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ). Though religiosity has traditionally been associated with resistance to LGBTQ inclusion, in recent years the inclusion and acceptance of LGBTQ individuals has become common among some religious congregations and clergy, especially those in the more liberal denominations. This paper ex…
Religion and Sociology of Wealth Accumulation
Most religious groups have well-developed teachings regarding economic morality. In this chapter, we address how religious orthodoxy, or right belief, and orthopraxy, or right action, intersect in the case of economic morality. We propose that the manifestation of this interaction is shaped by social location, including race, socio-economic status, class, gender, sexuality, and organizational affiliation. We present three case studies that illust…
“There’s theology and then there’s the people I love. . .”: Authority and Ambivalence in Seminarians’ Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Relationships, Marriage, and Ordination
Drawing from 102 in-depth interviews conducted with first-year Master of Divinity (M.Div.) students at a Mainline Protestant seminary, this paper examines how students describe and account for their positions on homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy. We found that students on “both sides”—i.e., those who lean affirming and those who lean non-affirming—invoked three primary authorities in their accounts: Bi…
Adverse Childhood Experiences Among Seminarians: Personal Experiences of Trauma and Implications for Pastoral Well-Being and Ministerial Training
Recent research has shown Mainline Protestant clergy evidence poor mental health. In accounting for this, research has focused on occupational factors that impact health, with less attention paid to the role of selection into ministry as it relates to health. We investigate one possible selection characteristic, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), among a sample of 535 seminarians attending a Mainline seminary. Compared with a demographically m…
Programming Provided by Religious Congregations in the United States to Address Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorder
Racial Identity and Health Outcomes in an Emerging Latinx Immigrant Community
Which U.S. Congregational Leaders Also Work as Chaplains? A National Overview
Historically, congregational leaders did the work of chaplaincy. In the past century, the professions have diverged and chaplaincy has diversified in form and function. We ask which congregational leaders currently also serve as chaplains to identify the extent of overlap between these two types of religious leaders in the contemporary United States. We analyze data from the National Survey of Religious Leaders (NSRL), a nationally representative…
Stability and shifts in the combined positive and negative mental health of clergy: A longitudinal latent class and latent transition analysis study of united methodist pastors before and after the on…
Childhood Abuse and the Mental Health of Seminary Students: The Mediating Role of R/S Struggles
Seminary students have been found to be at a higher risk of experiencing abuse in childhood compared with the general U.S. population, as well as demonstrate mental health struggles. This study aims to understand how R/S struggles might explain the relationship between childhood abuse (emotional, physical, and sexual) among a sample of seminary students, a group that is at a higher risk of experiencing emotional and physical abuse in childhood co…
Is There a Crisis in Clergy Health: Reorienting Research Using a National Sample
Are religious leaders unusually unhealthy? This question has long occupied scholars interested in the study of religious institutions, and a significant body of research has examined the causes, correlates, and effects of poor health among clergy. In this study, we aimed to: (1) outline the development of, and bias inherent to, the scholarly understanding of clergy health over the past 50 years; (2) test, using a recently collected nationally rep…
The Resilience of Clergywomen: Gender and the Relationship between Occupational Distress and Mental Health among Congregational Leaders
Religious leaders face unique vocational challenges that place their mental health at risk. As the clergy as a profession has traditionally been male-dominated, clergywoman experience greater occupational stress than their clergymen colleagues, putting their mental health at additional risk. However, past research offers varied evidence on the gendered nature of clergy health, suggesting that clergywomen may be especially resilient to some diffic…
Religious Congregations' Technological and Financial Capacities on the Eve of the Covid-19 Pandemic
Background The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically upended religious life and placed significant strain on religious congregations. However, the effects of the pandemic were likely not felt evenly across the religious landscape. Purpose We used data from the fourth wave of the National Congregations Study, gathered on the eve of the coronavirus pandemic in 2018-19, to identify the kinds of congregations that may have been especially vulnerable to the …
The Financial Impacts of Covid-19 on United Methodist Churches in North Carolina: A Qualitative Study of Pastors' Perspectives and Strategies
Background In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, churches in the United States were forced to stop meeting in person and move to remote forms of worship and congregational life. This shift likely impacted congregational finances, which are primarily driven by individual donations. Initial research has suggested that there is a great deal of heterogeneity in the financial impact on congregations, but there has been scant research examining how pas…
