Emerging Trends in The Social and Behavioral Sciences

Institutional Change in American Religion

Item

Title

Institutional Change in American Religion

Author

Clevenger, Casey

Cadge, Wendy

Research Area

Social Institutions

Topic

Religious Institutions

Abstract

This essay provides an overview of demographic and organizational changes in American religion since 1965. We focus on religious beliefs and practices, congregational life, special purpose groups, religion outside of religious organizations, and transnational and global aspects of religion. American religious institutions are increasingly diverse, reflecting the growing ethnic, linguistic, and religious pluralism of the United States. Recent immigrants to the United States are more Catholic, more Orthodox, and less Christian than adult Americans overall, and they have joined existing congregations in addition to forming their own religious organizations. A substantial number of Americans now consider themselves spiritual, but not religious, and many do not identify with organized religion at all. American Christianity itself is more politically polarized than in the past, and individuals who are religiously active across traditions tend to be more politically and socially conservative than others with tensions evident around contemporary social issues such as abortion and homosexuality. Existing religious organizations and secular organizations such as hospitals, universities, and prisons have responded to demographic and religious changes by offering new or changed services and physical spaces to meet religious and spiritual needs. We encourage future scholars to address institutional changes in American religion by considering diverse people and traditions, asking questions about religion in religious and nonreligious organizations, and situating studies of the United States in their broader global contexts.

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Identifier

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extracted text

Institutional Change
in American Religion
CASEY CLEVENGER and WENDY CADGE

Abstract
This essay provides an overview of demographic and organizational changes in
American religion since 1965. We focus on religious beliefs and practices, congregational life, special purpose groups, religion outside of religious organizations,
and transnational and global aspects of religion. American religious institutions
are increasingly diverse, reflecting the growing ethnic, linguistic, and religious
pluralism of the United States. Recent immigrants to the United States are more
Catholic, more Orthodox, and less Christian than adult Americans overall, and
they have joined existing congregations in addition to forming their own religious
organizations. A substantial number of Americans now consider themselves
spiritual, but not religious, and many do not identify with organized religion at all.
American Christianity itself is more politically polarized than in the past, and individuals who are religiously active across traditions tend to be more politically and
socially conservative than others with tensions evident around contemporary social
issues such as abortion and homosexuality. Existing religious organizations and
secular organizations such as hospitals, universities, and prisons have responded
to demographic and religious changes by offering new or changed services and
physical spaces to meet religious and spiritual needs. We encourage future scholars
to address institutional changes in American religion by considering diverse
people and traditions, asking questions about religion in religious and nonreligious
organizations, and situating studies of the United States in their broader global
contexts.

INTRODUCTION
Religion in the United States takes many organizational forms. From traditional congregations to special interest groups to the ways religion—and
increasingly spirituality—is a part of formally secular organizations such as
universities, hospitals, and prisons, religion is part of multiple organizations
in a range of diverse ways (Cadge, 2013; Jacobsen & Jacobsen, 2012; Sullivan,
2009). Changes in American religious demographics shape organizational
changes in American religion just as broader institutional changes shape the
forms religion and spirituality take in American life.
Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Edited by Robert Scott and Stephen Kosslyn.
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-1-118-90077-2.

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

This essay offers a brief overview of demographic and organizational
changes in American religion since 1965. We highlight how these shifts
shape and are shaped by broader institutional changes. We focus on
questions of personal belief and practice, congregational influence, special
purpose groups, religion outside of religious organizations, and transnational and global aspects of religion. We encourage future scholars to
continue thinking about institutional changes in American religion by
considering diverse people and traditions, asking questions about religion
in religious and nonreligious organizations, and situating studies of the
United States in their broader global contexts (Bender, Cadge, Levitt, &
Smilde, 2013).
FOUNDATIONAL RESEARCH
DEMOGRAPHIC OVERVIEW
When Will Herberg famously described the United States as a “triple melting
pot” in his influential book, Protestant, Catholic, Jew (1960), most Americans
did in fact identify as Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish (Fischer & Hout, 2006).
Since 1965, however, religion in the United States has been shaped by the
decline of mainline Protestantism, the growth of evangelical Christianity,
significant immigration, and increased “nones” or people who claim no
religious affiliation when asked in surveys (Edgell, 2012; Sherkat & Ellison,
1999; Wolfe, 2003; Wuthnow, 1988). Demographic changes including increasing age at first marriage, delayed childbearing, and a growing number of
people raised without religion also influence contemporary religious life
(Fischer & Hout, 2006; Fischer, Hout, & Latham, 2000; Hertel, 1995; Hout &
Fischer, 2002; Putnam, 2000). This shifting religious landscape is characterized by internal diversity within Protestantism and Catholicism, a growing
number of non-Christian Americans, and more tolerance for religious
variety in American life.
In his recent description of trends in American religion, sociologist Mark
Chaves (2011) points to both continuity and change in belief and practice.
Since 1972, the fraction of Americans who say they know God exists has
been consistent at 64%. The number of those who pray several times a week
or more (69%) has not changed, nor has the fraction who report born-again
experiences (36%). The fraction that believes in God has decreased very
slowly, still remaining above 90%. People’s families and friendship circles
have become more religiously diverse in the past 40 years and they seem
more religiously tolerant than in the past. Increasing numbers seem comfortable with diffuse senses of spirituality and rates of attendance at religious
services have softened (Chaves, 2011; Putnam & Campbell, 2010).

Institutional Change in American Religion

3

Distinctions between liberals and conservatives have long been a component of American Christianity, a divide that intensified in the past 45
years, particularly among Protestants. In his study of American religious
structures since World War II, Wuthnow (1988) describes how previous
liberal-conservative differences over theological orientations were superseded in the 1960s by conflicts over the appropriate role of religion and
religious leaders in public life and broader social change. In recent decades,
higher fertility and earlier childbearing among conservative Protestants
combined with fewer upwardly mobile Protestants shifting from more
conservative to more liberal churches in adulthood has led the conservative
side of this Christian religious divide to grow (Chaves, 2011; Fischer & Hout,
2006). Tensions between religious liberals and conservatives in religious
groups more broadly are particularly evident around contemporary social
issues including abortion and homosexuality (Brint & Abrutyn, 2010;
Brooks & Manza, 1997; Green, 2009; Williams, 2009). Today, individuals
who are religiously active across traditions tend to be more politically and
socially conservative than others (Chaves, 2011).
In the twentieth century, immigration shaped American religious life
primarily through the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act that
removed country-of-origin quotas and diversified the countries from which
immigrants arrived (Cadge & Ecklund, 2007; Hirschman, 2004). Subsequent
immigrants diversified American Christianity, particularly Catholicism, and
increased the numbers of Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and people with
no religious affiliation on American shores (Jasso, Massey, Rosenzweig, &
Smith, 2003). New waves of legal immigrants are more Catholic and more
Orthodox, but also less Christian than adult Americans overall (Massey &
Higgins, 2011). This diversification among immigrants is evident in gateway
cities such as Los Angeles and New York with large immigrant populations
as well as in smaller cities and rural communities where immigrants later
settled or refugees were resettled (Cadge, Levitt, Jaworksy, & Clevenger,
2013; Gozdziak & Martin, 2005; Hernández-León & Zúñiga, 2005; Massey,
2008).
Despite claims that migration is a “theologizing” experience through which
immigrants turn to religion for support (Ebaugh & Chafetz, 2000; Hagan,
2008; Smith, 1978; Warner, 1998; Warner & Wittner, 1998), migration can
actually disrupt religious life (Wuthnow & Christiano, 1979). Recent studies
find that religious participation—although not religious belief—among new
legal immigrants actually drops in the months after receiving their residence
visas in the United States (Connor, 2009; Massey & Higgins, 2011). However,
there is some evidence to suggest that religious participation may eventually
increase (or rebound to previous levels) with additional years spent in the
United States (Akresh, 2011).

