Flocks
How the Popes Helped Luther: Territorial Fragmentation and the Diffusion of Protestant Ideology
Anna Grzymala-Busse
Journal of Historical Political Economy, May 2024, Pages 1-32
Abstract:
Under what conditions do powerful ideological movements arise and transform politics? The Protestant Reformation changed the religious, social, and economic landscape of Europe. While the existing literature has focused on the mechanisms and institutions of its spread, this article argues that an important precondition for the spread of the Protestant Reformation was territorial fragmentation, and the political autonomy it offered local rulers. Local rulers could then protect the reform movement both from central authorities, and from local rivals. Where power was centralized, kings could more easily either adopt or defeat the new religion. Using a data set that includes measures of territorial fragmentation, I find that it is strongly associated with the rise and diffusion of the Protestant Reformation. Local political heterogeneity can thus protect and diffuse ideological innovations.
Systems of Global Meaning in Atheists and Theists: Divergent World Beliefs, Sources of Meaning, and Values
Crystal Park et al.
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, forthcoming
Abstract:
To illuminate the often-reported higher levels of meaning in life by those who believe in God relative to atheists, we examined the extent to which their global meaning (i.e., the beliefs, goals, and values that underlie subjective sense of meaning in life) differed. Study 1 (undergraduate sample of 100 atheists and 447 theists) found that theists endorsed higher levels of beliefs reflecting a more meaningful world (e.g., goodness, control, justice) while atheists endorsed higher beliefs in randomness. Further, atheists found less meaning from almost every source examined (e.g., achievement, self-acceptance). Results of Study 2 (87 atheists and 164 theists in a national U.S. online sample) produced similar results and also found theists more strongly endorsed many values that can facilitate a sense of meaning (e.g., traditionalism, security). Collectively, these results identify multiple divergences in global meaning between atheists and theists that may account for atheists’ lower meaning in life.
Comparing Confidence in Institutions among Latino and White Catholics and Evangelicals: Exploring Religious Differences
Esmeralda Sánchez Salazar, Esther Chan & Sharan Kaur Mehta
Social Problems, forthcoming
Abstract:
Recent surveys reveal declines in the U.S. public’s confidence in various institutions. Although some studies link these declines to religious factors, few disaggregate these patterns across racial and ethnic groups. Here, we focus on Latinos -- a growing segment of the U.S. population and an increasingly religiously diverse part of the electorate. Using original, nationally representative survey data (N=4,321), we compare Latino evangelicals and Catholics to their white counterparts in their confidence in five institutions (religious organizations, higher education, the scientific community, Congress, and the press). We find that Latino and white Catholics consistently show high levels of confidence across institutions relative to white evangelicals. Our findings suggest that there may be more similarities in institutional confidence among those of different racial and ethnic groups who share a similar religious tradition than those who are of the same race or ethnicity but share different religious traditions. Patterns observed highlight the importance of examining institutional confidence through an intersectional lens that considers religious diversity within and across racial and ethnic groups.
Faithfully Gendered? How Religious Attendance Shapes Views of Women’s Leadership in Politics and Business Cross-Nationally
Esther Chan & Di Di
Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, October 2024
Abstract:
Researchers have explored the relationship between religiosity and people’s gendered perspectives within the private sphere. However, there is limited research on how religiosity relates to people’s gendered perspectives in the public sphere. The authors examine the association between religiosity and the view that men make better leaders than women in two public spheres, politics and business, and explore variations by national context. Drawing on data collected in 44 national contexts, the analysis reveals that individuals with higher religious attendance are more inclined to support men’s leadership over women’s leadership in both political and business domains. Notably, this relationship is nuanced by a country’s level of economic development. Greater religiosity is associated with greater support for men’s leadership in more economically developed countries, whereas the reverse occurs in countries with lower economic development. The findings urge a more critical examination of religion’s role in shaping global perspectives on gender equity.
No Socioeconomic Inequalities in Mortality among Catholic Monks: A Quasi-Experiment Providing Evidence for the Fundamental Cause Theory
Alina Schmitz, Patrick Lazarevič & Marc Luy
Journal of Health and Social Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
We propose a novel approach to test the fundamental cause theory (FCT) by analyzing the association between socioeconomic status (SES), as measured by the order titles “brothers” and “padres,” and mortality in 2,421 German Catholic monks born between 1840 and 1959. This quasi-experiment allows us to study the effect of SES on mortality in a population with largely standardized living conditions. Mortality analyses based on Kaplan-Meier product limit estimation show that there were no statistically significant survival differences between the high and lower SES monks. This holds for all birth cohorts, indicating that monastic life offers health protection for monks with a lower SES regardless of the disease patterns, causes of death, or main risk factors in a given period. These findings support the FCT: Whereas SES-related differences in mortality are a widely confirmed finding in the general population, a context with largely standardized conditions eliminates the importance of SES-related resources.
The Christianization of War: How the Church Reform Movement Incentivized Armsbearing Elites to Conquer the Holy Land
Jonathan Stavnskær Doucette & Jørgen Møller
Journal of Historical Political Economy, July 2024, Pages 189-219
Abstract:
The crusades that began around AD 1100 are among the most staggering examples of how religious ideas can be reinterpreted to justify warfare. How can we explain this "Christianization" of war and how can we explain its resonance in medieval Europe? This paper argues that the eleventh-century church reform movement, made possible by the ninth- and tenth-century Carolingian state collapse, incentivized its lay supporters to go on crusade as part of the struggle to spread its religious program. This relationship was strongest for the First Crusade; it weakened for subsequent crusades as the new and revolutionary ideas about penitential warfare became widely accepted following the surprising (and bloody) conquest of Jerusalem in 1099. Using data on the location of crusaders between 1096 and 1192 -- and instrumenting for proximity to the church reform movement using distance from its place of origin (Cluny Abbey in Bourgogne) -- we provide evidence in support of this argument.