Pastoral Ministry in Unsettled Times: A Qualitative Study of the Experiences of Clergy during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Background COVID-19 and its associated restrictions around in-person gatherings have created unprecedented challenges for religious congregations and those who lead them. While several surveys have attempted to describe how pastors and congregations responded to COVID-19, these provide a relatively thin picture of how COVID-19 is impacting religious life. There is scant qualitative data describing the lived reality of religious leaders and commun…
The National Survey of Religious Leaders: Background, Methods, and Lessons Learned in the Research Process
The National Survey of Religious Leaders (NSRL) is a new survey of a nationally representative sample of 1,600 clergy from across the religious spectrum. Conducted in 2019-2020, the NSRL contains a wealth of information about congregations' religious leaders and provides a rich new resource for answering a wide range of questions about clergy who serve congregations. We describe NSRL methods so that analysts will be equipped to use this complex d…
Introducing the Fourth Wave of the National Congregations Study
The fourth wave of the National Congregations Study (NCS-IV) was conducted in 2018-2019 with a nationally representative sample of congregations from across the religious spectrum. The NCS-IV included a fresh cross-section of congregations generated in conjunction with the 2018 General Social Survey and a panel of congregations that participated in the third NCS wave. Data were collected via a 65-minute interview with one key informant from 1,262…
Changing Worship Practices in American Congregations
Worship is the core activity of American congregations and the primary way people experience religion collectively in the United States. We use data from the National Congregations Study (NCS), notably including data from the fourth wave, collected in 2018-19, to examine two key trends in worship practices among American religious congregations. First, the trend toward more informal and enthusiastic worship identified in earlier NCS surveys conti…
Introducing the Fourth Wave of the National Congregations Study
The fourth wave of the National Congregations Study (NCS-IV) was conducted in 2018-2019 with a nationally representative sample of congregations from across the religious spectrum. The NCS-IV included a fresh cross-section of congregations generated in conjunction with the 2018 General Social Survey and a panel of congregations that participated in the third NCS wave. Data were collected via a 65-minute interview with one key informant from 1,262…
Pastoral Ministry in Unsettled Times: A Qualitative Study of the Experiences of Clergy during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Background COVID-19 and its associated restrictions around in-person gatherings have created unprecedented challenges for religious congregations and those who lead them. While several surveys have attempted to describe how pastors and congregations responded to COVID-19, these provide a relatively thin picture of how COVID-19 is impacting religious life. There is scant qualitative data describing the lived reality of religious leaders and commun…
The National Survey of Religious Leaders: Background, Methods, and Lessons Learned in the Research Process
The National Survey of Religious Leaders (NSRL) is a new survey of a nationally representative sample of 1,600 clergy from across the religious spectrum. Conducted in 2019-2020, the NSRL contains a wealth of information about congregations' religious leaders and provides a rich new resource for answering a wide range of questions about clergy who serve congregations. We describe NSRL methods so that analysts will be equipped to use this complex d…
Religious Congregations' Technological and Financial Capacities on the Eve of the Covid-19 Pandemic
Background The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically upended religious life and placed significant strain on religious congregations. However, the effects of the pandemic were likely not felt evenly across the religious landscape. Purpose We used data from the fourth wave of the National Congregations Study, gathered on the eve of the coronavirus pandemic in 2018-19, to identify the kinds of congregations that may have been especially vulnerable to the …
Is There a Crisis in Clergy Health: Reorienting Research Using a National Sample
Are religious leaders unusually unhealthy? This question has long occupied scholars interested in the study of religious institutions, and a significant body of research has examined the causes, correlates, and effects of poor health among clergy. In this study, we aimed to: (1) outline the development of, and bias inherent to, the scholarly understanding of clergy health over the past 50 years; (2) test, using a recently collected nationally rep…
Changing Worship Practices in American Congregations
Worship is the core activity of American congregations and the primary way people experience religion collectively in the United States. We use data from the National Congregations Study (NCS), notably including data from the fourth wave, collected in 2018-19, to examine two key trends in worship practices among American religious congregations. First, the trend toward more informal and enthusiastic worship identified in earlier NCS surveys conti…