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Alongside shifts brought by changing demographics and immigration are
growing numbers of Americans who claim no religious affiliation. A 2012
report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life claimed that 20%
of the public and 33% of young adults did not have a religious affiliation.
Two-thirds of these people say they believe in God, however, and one-third
consider themselves to be spiritual but not religious. Unlike in the past,
many who are unaffiliated today are not seekers looking for a religious
organization to join. Scholars offer a number of explanations for the growing
numbers of “nones,” including demographic trends such as generational
replacement and postponed marriage and parenthood (Hout & Fischer,
2002; Pew, 2012). As patterns of marriage and family formation change,
the small numbers of people raised without religion are less likely to join
churches than they were in the past (Hout & Fischer, 2002). At the same time,
the increasing identification of churches and religiosity with conservative
politics has encouraged detachment from organized religion among socially
moderate and liberal citizens with weaker ties to religion (Fischer & Hout,
2006; Hout & Fischer, 2002; Pew, 2012; Putnam & Campbell, 2010).
It is not just those without religious affiliations who view themselves as
spiritual. Most Americans—about 80%—report in surveys that they are both
spiritual and religious (Chaves, 2011). A small but growing minority—about
20% of those under 40—say they are spiritual but not religious (Chaves,
2011). Spirituality, for many, describes the private ways they find meaning
outside of traditional religious organizations, which people increasingly
describe as too focused on money and power. Senses of spirituality come
from people’s experiences, sociologist Courtney Bender argues, in her study
of metaphysicals or people involved in reiki, yoga, energy healing, and
other alterative practices in Cambridge, Massachusetts (Bender, 2010). Sociologist Nancy Ammerman and colleagues describe spirituality differently
in their study of how people—who were mostly affiliated with religious
organizations—see and experience spirituality in their lives as connected to
God, nature, home, work, and other things (Williams, 2010). They find that
religion and spirituality may appear in expected and unexpected places,
and that people continue to make room for the sacred in their everyday lives
(Ammerman, 2010; Williams, 2010).
CONGREGATIONS
All of these demographic changes have influenced the shape of religious
organizations and the ways religion is a part of broader secular organizations. Congregations remain the central local-level organization through
which many people encounter religion and gather with like-minded others

Institutional Change in American Religion

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to worship, socialize, and learn. The National Congregations Study estimated in 2006–2007 that there are more than 300,000 congregations in the
contemporary United States. The average congregation has 75 members,
while the average person goes to a congregation with 400 members. Recent
research suggests that people are increasingly going to a smaller number of
larger congregations, perhaps because of suburbanization as well as cultural
and economic changes (Chaves, 2011). American congregations exist to
serve the spiritual needs of their congregants, and they do so by drawing
on a vast resource base of partnerships and connections, such as interfaith
coalitions, clergy alliances, service groups, mission programs, and regional
and denominational organizations (Ammerman, 2005).
Many scholars of American religion have taken up the question of racial
diversity within religious congregations and found that deep racial divides
persist, especially among white and African American members of Protestant congregations (Edwards, 2008; Emerson, 2006; Emerson & Smith, 2000).
Some research points to specific cases in which religious racial integration
has been achieved by developing a congregationally based religious identity among members and drawing on shared rituals and practices (Becker,
1998; Ecklund, 2005a, 2005b; Jenkins, 2003; Marti, 2005, 2009; Stanczak, 2006).
Larger studies based on nationally representative data identify a number
of specific internal and external factors that influence racial diversity and
integration within congregations. Dougherty and Huyser (2008) find that
racial diversity is greater in congregations that have been established more
recently, are larger in size, have racial reconciliation programs, and are led by
clergy of a different race than most members of the congregation. They find
the highest levels of diversity in non-Christian religious groups, followed
by non-Protestant Christian traditions (Dougherty & Huyser, 2008). Multiracial congregations are also more likely to be located in Western or Eastern
regions of the United States, in urban areas, and in communities characterized by racial diversity, higher socioeconomic status, and residential mobility
(Dougherty & Huyser, 2008).
Changing demographics related to immigration have led to a number
of institutional shifts in local and national religious organizations. While
some immigrants have joined existing congregations, others have formed
new congregations—although scholars debate whether that is the right
way to describe them (Cadge, 2005). Some of these congregations are
independent entities, while others are connected to national or international
denominations or organizations. As the American Catholic Church has
received a growing number of immigrants from Mexico, Central America,
and the Philippines (Menjívar, 1999, 2003; Mooney, 2009), it has worked
to accommodate these new members by providing a range of non-English

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

masses and other religious services. Protestant churches are also experiencing such shifts as individual churches receive increasing numbers of
immigrants into their congregations, and Korean, Chinese, and African
ethnic congregations enter major Protestant denominations (Ecklund, 2005a,
2005b; Kwon, Kim & Warner, 2001; Min & Kim, 2002). There are now Islamic
mosques and Buddhist and Hindu temples in most major cities (Hirschman,
2004). Immigrant religious organizations can help immigrants adapt by
providing language training, social service provision, and employment
networks (Ebaugh & Chafetz, 2000; Min, 1992), but they may also strengthen
ties to the sending country (Min, 1992) and act as a buffer from society for
immigrants who are least incorporated (Cadge & Ecklund, 2006).
Many scholars address how religious congregations affect individual-level
political participation, but less is known about how congregations themselves engage in politics. Although congregations exhibit relatively low
levels of political engagement, they do offer opportunities for political
activity at worship services such as petitioning campaigns, lobbying,
demonstrating, and distribute voting guides (Beyerlein & Chaves, 2003).
Some evidence suggests that people are more likely to develop skills
important to external civic engagement by participating in congregational
activities beyond religious service attendance (Beyerlein & Hipp, 2006;
Lichterman 2008). Mainline Protestants, Black Protestants, and Catholics
who spend more hours participating in congregation activities outside of
religious services are more likely to participate in other “bridging” organizations that build linkages among different groups in communities (Beyerlein
& Hipp, 2006). This is not the case for Evangelicals, lending support to the
idea that some religious groups, which may cultivate strong internal ties
but few external ties, may not provide benefits to the broader community
(Beyerlein & Hipp, 2006).
SPECIAL PURPOSE GROUPS
Religious special purpose groups have expanded in recent decades around a
range of diverse issues. Special purpose groups are distinct from other religious institutions in their orientation to achieving focused objectives, and
mobilizing resources and support to attain them (Wuthnow, 1988). According to Wuthnow (1988), special purpose groups, “focus on limited objectives,
attract participants with special interests, and generally do not constitute the
main arenas in which the worship and instruction of the church as a corporate body take place” (p. 108). With the rise of the “New Christian Right” in
the 1980s, many special purpose groups were established around conservative policy aims, while others formed around religious constituencies with
specialized talents, skills, occupations or hobbies.

