Nancy T Ammerman

Biographic Data

ID3604345
NAMENancy T Ammerman
GIVEN NAMESNancy T
FAMILY NAMEAmmerman
SIGNATUREAMMERMAN N T
AFFILIATIONSBoston University
ORCID0000-0001-6727-3319
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS72
TOTAL CITATIONS416
AUTHOR COUNT71
EDITOR COUNT1
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1980
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX7

  • Studying congregations in a changing U.S. religious landscape: 2005–2025

    Nancy T AmmermanARTICLEPractical Theology2026

  • Introduction: Religion and Bodies Special Issue

    Open AccessKorie Little, Nancy T Ammerman et al.ARTICLEJournal for the Scientific Study…2025

    Social scientists studying religion can hardly avoid the presence of human bodies, but too often that embodied reality goes unmarked.The human body is, of course, central to the practice of religion.People embody religion through movement, ritual, and interactions.They feel and experience religion, both personally and in relation to others, and use the body to express their connection to the sacred and divine.Religions organize social life in pro…

  • One Faith No Longer: The Transformation of Christianity in Red and Blue America

    Nancy T AmmermanARTICLEAmerican Journal of Sociology2022

  • Studying Lived Religion: Contexts and Practices

    Nancy T AmmermanBOOKStudying Lived Religion2021

    Offers an overarching definition and framework for the study of religion as it manifests itself in everyday life Look around you as you walk down the street; somewhere, usually hidden in plain sight, there will be traces of religion. Perhaps it is the person who walks past with a Christian tattoo or a Muslim hijab. Perhaps it is the poster announcing a charity auction at the local synagogue. Or perhaps you open your Instagram feed to see what ins…

  • How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others, by T. M. LUHRMANN

    Open AccessNancy T AmmermanARTICLESociology of Religion2021

    In this significant and accessible book, respected anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann draws on decades of watching religious people in the USA and beyond to answer the question of how “invisible others” (divine beings and spirits) become real to people, and why and how it matters in their lives. She begins with two observations that should be apparent but often, among social scientists, are not. First, the experience of being in relationship with a di…

  • Plausibility Structure

    Nancy T AmmermanCHAPTERThe Sage Encyclopedia of the…2020

  • Rethinking Religion: Toward a Practice Approach

    Nancy T AmmermanARTICLEAmerican Journal of Sociology2020Cited by: 68References: 128

    Over the last three decades, fruitful new lines of research and theorizing have revealed the inadequacy of secularization and rational choice explanations of religion. This article argues that sociological understandings of religion can best advance now by building on the empirical findings that have emerged under the banner of “lived religion,” but grounding that work in theories of social practice. Going beyond the Western, individualist focus …

  • Spiritual but Not Religious?: Beyond Binary Choices in the Study of Religion

    Nancy T AmmermanCHAPTERSociology of Religion2019

    In popular commentary it is not hard to find claims that there is a “growing division between organized religion and spirituality”, but the evidence is often ambiguous at best. Sociological attention to the study of “spirituality” increased significantly with the cultural shifts of the 1960s. Studies of seekers and the “spiritual marketplace” have provided valuable analyses of a growing religious sector that includes broad new religious possibili…

  • Connecting Mainline Protestant Churches with Public Life

    Nancy T AmmermanCHAPTERQuiet Hand of God2019

  • James Hunter and the Changing Shape of American Evangelicalism

    Open AccessNancy T AmmermanARTICLEJournal for the Scientific Study…2019References: 3

  • Religions and Social Progress: Critical Assessments and Creative Partnerships

    G Davies, Grace Davie et al.CHAPTERRethinking Society for the 21st…2018

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  • Congregations in Europe

    Open AccessNancy T Ammerman, Christophe Monnot et al.BOOKCongregations in Europe2018

    Back cover: This volume describes and maps congregations of Christian confessions and denominations, as well as groups with Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, and various other spiritual faiths, in different European countries. Consisting of three parts, it presents concrete sociological studies addressing how established and not established, old and new congregations of various faiths create a new kind of religious diversity at the country level; …

  • Lived Religion as an Emerging Field: An Assessment of its Contours and Frontiers

    Nancy T AmmermanARTICLENordic Journal of Religion and…2016

    Over the last three decades, lived religion has emerged as a distinct field of study, with an identifiable “canon” of originating sources. With this body of work reaching maturity, a critical assessment is in order. This study analyzes sixty-four journal articles published in English, since 1997, which have used either “lived religion” or “everyday religion” in their titles, abstracts, or keywords. We find that the field has largely been defined …

