Is Religion Still Relevant in the Private Sphere? The State of Organized Religion in an Australian Rural Community

Bibliographic Data

ID4264703
AuthorsKen Dempsey (La Trobe University, corresponding author)
Year1989
Volume50
Issue3
Pages247
Publication date1989-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociological Analysis (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0210 • E-ISSN: 2325-7873
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3711561
OpenAlexW2466615645
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited8

This article draws on data from a longitudinal rural community study to examine the validity of the arguments of Berger, Luckmann, and others that religion is still relevant in the private, if not the public, sphere. It is shown that support for organized religion has declined dramatically during the 13 years the study has been in progress. Churches and church organizations are among the least important focal points of community and personal identity for churchgoers as well as nonchurchgoers. The clergy have a diminishing role in public life, but insofar as they are utilized on special ritual occasions, it is always to support and never to criticize either community activities or community leaders. Information collected concerning 479 friendships reveals that in less than 5 percent of the relationships is a church or church organization mentioned as a place where friends usually meet, nor are church activities or religious beliefs mentioned as topics of conversation. In this community, churchgoers as well as nonchurchgoers are more likely to use “secular” than “religious” ideas to make sense of their lives and to develop a sense of belonging to “secular” rather than “religious” organizations. The study fails to confirm the claims of Berger, Mol, and Wallace that church oriented religion has the potential for at least partially meeting a wide range of fundamental social-psychological needs

Aesthetics · Conversation · Identity (music) · Political science · Politics · Private sphere · Public sphere · Religious identity · Religious organization · Secular state · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science) · Law · Psychology · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Society, and Development · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Social Psychology

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