Institutional Change in American Religion

7

The proliferation of special purpose groups between the 1960s and the
present was a result of the professionalization of religious workers, the
imitation of secular organizations, rising levels of affluence and leisure
time, and most importantly, the expanding influence of the state in areas of
welfare, education, equal rights, and other policy arenas (Wuthnow, 1988).
In response to the actions of the state, special interest groups have formed to
limit, oppose, or promote different types of government action on a variety
of issues from advocating for school prayer to enforcing separation of church
and state (Wuthnow, 1988). Observers of the dramatic growth in special
purpose groups debate both the costs and benefits of these developments.
While special purpose groups have the potential to revitalize American
religious institutions, there is also the danger that they fracture religious
communities along the social and political cleavages and controversies
evident in the wider society (Wuthnow, 1988).
Special purpose groups also provide a venue through which immigrants
and others new to American shores can stake their claim to a piece of
American civic life beyond congregations. Groups of Muslims, for example,
have created Muslim community health organizations through which to
normalize their differences and advance personal and communal interests.
These organizations enable founders to express personal piety outside the
traditional institution of the mosque and to participate in the American civil
society tradition of faith-based organizations (Laird & Cadge 2010). Hindu
Americans have established anti-defamation leagues that combat negative
portrayals of Hinduism and lobbying groups that work to achieve public
recognition for Hinduism as an American religion (Kurien, 2006, p. 730).
OUTSIDE OF RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS
In addition to focusing on American religious organizations, it is important
to consider how broad demographic changes shape the ways people experience religion in nonreligious organizations. Health care organizations, for
example, frequently make space for spirituality and religion in chapels, meditation, and/or prayer rooms, and employ chaplains who work with patients
and families from a range of religious backgrounds, including none. Wendy
Cadge’s recent book traces the history of religion in contemporary health care
organizations, illustrating the multiple spaces in which it is present and the
competing ways it is conceived and acted on by healthcare staff (2013).
Secular universities, prisons, airports, and the military also have chapel,
meditation, and prayer rooms and chaplains who are responsible for addressing religion and spirituality in its multiple guises (Beckford, 2001, Beckford &
Gilliat-Ray, 1998; Brand, 2012). As religion becomes more visible on college
campuses, a number of universities are managing religious diversity and

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

“inviting” religion into the university by creating new physical spaces to
meet religious and spiritual needs among students (Jacobsen & Jacobsen,
2012; Kazanjian, 2006). Some universities have renovated historically
Christian chapels to serve students from a range of religious and spiritual
backgrounds, while others have opened up new spirituality centers to
accommodate multiple religious and secular ethical organizations (Jacobsen
& Jacobsen, 2012; Kazanjian, 2006; Riess, 2008). In his study of evangelical
Christians, Michael Lindsay has shown how networks facilitate the movement of evangelical Christians across social institutions and shape their
experiences in secular, high-status positions (Lindsay, 2007). Other scholars
have focused on how religious discourse and practice can provide progressive activists, organizers, and movements with important resources to work
for social change (Hart, 2001; Hondagneu-Sotelo, 2008; Lichterman, 2005,
2008; Nepstad Erickson, 2008; Wood, 2002). In order to fully understand
the presence of religion and its impact on contemporary American society,
scholars must continue to trace its influence in spheres outside of explicitly
religious organizations.
RELIGION IN TRANSNATIONAL CONTEXT
Any account of institutional change in the United States is incomplete without attention to immigration, globalization, and transnational connections.
Many existing American religious organizations are part of larger transnational structures with branches of the same organization located in different
parts of the world. Scholars of migration typically characterize transnationalism as the “back-and-forth movements” of immigrants between sending
and receiving countries (Portes, Guarnizo, & Landolt, 1999, p. 219). Religion,
however, often acts as a network connecting people and places, and many
Americans belong to transnational religious groups that are deliberately constituted across national borders (Levitt, 2001, 2004; Wuthnow & Offutt, 2008).
Taking these factors into account, transnational scholars such as Levitt (2007)
argue that religious diversity can be shaped as much by forces at work outside American borders as within them, and that religion is no longer rooted
in a specific country or legal system.
Even though most American churches are still locally oriented, more
American congregations and individual Christians now engage in charity
work, construction projects, education, evangelization, and relief efforts
abroad (Wuthnow, 2009). The Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion,
and international meetings of Presbyterians and Baptists represent a few
of the most visible examples of traditional transnational religious organizations. Newer transnational connections are less centrally organized and
have emerged through the mission efforts of smaller congregations, the

Institutional Change in American Religion

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development of personal ties, and short-term international visits (Wuthnow
& Offutt, 2008). Immigrant groups have also recreated transnational religious organizations within the United States. For example, Gujarati Hindu
groups have established home-country-based programs that formalize and
reinforce homeland ties with guidance from home-country leaders or local
Indian religious leaders (Levitt, 2004, p. 13).
In a cutting-edge example of how scholars are responding to the complexity
of studying transnational religion, Mooney (2009) focuses on the experiences
of the Catholic Haitian diaspora in Miami, Montreal, and Paris. Through
this comparative work, Mooney shows how different national and political contexts shape the ability of religious organizations to mediate between
immigrants and their host societies. Although the Haitians in her study share
similar beliefs and expressions of religious piety across locations, the ways
in which their faith enables them to confront their socioeconomic conditions
depends on how leaders interact with other institutions in the United States,
Canada, and France.
KEY ISSUES FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
Scholars of religion have closely examined how shifts in religious beliefs,
practices, affiliations, and politics influence the growth and decline of different American religious institutions. They paint a vivid picture of how recent
demographic shifts, including new waves of immigration and growing religious diversity, shape religious—and nonreligious—organizations and the
contexts in which they develop. Although scholars recognize the increasing
number of Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims on American shores, as well as
the diversification of American Christianity, most research still holds Protestant congregations as the organizational model against which non-Protestant
and non-Christian groups are measured. This model has clear limitations
when describing the complexity and nuance of new institutional developments on American soil. As Penny Edgell argues in a recent article, “the
sociology of religion has developed a disproportionate focus on empirical
studies of American Protestantism” that needs to be corrected to fully understand how people in the US experience and practice their religions (2012,
p. 243). In the future, we particularly encourage scholars to focus on people
and traditions from across the religious spectrum. Doing so not only more
accurately reflects the ways religion is lived and experienced in the States
but also challenges the conventional categories and concepts through which
scholars have studied religion in the United States (Bender et al., 2013).
Asking better questions about religion in organizations other than congregations can also help the study of American religion better represent institutional and religious realities. Current research tends to exaggerate the role of

