The Resilience of Conservative Religion: The Case of Popular, Conservative Protestant Congregations

Description

The resurgence and persistent appeal of conservative religion, not just in the United States, but around the world in the past few decades presents a great challenge to sociologists and to modernization theory. The recent growth and popularity of conservative churches contradicts the idea that late-modern societies - with their emphases on the individual, and separation of church and state, and the cultural fragmentation and secularization that they foster - have outgrown the need for such relics of the past as traditionalist religions. In this book Joseph Tamney offers an explanation for this apparent incongruity by looking at the case of growing, popular, conservative Protestant congregations in the United States. His findings represent a synthesis of ideas from supporters of secularization theory and from those who stress the competitive market of churches in America as a factor in church growth.

WILLIAM A. SCHABAS is Professor of Human Rights Law at the National University of Ireland, Galway and Director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights. His numerous publications include Genocide in International Law (2000), The Abolition of the Death Penalty in International Law (third edition to be published in 2001), International Human Rights Law and the Canadian Charter (1996), The Death Penalty as Cruel Treatment and Torture (1996), Precis du droit international des droits de la personne (1997) and Les instruments internationaux, canadiens et quebecois des droits et libertes (1998). He is also editor-in-chief of Criminal Law Forum.

'Tamney can take pride in having touched intelligently on them in theoretical issues surrounding conservative Protestantism, and in having produced a thoughtful, readable, ethnographic update on religion in Middletown.' Canadian Journal of Sociology Online