LGBTQ Inclusion Among Religious Congregations and Religious Leaders in the United States
Religiosity remains a central predictor of public opinion concerning the rights of individuals identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ). Though religiosity has traditionally been associated with resistance to LGBTQ inclusion, in recent years the inclusion and acceptance of LGBTQ individuals has become common among some religious congregations and clergy, especially those in the more liberal denominations. This paper ex…
The Resilience of Clergywomen: Gender and the Relationship between Occupational Distress and Mental Health among Congregational Leaders
Religious leaders face unique vocational challenges that place their mental health at risk. As the clergy as a profession has traditionally been male-dominated, clergywoman experience greater occupational stress than their clergymen colleagues, putting their mental health at additional risk. However, past research offers varied evidence on the gendered nature of clergy health, suggesting that clergywomen may be especially resilient to some diffic…
The Financial Impacts of Covid-19 on United Methodist Churches in North Carolina: A Qualitative Study of Pastors' Perspectives and Strategies
Background In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, churches in the United States were forced to stop meeting in person and move to remote forms of worship and congregational life. This shift likely impacted congregational finances, which are primarily driven by individual donations. Initial research has suggested that there is a great deal of heterogeneity in the financial impact on congregations, but there has been scant research examining how pas…
Walking the Tightrope: How White United Methodist Clergy Approach Race and Racial Justice
Introducing the Fourth Wave of the National Congregations Study
The fourth wave of the National Congregations Study (NCS-IV) was conducted in 2018-2019 with a nationally representative sample of congregations from across the religious spectrum. The NCS-IV included a fresh cross-section of congregations generated in conjunction with the 2018 General Social Survey and a panel of congregations that participated in the third NCS wave. Data were collected via a 65-minute interview with one key informant from 1,262…
Changing Worship Practices in American Congregations
Worship is the core activity of American congregations and the primary way people experience religion collectively in the United States. We use data from the National Congregations Study (NCS), notably including data from the fourth wave, collected in 2018-19, to examine two key trends in worship practices among American religious congregations. First, the trend toward more informal and enthusiastic worship identified in earlier NCS surveys conti…
Religious Congregations' Technological and Financial Capacities on the Eve of the Covid-19 Pandemic
Background The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically upended religious life and placed significant strain on religious congregations. However, the effects of the pandemic were likely not felt evenly across the religious landscape. Purpose We used data from the fourth wave of the National Congregations Study, gathered on the eve of the coronavirus pandemic in 2018-19, to identify the kinds of congregations that may have been especially vulnerable to the …
The Financial Impacts of Covid-19 on United Methodist Churches in North Carolina: A Qualitative Study of Pastors' Perspectives and Strategies
Background In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, churches in the United States were forced to stop meeting in person and move to remote forms of worship and congregational life. This shift likely impacted congregational finances, which are primarily driven by individual donations. Initial research has suggested that there is a great deal of heterogeneity in the financial impact on congregations, but there has been scant research examining how pas…
Pastoral Ministry in Unsettled Times: A Qualitative Study of the Experiences of Clergy during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Background COVID-19 and its associated restrictions around in-person gatherings have created unprecedented challenges for religious congregations and those who lead them. While several surveys have attempted to describe how pastors and congregations responded to COVID-19, these provide a relatively thin picture of how COVID-19 is impacting religious life. There is scant qualitative data describing the lived reality of religious leaders and commun…
The National Survey of Religious Leaders: Background, Methods, and Lessons Learned in the Research Process
The National Survey of Religious Leaders (NSRL) is a new survey of a nationally representative sample of 1,600 clergy from across the religious spectrum. Conducted in 2019-2020, the NSRL contains a wealth of information about congregations' religious leaders and provides a rich new resource for answering a wide range of questions about clergy who serve congregations. We describe NSRL methods so that analysts will be equipped to use this complex d…
Is There a Crisis in Clergy Health: Reorienting Research Using a National Sample
Are religious leaders unusually unhealthy? This question has long occupied scholars interested in the study of religious institutions, and a significant body of research has examined the causes, correlates, and effects of poor health among clergy. In this study, we aimed to: (1) outline the development of, and bias inherent to, the scholarly understanding of clergy health over the past 50 years; (2) test, using a recently collected nationally rep…