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

congregations in American life because it overlooks the larger organizational
fields and social settings in which these religious institutions are embedded (Bender et al., 2013). In the past few decades, scholars have directed
important attention to religious life outside of congregations through studies of “lived” or “everyday” religion (Hall, 1997; McGuire, 2008; Orsi, 2003)
However, this research often conceptualizes religious actions outside of congregations as complementary or resistant to congregational and voluntary
organizational religion (see McGuire, 2008) rather than taking place on its
own terms. By focusing only on religious organizations, scholars miss opportunities to examine how supposedly secular spaces are shaped formally and
informally by changes in contemporary American religion. Secular institutions such as universities, health care organizations, prisons, and the military
are all influenced by shifting religious demographics in ways that deserve
further attention in studies of American religion—not only through the regulatory policies that may enable, mandate, or limit the exercise of religion but
also through the personal beliefs and practices that students or staff members
bring into these social settings.
Finally, without situating studies of the United States in a broader global
context, it is impossible to theorize beyond the American context. According to Smilde and May (2010), over 70% of all US journal articles on religion
focus on religious dynamics in the United States. This becomes problematic
when trying to distinguish general properties of religious identity, belief, and
processes from the US context, or when applying findings from the United
States to other regions of the world. As evident in the work of Mooney (2009),
comparative transnational studies enable scholars to identify relationships
between religion, the society, and the state that would otherwise be invisible
within a single-country study. “Provincializing” the United States and looking to scholarship on non-US contexts will help researchers both identify the
limitations of American frameworks and comprehend the extent to which
“national” aspects of religious life are in fact transnational (Bender et al.,
2013). Moving forward, we hope that sociological research on religion will
be less preoccupied with bounding religion in specific spaces, institutions,
or organizational forms, and will, in the words of Bender et al., “abandon its
assumptions about the places and processes where religion allegedly ‘lives’
and empirically study where it rears its head” (2013, p. 291).
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Hart, S. (2001). Cultural dilemmas of progressive politics: Styles of engagement among
grassroots activists. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Hernández-León, R., & Zúñiga, V. (Eds.) (2005). New destinations: Mexican immigration
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Hertel, B. R. (1995). Work, family, and faith: Recent trends. In N. T. Ammerman & W.
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York, NY: Routledge.
Hirschman, C. (2004). The role of religion in the origins and adaptation of immigrant
groups in the United States. International Migration Review, 3(3), 1206–1233.
Hondagneu-Sotelo, P. (2008). God’s heart has no borders: How religious activists are working for immigrant rights. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Hout, M., & Fischer, C. (2002). Why more Americans have no religious preference:
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Jacobsen, D., & Jacobsen, R. H. (2012). No longer invisible: Religion in university education. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Jasso, G., Massey, D. S., Rosenzweig, M. R., & Smith, J. P. (2003). Exploring the religious preference of recent immigrants to the United States: Evidence from the new
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and immigration: Christian, Jewish, and Muslim experiences in the United States. Walnut
Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
Jenkins, K. E. (2003). Intimate diversity: The presentation of multiculturalism and
multiculturalism in a high-boundary religious movement. Journal for the Scientific
Study of Religion, 42(3), 393–409.
Kurien, P. A. (2006). Muliticulturalism and ‘American’ Religion: The case of Hindu
Indian Americans. Social Forces, 85(2), 723–741.
Laird, L., & Cadge, W. (2010). Negotiating ambivalence: The social power of Muslim Community-based health organizations in America. Political and Anthropology
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Levitt, P. (2001). God, ethnicity, and country: The study of transnational religion.
Paper Presented at Workshop on “Transnational Migration: Comparative Perspectives”, Princeton University, June 30–July 1.
Levitt, P. (2004). Redefining the boundaries of belonging: The institutional character
of religious life. Sociology of Religion, 65(1), 1–18.
Levitt, P. (2007). God needs no passport: Immigrants and the changing American Religious
Landscape. New York, NY: The New Press.
Lichterman, P. (2005a). Elusive togetherness: Church groups trying to bridge America’s
divisions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Lichterman, P. (2005b). Elusive togetherness: Church groups trying to bridge America’s
divisions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Lichterman, P. (2008). Religion and the construction of civic identity. American Sociological Review, 73(1), 83–104.
Lindsay, M. D. (2007). Faith in the halls of power: How evangelicals joined the American
Elite. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Marti, G. (2005). A mosaic of believers: Diversity and innovation in a multiethnic church.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Marti, G. (2009). Affinity, experience, and transcendence: The experience of religious
racial integration in diverse congregations. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion,
48(1), 53–68.
Massey, D. S. (2008). New faces in new places: The changing geography of American Immigration. Russell Sage Foundation Publications.
Massey, D. S., & Higgins, M. E. (2011). The effect of immigration on religious belief
and practice: A theologizing or alienating experience? Social Science Research, 40,
1371–1389.
McGuire, M. (2008). Lived religion: Faith and practice in everyday life. New York, NY:
Oxford University Press.
Menjívar, C. (1999). Religious institutions and transnationalism: A case study of
Catholic and Evangelical Salvadoran immigrants. International Journal of Politics,
Culture, and Society, 12, 589–612.
Menjívar, C. (2003). Religion and Immigration in Comparative Perspective: Catholic
and Evangelical Salvadorans in San Francisco, Washington DC, and Phoenix. Sociology of Religion, 64, 21–45.
Mooney, M. (2009). Faith makes us live: Surviving and thriving in the Haitian Diaspora.
Berkeley: University of California Press.

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Nepstad Erickson, S. (2008). Religion and war resistance in the plowshares movement.
New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Orsi, R. (2003). Is the study of lived religion irrelevant to the world we live in? Journal
for the Scientific Study of Religion, 42(2), 169–174.
Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (2012). “Nones” on the Rise: One-in-Five Adults
Have No Religious Affiliation. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.
Portes, A., Guarnizo, L. E., & Landolt, P. (1999). The study of transnationalism:
pitfalls and promise of an emergent research field. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 22(2),
217–237.
Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American Community.
New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
Putnam, R. D., & Campbell, D. E. (2010). American grace: How religion divides and unites
us. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Sherkat, D., & Ellison, C. (1999). Recent developments and current controversies in
the sociology of religion. Annual Review of Sociology, 25, 363–394.
Smilde, D., & May, M. (2010). The emerging strong program in the sociology of religion:
A critical engagement. Social Science Research Council Working Paper.
Smith, T. L. (1978). Religion and ethnicity in America. American Historical Review, 83,
1115–1185.
Stanczak, G. C. (2006). Strategic ethnicity: The construction of multi-racial/multiethnic religious community. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 29(5), 856–81.
Sullivan, W. F. (2009). Prison religion: Faith-based reform and the constitution. Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press.
Warner, S. R. (1998). Religion and migration in the United States. Social Compass, 45,
123–134.
Warner, S., & Wittner, J. G. (Eds.) (1998). Gatherings in the Diaspora: Religious communities and the new immigration. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Williams, R. H. (2009). Politicized evangelicalism and secular elites: Creating a moral
other. In S. Brint & J. R. Schroedel (Eds.), Evangelicals and democracy in America:
Religion and politics (Vol. 2, pp. 143–78). New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation
Press.
Williams, R. R. (2010). Space for god: Lived religion at work, home, and play. Sociology of Religion, 71(3), 257–279.
Wolfe, A. (2003). The transformation of American religion: How we actually live our faith.
New York, NY: Free Press.
Wood, R. L. (2002). Faith in action: Religion, race, and democratic organizing in America.
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Wuthnow, R. (1988). The restructuring of American religion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press.
Wuthnow, R. (2009). Boundless faith: The global outreach of American churches. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Wuthnow, R., & Offutt, S. (2008). Transnational religious connections. Sociology of
Religion, 69(2), 209–232.

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FURTHER READING
Bender, C., Cadge, W., Levitt, P., & Smilde, D. (2013). Religion on the edge: De-centering
and re-centering the sociology of religion. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Cadge, W. (2013). Paging god: Religion in the halls of medicine. Chicago, IL: University
of Chicago Press.
Chaves, M. (2011). American religion: Contemporary trends. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press.
Edgell, P. (2012). A cultural sociology of religion: New directions. Annual Review of
Sociology, 38, 247–265.
Fisher, C. S. (2006). A century of difference: How America changed in the last one hundred
years. New York, NY: Russel Sage Foundation.
The Immanent Frame. Secularism, Religion, and the Public Sphere. Retrieved from
http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/
Jacobsen, D., & Jacobsen, R. H. (2012). No longer invisible: Religion in University Education. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Kazanjian, V. (2006). Towards a multi-faith community at Wellesley College. In P.
Brodeur & E. Patel (Eds.), Building the interfaith youth movement: beyond dialogue to
action (pp. 109–124). Landham, MD: Rowan and Littlefield.
Kwon, H.-Y., Kim, K. C., & Warner, R. S. (2001). Korean Americans and their religions:
Pilgrims and missionaries from a different shore. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press.
Min, P. G., & Kim, J. H. (2002). Religions in Asian America: Building faith communities.
New York, NY: Alta Mira Press.
Min, P. G. (1992). The structure and social functions of Korean immigrant churches
in the United States. International Migration Review, 26(4), 1370–1394.
Putnam, R. D., & Campbell, D. E. (2010). American grace: How religion divides and unites
us. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Riess, J. (2008). A chapel for the 21st century. Wellesley College Magazine, Fall 2008.
Wuthnow, R. (1988). The restructuring of American religion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press.
Wuthnow, R., & Christiano, K. (1979). The effect of residential migration on church
attendance in the United States. In R. Wuthnow (Ed.), The Religious Dimension:
New Directions in Quantitative Research (pp. 257–276). New York, NY: Academic
Press.