  • Lived Religion

    Open AccessNancy T AmmermanOTHEREmerging Trends in the Social and…2015

    Research on “lived religion” focuses on the everyday practices of ordinary people, in contrast to the study of official texts, organizations, and experts. It includes attention to rituals and stories and spiritual experiences that may draw on official religious traditions, but may also extend beyond them. Lived religion is closely related to “popular religion”, but is a more encompassing category. As with the study of popular religion, the focus …

  • Finding Religion in Everyday Life

    Nancy T AmmermanARTICLESociology of Religion2014Cited by: 77References: 14

    This address is a contribution to the study of "lived religion," that is, the embodied and enacted forms of spirituality that occur in everyday life. Like the children's books that ask "where's Waldo," sociologists are invited to think about the many ways in which we need to refocus our work in order to see the religion that often appears in unexpected places. As the discipline has broadened its geographical and cultural vision, it also must broa…

  • Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes: Finding Religion in Everyday Life

    Nancy T AmmermanBOOKSacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes2013Cited by: 9

  • Roundtable on the Sociology of Religion: Twenty-Three Theses on the Status of Religion in American Sociology--A Mellon Working-Group Reflection

    Christian Smith, Brandon Vaidyanathan et al.ARTICLEJournal of the American Academy…2013Cited by: 22

    American sociology has not taken and does not take religion as seriously as it needs to in order to do the best sociology possible. Despite religion being an important and distinctive kind of practice in human social life, both historically and in the world today, American sociologists often neglect religion or treat it reductionistically. We explore several reasons for this negligence, focusing on key historical, conceptual, methodological, and …

  • Spiritual But Not Religious? Beyond Binary Choices in the Study of Religion

    Open AccessNancy T AmmermanARTICLEJournal for the Scientific Study…2013Cited by: 162References: 14

    Spirituality' often has been framed in social science research as an alternative to organized 'religion,' implicitly or explicitly extending theoretical arguments about the privatization of religion. This article uses in-depth qualitative data from a religiously diverse U.S. sample to argue that this either/or distinction not only fails to capture the empirical reality of American religion, it does no justice to the complexity of spirituality. An…

  • Speaking of Methods: Eliciting Religious Narratives through Interviews, Photos, and Oral Diaries

    Nancy T Ammerman, R R WilliamsCHAPTERAnnual Review of the Sociology of…2012

    [ In the context of significant religious change, sociologists have been re-thinking both theory and method in these early years of the twenty first century. As our empirical gaze has expanded from the North Atlantic to the globe, our very concepts of belief and practice and organization have been challenged. Secularization has ceased to be the primary theoretical lens through which one understand and society, and a wider range of explorations ha…

  • Congregations

    Nancy T AmmermanBOOKThe Oxford Handbook Of The…2011

  • The New Metaphysicals: Spirituality and the American Religious Imagination

    Nancy T AmmermanREVIEWSociology of Religion2011

    When most people think of Cambridge, Massachusetts, they probably think about the prominent institutions of higher education located there and imagine it as among the most secular places in North America. Who knew that around every corner one might find spiritual pilgrims of every sort exploring their past lives and chakras? Courtney Bender's choice of location for this study of “individual religious experience” provides, then, exactly the sort o…

  • The Challenges of Pluralism: Locating Religion in a World of Diversity

    Open AccessNancy T AmmermanARTICLESocial Compass2010

    The author argues that religious pluralism is the normal state of affairs. Religion itself is multi-dimensional, and the several dimensions of religious and spiritual experience can be combined in myriad ways across individual lives. Preliminary findings from new research are presented, detailing modes of spiritual discourse that include mystery, majesty, meaning, moral compassion, and social connection. These dimensions find expression across mu…

  • Telling Stories: The Use of Personal Narratives in the Social Sciences and History

    Open AccessNancy T AmmermanARTICLEContemporary Sociology A Journal…2010Cited by: 1

  • Congregations

    Nancy T AmmermanCHAPTERThe Oxford handbook of the…2009

  • Faith Makes Us Live: Surviving and Thriving in the Haitian Diaspora by Margarita A. Mooney

    Open AccessNancy T AmmermanARTICLEJournal for the Scientific Study…2009