The Resilience of Clergywomen: Gender and the Relationship between Occupational Distress and Mental Health among Congregational Leaders
Religious leaders face unique vocational challenges that place their mental health at risk. As the clergy as a profession has traditionally been male-dominated, clergywoman experience greater occupational stress than their clergymen colleagues, putting their mental health at additional risk. However, past research offers varied evidence on the gendered nature of clergy health, suggesting that clergywomen may be especially resilient to some diffic…
Religion and Sociology of Wealth Accumulation
Most religious groups have well-developed teachings regarding economic morality. In this chapter, we address how religious orthodoxy, or right belief, and orthopraxy, or right action, intersect in the case of economic morality. We propose that the manifestation of this interaction is shaped by social location, including race, socio-economic status, class, gender, sexuality, and organizational affiliation. We present three case studies that illust…
“There’s theology and then there’s the people I love. . .”: Authority and Ambivalence in Seminarians’ Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Relationships, Marriage, and Ordination
Drawing from 102 in-depth interviews conducted with first-year Master of Divinity (M.Div.) students at a Mainline Protestant seminary, this paper examines how students describe and account for their positions on homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy. We found that students on “both sides”—i.e., those who lean affirming and those who lean non-affirming—invoked three primary authorities in their accounts: Bi…
Adverse Childhood Experiences Among Seminarians: Personal Experiences of Trauma and Implications for Pastoral Well-Being and Ministerial Training
Recent research has shown Mainline Protestant clergy evidence poor mental health. In accounting for this, research has focused on occupational factors that impact health, with less attention paid to the role of selection into ministry as it relates to health. We investigate one possible selection characteristic, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), among a sample of 535 seminarians attending a Mainline seminary. Compared with a demographically m…
Programming Provided by Religious Congregations in the United States to Address Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorder
Racial Identity and Health Outcomes in an Emerging Latinx Immigrant Community
Which U.S. Congregational Leaders Also Work as Chaplains? A National Overview
Historically, congregational leaders did the work of chaplaincy. In the past century, the professions have diverged and chaplaincy has diversified in form and function. We ask which congregational leaders currently also serve as chaplains to identify the extent of overlap between these two types of religious leaders in the contemporary United States. We analyze data from the National Survey of Religious Leaders (NSRL), a nationally representative…
Stability and shifts in the combined positive and negative mental health of clergy: A longitudinal latent class and latent transition analysis study of united methodist pastors before and after the on…
Childhood Abuse and the Mental Health of Seminary Students: The Mediating Role of R/S Struggles
Seminary students have been found to be at a higher risk of experiencing abuse in childhood compared with the general U.S. population, as well as demonstrate mental health struggles. This study aims to understand how R/S struggles might explain the relationship between childhood abuse (emotional, physical, and sexual) among a sample of seminary students, a group that is at a higher risk of experiencing emotional and physical abuse in childhood co…
A brief report on the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences among United Methodist clergy
These results contribute to the study of ACEs and career choice, highlighting the need for targeted support and training for clergy with these experiences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Walking the Tightrope: How White United Methodist Clergy Approach Race and Racial Justice
LGBTQ Inclusion Among Religious Congregations and Religious Leaders in the United States
Religiosity remains a central predictor of public opinion concerning the rights of individuals identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ). Though religiosity has traditionally been associated with resistance to LGBTQ inclusion, in recent years the inclusion and acceptance of LGBTQ individuals has become common among some religious congregations and clergy, especially those in the more liberal denominations. This paper ex…
Who Becomes a Deacon? Gendered Vocational Discernment and the Feminization of the United Methodist Diaconate
Gender disparities in religious leadership remain persistent across denominations. While most research emphasizes barriers to women’s advancement into senior leadership roles (vertical segregation), less attention has been paid to gendered sorting across parallel ministry roles (horizontal segregation). Focusing on the vocational diaconate in the United Methodist Church (UMC), this study examines how gendered sorting across ordination tracks is p…
Sociology (14 works) · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology (13 works) · Political science (12 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Religion, Society, and Development (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Medicine (7 works) · Religion and Society Interactions (7 works) · Mental health (6 works) · Gender Studies (5 works)