CASEY CLEVENGER SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Casey Clevenger is a PhD candidate in Sociology at Brandeis University. Her
dissertation research explores how women’s local contexts and backgrounds
affect their participation in transnational women’s religious organizations in
the United States and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

WENDY CADGE SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Wendy Cadge is a Professor in the Sociology Department at Brandeis University. She teaches and writes about religion in the contemporary United
States, especially as related to health care, immigration, and sexuality. More
information is at www.wendycadge.com.
RELATED ESSAYS
Lived Religion (Sociology), Nancy T. Ammerman
Gender, Religion, and State in the Middle East (Sociology), Mounira M. Charrad and Amina Zarrugh
Niche Construction: Implications for Human Sciences (Anthropology), Kevin
N. Laland and Michael O’Brien
Mysticism (Sociology), Barry Markovsky and Jake Frederick
The Sociology of Religious Experience (Sociology), Douglas Porpora
Atheism, Agnosticism, and Irreligion (Sociology), Buster G. Smith and Joseph
O. Baker



Institutional Change
in American Religion
CASEY CLEVENGER and WENDY CADGE

Abstract
This essay provides an overview of demographic and organizational changes in
American religion since 1965. We focus on religious beliefs and practices, congregational life, special purpose groups, religion outside of religious organizations,
and transnational and global aspects of religion. American religious institutions
are increasingly diverse, reflecting the growing ethnic, linguistic, and religious
pluralism of the United States. Recent immigrants to the United States are more
Catholic, more Orthodox, and less Christian than adult Americans overall, and
they have joined existing congregations in addition to forming their own religious
organizations. A substantial number of Americans now consider themselves
spiritual, but not religious, and many do not identify with organized religion at all.
American Christianity itself is more politically polarized than in the past, and individuals who are religiously active across traditions tend to be more politically and
socially conservative than others with tensions evident around contemporary social
issues such as abortion and homosexuality. Existing religious organizations and
secular organizations such as hospitals, universities, and prisons have responded
to demographic and religious changes by offering new or changed services and
physical spaces to meet religious and spiritual needs. We encourage future scholars
to address institutional changes in American religion by considering diverse
people and traditions, asking questions about religion in religious and nonreligious
organizations, and situating studies of the United States in their broader global
contexts.

INTRODUCTION
Religion in the United States takes many organizational forms. From traditional congregations to special interest groups to the ways religion—and
increasingly spirituality—is a part of formally secular organizations such as
universities, hospitals, and prisons, religion is part of multiple organizations
in a range of diverse ways (Cadge, 2013; Jacobsen & Jacobsen, 2012; Sullivan,
2009). Changes in American religious demographics shape organizational
changes in American religion just as broader institutional changes shape the
forms religion and spirituality take in American life.
Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Edited by Robert Scott and Stephen Kosslyn.
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-1-118-90077-2.

1

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

This essay offers a brief overview of demographic and organizational
changes in American religion since 1965. We highlight how these shifts
shape and are shaped by broader institutional changes. We focus on
questions of personal belief and practice, congregational influence, special
purpose groups, religion outside of religious organizations, and transnational and global aspects of religion. We encourage future scholars to
continue thinking about institutional changes in American religion by
considering diverse people and traditions, asking questions about religion
in religious and nonreligious organizations, and situating studies of the
United States in their broader global contexts (Bender, Cadge, Levitt, &
Smilde, 2013).
FOUNDATIONAL RESEARCH
DEMOGRAPHIC OVERVIEW
When Will Herberg famously described the United States as a “triple melting
pot” in his influential book, Protestant, Catholic, Jew (1960), most Americans
did in fact identify as Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish (Fischer & Hout, 2006).
Since 1965, however, religion in the United States has been shaped by the
decline of mainline Protestantism, the growth of evangelical Christianity,
significant immigration, and increased “nones” or people who claim no
religious affiliation when asked in surveys (Edgell, 2012; Sherkat & Ellison,
1999; Wolfe, 2003; Wuthnow, 1988). Demographic changes including increasing age at first marriage, delayed childbearing, and a growing number of
people raised without religion also influence contemporary religious life
(Fischer & Hout, 2006; Fischer, Hout, & Latham, 2000; Hertel, 1995; Hout &
Fischer, 2002; Putnam, 2000). This shifting religious landscape is characterized by internal diversity within Protestantism and Catholicism, a growing
number of non-Christian Americans, and more tolerance for religious
variety in American life.
In his recent description of trends in American religion, sociologist Mark
Chaves (2011) points to both continuity and change in belief and practice.
Since 1972, the fraction of Americans who say they know God exists has
been consistent at 64%. The number of those who pray several times a week
or more (69%) has not changed, nor has the fraction who report born-again
experiences (36%). The fraction that believes in God has decreased very
slowly, still remaining above 90%. People’s families and friendship circles
have become more religiously diverse in the past 40 years and they seem
more religiously tolerant than in the past. Increasing numbers seem comfortable with diffuse senses of spirituality and rates of attendance at religious
services have softened (Chaves, 2011; Putnam & Campbell, 2010).

Institutional Change in American Religion

3

Distinctions between liberals and conservatives have long been a component of American Christianity, a divide that intensified in the past 45
years, particularly among Protestants. In his study of American religious
structures since World War II, Wuthnow (1988) describes how previous
liberal-conservative differences over theological orientations were superseded in the 1960s by conflicts over the appropriate role of religion and
religious leaders in public life and broader social change. In recent decades,
higher fertility and earlier childbearing among conservative Protestants
combined with fewer upwardly mobile Protestants shifting from more
conservative to more liberal churches in adulthood has led the conservative
side of this Christian religious divide to grow (Chaves, 2011; Fischer & Hout,
2006). Tensions between religious liberals and conservatives in religious
groups more broadly are particularly evident around contemporary social
issues including abortion and homosexuality (Brint & Abrutyn, 2010;
Brooks & Manza, 1997; Green, 2009; Williams, 2009). Today, individuals
who are religiously active across traditions tend to be more politically and
socially conservative than others (Chaves, 2011).
In the twentieth century, immigration shaped American religious life
primarily through the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act that
removed country-of-origin quotas and diversified the countries from which
immigrants arrived (Cadge & Ecklund, 2007; Hirschman, 2004). Subsequent
immigrants diversified American Christianity, particularly Catholicism, and
increased the numbers of Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and people with
no religious affiliation on American shores (Jasso, Massey, Rosenzweig, &
Smith, 2003). New waves of legal immigrants are more Catholic and more
Orthodox, but also less Christian than adult Americans overall (Massey &
Higgins, 2011). This diversification among immigrants is evident in gateway
cities such as Los Angeles and New York with large immigrant populations
as well as in smaller cities and rural communities where immigrants later
settled or refugees were resettled (Cadge, Levitt, Jaworksy, & Clevenger,
2013; Gozdziak & Martin, 2005; Hernández-León & Zúñiga, 2005; Massey,
2008).
Despite claims that migration is a “theologizing” experience through which
immigrants turn to religion for support (Ebaugh & Chafetz, 2000; Hagan,
2008; Smith, 1978; Warner, 1998; Warner & Wittner, 1998), migration can
actually disrupt religious life (Wuthnow & Christiano, 1979). Recent studies
find that religious participation—although not religious belief—among new
legal immigrants actually drops in the months after receiving their residence
visas in the United States (Connor, 2009; Massey & Higgins, 2011). However,
there is some evidence to suggest that religious participation may eventually
increase (or rebound to previous levels) with additional years spent in the
United States (Akresh, 2011).

