Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Can You Feel The Spirit? Towards A Sensory Sociology Of Relgion, Beth Laurel Dougherty

Dissertations

How do the embodied senses play into ritual efficacy? In this dissertation, I argue that the relationship between ritual and This mixed-methods dissertation focuses on the ways individuals, local ritual coordinators, and larger organizations use and understand the senses and embodiment as tools for shaping and experiential results of ritual encounters. Establishing an understanding of the role of the sensory in sociological literature and the historical shifts in the sociology of religion, I build an analysis that models ways that the sensory can be used to understand and analyze religious rituals. Using ethnographic and content analysis of rituals in Pagan, …

The Holy Ghost Beyond The Church Walls: Latino Pentecostalism(S), Congregations, And Civic Engagement, Norman Eli Ruano

Dissertations

In what ways is Pentecostalism a catalyst or an inhibitor of congregational and congregant civic engagement among U.S. Latinos? And how does this compare to other religious traditions, specifically Latino Catholicism, Evangelicalism, and Mainline Protestantism? The dissertation argues that Latino Pentecostal congregations, depending on a variety of reasons such as demographics, and pastor's education, can either be very conservative, inward-looking, and otherworldly, or progressive and this-worldly--in addition to other options along this continuum. Such findings are particularly important given the common social scientific research assumption that Latino Pentecostal congregations are generally conservative, inward- looking, and otherworldly.

After surveying a representative …

Exploring The Relationship Between Work, Family And Religion Among Clergy Families, Lenore Johnson

Dissertations

Studies examining how working adults manage the competing demands of family, home and work shed light on the interconnectedness of public and private life. The notion that private life is a refuge separate from work is highly contested, and the experiences of clergy families add further support to such claims. However, while clergy families experience many of the same strains as other families, the relationship between public and private life is noticeably impacted by the inclusion of religion, adding further complications to the process of balancing multiple responsibilities. In this study, I explore the complex relationship between these aspects of …