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Alongside shifts brought by changing demographics and immigration are
growing numbers of Americans who claim no religious affiliation. A 2012
report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life claimed that 20%
of the public and 33% of young adults did not have a religious affiliation.
Two-thirds of these people say they believe in God, however, and one-third
consider themselves to be spiritual but not religious. Unlike in the past,
many who are unaffiliated today are not seekers looking for a religious
organization to join. Scholars offer a number of explanations for the growing
numbers of “nones,” including demographic trends such as generational
replacement and postponed marriage and parenthood (Hout & Fischer,
2002; Pew, 2012). As patterns of marriage and family formation change,
the small numbers of people raised without religion are less likely to join
churches than they were in the past (Hout & Fischer, 2002). At the same time,
the increasing identification of churches and religiosity with conservative
politics has encouraged detachment from organized religion among socially
moderate and liberal citizens with weaker ties to religion (Fischer & Hout,
2006; Hout & Fischer, 2002; Pew, 2012; Putnam & Campbell, 2010).
It is not just those without religious affiliations who view themselves as
spiritual. Most Americans—about 80%—report in surveys that they are both
spiritual and religious (Chaves, 2011). A small but growing minority—about
20% of those under 40—say they are spiritual but not religious (Chaves,
2011). Spirituality, for many, describes the private ways they find meaning
outside of traditional religious organizations, which people increasingly
describe as too focused on money and power. Senses of spirituality come
from people’s experiences, sociologist Courtney Bender argues, in her study
of metaphysicals or people involved in reiki, yoga, energy healing, and
other alterative practices in Cambridge, Massachusetts (Bender, 2010). Sociologist Nancy Ammerman and colleagues describe spirituality differently
in their study of how people—who were mostly affiliated with religious
organizations—see and experience spirituality in their lives as connected to
God, nature, home, work, and other things (Williams, 2010). They find that
religion and spirituality may appear in expected and unexpected places,
and that people continue to make room for the sacred in their everyday lives
(Ammerman, 2010; Williams, 2010).
CONGREGATIONS
All of these demographic changes have influenced the shape of religious
organizations and the ways religion is a part of broader secular organizations. Congregations remain the central local-level organization through
which many people encounter religion and gather with like-minded others

Institutional Change in American Religion

5

to worship, socialize, and learn. The National Congregations Study estimated in 2006–2007 that there are more than 300,000 congregations in the
contemporary United States. The average congregation has 75 members,
while the average person goes to a congregation with 400 members. Recent
research suggests that people are increasingly going to a smaller number of
larger congregations, perhaps because of suburbanization as well as cultural
and economic changes (Chaves, 2011). American congregations exist to
serve the spiritual needs of their congregants, and they do so by drawing
on a vast resource base of partnerships and connections, such as interfaith
coalitions, clergy alliances, service groups, mission programs, and regional
and denominational organizations (Ammerman, 2005).
Many scholars of American religion have taken up the question of racial
diversity within religious congregations and found that deep racial divides
persist, especially among white and African American members of Protestant congregations (Edwards, 2008; Emerson, 2006; Emerson & Smith, 2000).
Some research points to specific cases in which religious racial integration
has been achieved by developing a congregationally based religious identity among members and drawing on shared rituals and practices (Becker,
1998; Ecklund, 2005a, 2005b; Jenkins, 2003; Marti, 2005, 2009; Stanczak, 2006).
Larger studies based on nationally representative data identify a number
of specific internal and external factors that influence racial diversity and
integration within congregations. Dougherty and Huyser (2008) find that
racial diversity is greater in congregations that have been established more
recently, are larger in size, have racial reconciliation programs, and are led by
clergy of a different race than most members of the congregation. They find
the highest levels of diversity in non-Christian religious groups, followed
by non-Protestant Christian traditions (Dougherty & Huyser, 2008). Multiracial congregations are also more likely to be located in Western or Eastern
regions of the United States, in urban areas, and in communities characterized by racial diversity, higher socioeconomic status, and residential mobility
(Dougherty & Huyser, 2008).
Changing demographics related to immigration have led to a number
of institutional shifts in local and national religious organizations. While
some immigrants have joined existing congregations, others have formed
new congregations—although scholars debate whether that is the right
way to describe them (Cadge, 2005). Some of these congregations are
independent entities, while others are connected to national or international
denominations or organizations. As the American Catholic Church has
received a growing number of immigrants from Mexico, Central America,
and the Philippines (Menjívar, 1999, 2003; Mooney, 2009), it has worked
to accommodate these new members by providing a range of non-English

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

masses and other religious services. Protestant churches are also experiencing such shifts as individual churches receive increasing numbers of
immigrants into their congregations, and Korean, Chinese, and African
ethnic congregations enter major Protestant denominations (Ecklund, 2005a,
2005b; Kwon, Kim & Warner, 2001; Min & Kim, 2002). There are now Islamic
mosques and Buddhist and Hindu temples in most major cities (Hirschman,
2004). Immigrant religious organizations can help immigrants adapt by
providing language training, social service provision, and employment
networks (Ebaugh & Chafetz, 2000; Min, 1992), but they may also strengthen
ties to the sending country (Min, 1992) and act as a buffer from society for
immigrants who are least incorporated (Cadge & Ecklund, 2006).
Many scholars address how religious congregations affect individual-level
political participation, but less is known about how congregations themselves engage in politics. Although congregations exhibit relatively low
levels of political engagement, they do offer opportunities for political
activity at worship services such as petitioning campaigns, lobbying,
demonstrating, and distribute voting guides (Beyerlein & Chaves, 2003).
Some evidence suggests that people are more likely to develop skills
important to external civic engagement by participating in congregational
activities beyond religious service attendance (Beyerlein & Hipp, 2006;
Lichterman 2008). Mainline Protestants, Black Protestants, and Catholics
who spend more hours participating in congregation activities outside of
religious services are more likely to participate in other “bridging” organizations that build linkages among different groups in communities (Beyerlein
& Hipp, 2006). This is not the case for Evangelicals, lending support to the
idea that some religious groups, which may cultivate strong internal ties
but few external ties, may not provide benefits to the broader community
(Beyerlein & Hipp, 2006).
SPECIAL PURPOSE GROUPS
Religious special purpose groups have expanded in recent decades around a
range of diverse issues. Special purpose groups are distinct from other religious institutions in their orientation to achieving focused objectives, and
mobilizing resources and support to attain them (Wuthnow, 1988). According to Wuthnow (1988), special purpose groups, “focus on limited objectives,
attract participants with special interests, and generally do not constitute the
main arenas in which the worship and instruction of the church as a corporate body take place” (p. 108). With the rise of the “New Christian Right” in
the 1980s, many special purpose groups were established around conservative policy aims, while others formed around religious constituencies with
specialized talents, skills, occupations or hobbies.

Institutional Change in American Religion

7

The proliferation of special purpose groups between the 1960s and the
present was a result of the professionalization of religious workers, the
imitation of secular organizations, rising levels of affluence and leisure
time, and most importantly, the expanding influence of the state in areas of
welfare, education, equal rights, and other policy arenas (Wuthnow, 1988).
In response to the actions of the state, special interest groups have formed to
limit, oppose, or promote different types of government action on a variety
of issues from advocating for school prayer to enforcing separation of church
and state (Wuthnow, 1988). Observers of the dramatic growth in special
purpose groups debate both the costs and benefits of these developments.
While special purpose groups have the potential to revitalize American
religious institutions, there is also the danger that they fracture religious
communities along the social and political cleavages and controversies
evident in the wider society (Wuthnow, 1988).
Special purpose groups also provide a venue through which immigrants
and others new to American shores can stake their claim to a piece of
American civic life beyond congregations. Groups of Muslims, for example,
have created Muslim community health organizations through which to
normalize their differences and advance personal and communal interests.
These organizations enable founders to express personal piety outside the
traditional institution of the mosque and to participate in the American civil
society tradition of faith-based organizations (Laird & Cadge 2010). Hindu
Americans have established anti-defamation leagues that combat negative
portrayals of Hinduism and lobbying groups that work to achieve public
recognition for Hinduism as an American religion (Kurien, 2006, p. 730).
OUTSIDE OF RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS
In addition to focusing on American religious organizations, it is important
to consider how broad demographic changes shape the ways people experience religion in nonreligious organizations. Health care organizations, for
example, frequently make space for spirituality and religion in chapels, meditation, and/or prayer rooms, and employ chaplains who work with patients
and families from a range of religious backgrounds, including none. Wendy
Cadge’s recent book traces the history of religion in contemporary health care
organizations, illustrating the multiple spaces in which it is present and the
competing ways it is conceived and acted on by healthcare staff (2013).
Secular universities, prisons, airports, and the military also have chapel,
meditation, and prayer rooms and chaplains who are responsible for addressing religion and spirituality in its multiple guises (Beckford, 2001, Beckford &
Gilliat-Ray, 1998; Brand, 2012). As religion becomes more visible on college
campuses, a number of universities are managing religious diversity and

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

“inviting” religion into the university by creating new physical spaces to
meet religious and spiritual needs among students (Jacobsen & Jacobsen,
2012; Kazanjian, 2006). Some universities have renovated historically
Christian chapels to serve students from a range of religious and spiritual
backgrounds, while others have opened up new spirituality centers to
accommodate multiple religious and secular ethical organizations (Jacobsen
& Jacobsen, 2012; Kazanjian, 2006; Riess, 2008). In his study of evangelical
Christians, Michael Lindsay has shown how networks facilitate the movement of evangelical Christians across social institutions and shape their
experiences in secular, high-status positions (Lindsay, 2007). Other scholars
have focused on how religious discourse and practice can provide progressive activists, organizers, and movements with important resources to work
for social change (Hart, 2001; Hondagneu-Sotelo, 2008; Lichterman, 2005,
2008; Nepstad Erickson, 2008; Wood, 2002). In order to fully understand
the presence of religion and its impact on contemporary American society,
scholars must continue to trace its influence in spheres outside of explicitly
religious organizations.
RELIGION IN TRANSNATIONAL CONTEXT
Any account of institutional change in the United States is incomplete without attention to immigration, globalization, and transnational connections.
Many existing American religious organizations are part of larger transnational structures with branches of the same organization located in different
parts of the world. Scholars of migration typically characterize transnationalism as the “back-and-forth movements” of immigrants between sending
and receiving countries (Portes, Guarnizo, & Landolt, 1999, p. 219). Religion,
however, often acts as a network connecting people and places, and many
Americans belong to transnational religious groups that are deliberately constituted across national borders (Levitt, 2001, 2004; Wuthnow & Offutt, 2008).
Taking these factors into account, transnational scholars such as Levitt (2007)
argue that religious diversity can be shaped as much by forces at work outside American borders as within them, and that religion is no longer rooted
in a specific country or legal system.
Even though most American churches are still locally oriented, more
American congregations and individual Christians now engage in charity
work, construction projects, education, evangelization, and relief efforts
abroad (Wuthnow, 2009). The Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion,
and international meetings of Presbyterians and Baptists represent a few
of the most visible examples of traditional transnational religious organizations. Newer transnational connections are less centrally organized and
have emerged through the mission efforts of smaller congregations, the

Institutional Change in American Religion

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development of personal ties, and short-term international visits (Wuthnow
& Offutt, 2008). Immigrant groups have also recreated transnational religious organizations within the United States. For example, Gujarati Hindu
groups have established home-country-based programs that formalize and
reinforce homeland ties with guidance from home-country leaders or local
Indian religious leaders (Levitt, 2004, p. 13).
In a cutting-edge example of how scholars are responding to the complexity
of studying transnational religion, Mooney (2009) focuses on the experiences
of the Catholic Haitian diaspora in Miami, Montreal, and Paris. Through
this comparative work, Mooney shows how different national and political contexts shape the ability of religious organizations to mediate between
immigrants and their host societies. Although the Haitians in her study share
similar beliefs and expressions of religious piety across locations, the ways
in which their faith enables them to confront their socioeconomic conditions
depends on how leaders interact with other institutions in the United States,
Canada, and France.
KEY ISSUES FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
Scholars of religion have closely examined how shifts in religious beliefs,
practices, affiliations, and politics influence the growth and decline of different American religious institutions. They paint a vivid picture of how recent
demographic shifts, including new waves of immigration and growing religious diversity, shape religious—and nonreligious—organizations and the
contexts in which they develop. Although scholars recognize the increasing
number of Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims on American shores, as well as
the diversification of American Christianity, most research still holds Protestant congregations as the organizational model against which non-Protestant
and non-Christian groups are measured. This model has clear limitations
when describing the complexity and nuance of new institutional developments on American soil. As Penny Edgell argues in a recent article, “the
sociology of religion has developed a disproportionate focus on empirical
studies of American Protestantism” that needs to be corrected to fully understand how people in the US experience and practice their religions (2012,
p. 243). In the future, we particularly encourage scholars to focus on people
and traditions from across the religious spectrum. Doing so not only more
accurately reflects the ways religion is lived and experienced in the States
but also challenges the conventional categories and concepts through which
scholars have studied religion in the United States (Bender et al., 2013).
Asking better questions about religion in organizations other than congregations can also help the study of American religion better represent institutional and religious realities. Current research tends to exaggerate the role of

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

congregations in American life because it overlooks the larger organizational
fields and social settings in which these religious institutions are embedded (Bender et al., 2013). In the past few decades, scholars have directed
important attention to religious life outside of congregations through studies of “lived” or “everyday” religion (Hall, 1997; McGuire, 2008; Orsi, 2003)
However, this research often conceptualizes religious actions outside of congregations as complementary or resistant to congregational and voluntary
organizational religion (see McGuire, 2008) rather than taking place on its
own terms. By focusing only on religious organizations, scholars miss opportunities to examine how supposedly secular spaces are shaped formally and
informally by changes in contemporary American religion. Secular institutions such as universities, health care organizations, prisons, and the military
are all influenced by shifting religious demographics in ways that deserve
further attention in studies of American religion—not only through the regulatory policies that may enable, mandate, or limit the exercise of religion but
also through the personal beliefs and practices that students or staff members
bring into these social settings.
Finally, without situating studies of the United States in a broader global
context, it is impossible to theorize beyond the American context. According to Smilde and May (2010), over 70% of all US journal articles on religion
focus on religious dynamics in the United States. This becomes problematic
when trying to distinguish general properties of religious identity, belief, and
processes from the US context, or when applying findings from the United
States to other regions of the world. As evident in the work of Mooney (2009),
comparative transnational studies enable scholars to identify relationships
between religion, the society, and the state that would otherwise be invisible
within a single-country study. “Provincializing” the United States and looking to scholarship on non-US contexts will help researchers both identify the
limitations of American frameworks and comprehend the extent to which
“national” aspects of religious life are in fact transnational (Bender et al.,
2013). Moving forward, we hope that sociological research on religion will
be less preoccupied with bounding religion in specific spaces, institutions,
or organizational forms, and will, in the words of Bender et al., “abandon its
assumptions about the places and processes where religion allegedly ‘lives’
and empirically study where it rears its head” (2013, p. 291).
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Nepstad Erickson, S. (2008). Religion and war resistance in the plowshares movement.
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FURTHER READING
Bender, C., Cadge, W., Levitt, P., & Smilde, D. (2013). Religion on the edge: De-centering
and re-centering the sociology of religion. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Cadge, W. (2013). Paging god: Religion in the halls of medicine. Chicago, IL: University
of Chicago Press.
Chaves, M. (2011). American religion: Contemporary trends. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press.
Edgell, P. (2012). A cultural sociology of religion: New directions. Annual Review of
Sociology, 38, 247–265.
Fisher, C. S. (2006). A century of difference: How America changed in the last one hundred
years. New York, NY: Russel Sage Foundation.
The Immanent Frame. Secularism, Religion, and the Public Sphere. Retrieved from
http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/
Jacobsen, D., & Jacobsen, R. H. (2012). No longer invisible: Religion in University Education. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Kazanjian, V. (2006). Towards a multi-faith community at Wellesley College. In P.
Brodeur & E. Patel (Eds.), Building the interfaith youth movement: beyond dialogue to
action (pp. 109–124). Landham, MD: Rowan and Littlefield.
Kwon, H.-Y., Kim, K. C., & Warner, R. S. (2001). Korean Americans and their religions:
Pilgrims and missionaries from a different shore. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press.
Min, P. G., & Kim, J. H. (2002). Religions in Asian America: Building faith communities.
New York, NY: Alta Mira Press.
Min, P. G. (1992). The structure and social functions of Korean immigrant churches
in the United States. International Migration Review, 26(4), 1370–1394.
Putnam, R. D., & Campbell, D. E. (2010). American grace: How religion divides and unites
us. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Riess, J. (2008). A chapel for the 21st century. Wellesley College Magazine, Fall 2008.
Wuthnow, R. (1988). The restructuring of American religion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press.
Wuthnow, R., & Christiano, K. (1979). The effect of residential migration on church
attendance in the United States. In R. Wuthnow (Ed.), The Religious Dimension:
New Directions in Quantitative Research (pp. 257–276). New York, NY: Academic
Press.

CASEY CLEVENGER SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Casey Clevenger is a PhD candidate in Sociology at Brandeis University. Her
dissertation research explores how women’s local contexts and backgrounds
affect their participation in transnational women’s religious organizations in
the United States and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

WENDY CADGE SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Wendy Cadge is a Professor in the Sociology Department at Brandeis University. She teaches and writes about religion in the contemporary United
States, especially as related to health care, immigration, and sexuality. More
information is at www.wendycadge.com.
RELATED ESSAYS
Lived Religion (Sociology), Nancy T. Ammerman
Gender, Religion, and State in the Middle East (Sociology), Mounira M. Charrad and Amina Zarrugh
Niche Construction: Implications for Human Sciences (Anthropology), Kevin
N. Laland and Michael O’Brien
Mysticism (Sociology), Barry Markovsky and Jake Frederick
The Sociology of Religious Experience (Sociology), Douglas Porpora
Atheism, Agnosticism, and Irreligion (Sociology), Buster G. Smith and Joseph
O. Baker


Institutional Change
in American Religion
CASEY CLEVENGER and WENDY CADGE

Abstract
This essay provides an overview of demographic and organizational changes in
American religion since 1965. We focus on religious beliefs and practices, congregational life, special purpose groups, religion outside of religious organizations,
and transnational and global aspects of religion. American religious institutions
are increasingly diverse, reflecting the growing ethnic, linguistic, and religious
pluralism of the United States. Recent immigrants to the United States are more
Catholic, more Orthodox, and less Christian than adult Americans overall, and
they have joined existing congregations in addition to forming their own religious
organizations. A substantial number of Americans now consider themselves
spiritual, but not religious, and many do not identify with organized religion at all.
American Christianity itself is more politically polarized than in the past, and individuals who are religiously active across traditions tend to be more politically and
socially conservative than others with tensions evident around contemporary social
issues such as abortion and homosexuality. Existing religious organizations and
secular organizations such as hospitals, universities, and prisons have responded
to demographic and religious changes by offering new or changed services and
physical spaces to meet religious and spiritual needs. We encourage future scholars
to address institutional changes in American religion by considering diverse
people and traditions, asking questions about religion in religious and nonreligious
organizations, and situating studies of the United States in their broader global
contexts.

INTRODUCTION
Religion in the United States takes many organizational forms. From traditional congregations to special interest groups to the ways religion—and
increasingly spirituality—is a part of formally secular organizations such as
universities, hospitals, and prisons, religion is part of multiple organizations
in a range of diverse ways (Cadge, 2013; Jacobsen & Jacobsen, 2012; Sullivan,
2009). Changes in American religious demographics shape organizational
changes in American religion just as broader institutional changes shape the
forms religion and spirituality take in American life.
Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Edited by Robert Scott and Stephen Kosslyn.
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-1-118-90077-2.

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

This essay offers a brief overview of demographic and organizational
changes in American religion since 1965. We highlight how these shifts
shape and are shaped by broader institutional changes. We focus on
questions of personal belief and practice, congregational influence, special
purpose groups, religion outside of religious organizations, and transnational and global aspects of religion. We encourage future scholars to
continue thinking about institutional changes in American religion by
considering diverse people and traditions, asking questions about religion
in religious and nonreligious organizations, and situating studies of the
United States in their broader global contexts (Bender, Cadge, Levitt, &
Smilde, 2013).
FOUNDATIONAL RESEARCH
DEMOGRAPHIC OVERVIEW
When Will Herberg famously described the United States as a “triple melting
pot” in his influential book, Protestant, Catholic, Jew (1960), most Americans
did in fact identify as Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish (Fischer & Hout, 2006).
Since 1965, however, religion in the United States has been shaped by the
decline of mainline Protestantism, the growth of evangelical Christianity,
significant immigration, and increased “nones” or people who claim no
religious affiliation when asked in surveys (Edgell, 2012; Sherkat & Ellison,
1999; Wolfe, 2003; Wuthnow, 1988). Demographic changes including increasing age at first marriage, delayed childbearing, and a growing number of
people raised without religion also influence contemporary religious life
(Fischer & Hout, 2006; Fischer, Hout, & Latham, 2000; Hertel, 1995; Hout &
Fischer, 2002; Putnam, 2000). This shifting religious landscape is characterized by internal diversity within Protestantism and Catholicism, a growing
number of non-Christian Americans, and more tolerance for religious
variety in American life.
In his recent description of trends in American religion, sociologist Mark
Chaves (2011) points to both continuity and change in belief and practice.
Since 1972, the fraction of Americans who say they know God exists has
been consistent at 64%. The number of those who pray several times a week
or more (69%) has not changed, nor has the fraction who report born-again
experiences (36%). The fraction that believes in God has decreased very
slowly, still remaining above 90%. People’s families and friendship circles
have become more religiously diverse in the past 40 years and they seem
more religiously tolerant than in the past. Increasing numbers seem comfortable with diffuse senses of spirituality and rates of attendance at religious
services have softened (Chaves, 2011; Putnam & Campbell, 2010).

Institutional Change in American Religion

3

Distinctions between liberals and conservatives have long been a component of American Christianity, a divide that intensified in the past 45
years, particularly among Protestants. In his study of American religious
structures since World War II, Wuthnow (1988) describes how previous
liberal-conservative differences over theological orientations were superseded in the 1960s by conflicts over the appropriate role of religion and
religious leaders in public life and broader social change. In recent decades,
higher fertility and earlier childbearing among conservative Protestants
combined with fewer upwardly mobile Protestants shifting from more
conservative to more liberal churches in adulthood has led the conservative
side of this Christian religious divide to grow (Chaves, 2011; Fischer & Hout,
2006). Tensions between religious liberals and conservatives in religious
groups more broadly are particularly evident around contemporary social
issues including abortion and homosexuality (Brint & Abrutyn, 2010;
Brooks & Manza, 1997; Green, 2009; Williams, 2009). Today, individuals
who are religiously active across traditions tend to be more politically and
socially conservative than others (Chaves, 2011).
In the twentieth century, immigration shaped American religious life
primarily through the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act that
removed country-of-origin quotas and diversified the countries from which
immigrants arrived (Cadge & Ecklund, 2007; Hirschman, 2004). Subsequent
immigrants diversified American Christianity, particularly Catholicism, and
increased the numbers of Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and people with
no religious affiliation on American shores (Jasso, Massey, Rosenzweig, &
Smith, 2003). New waves of legal immigrants are more Catholic and more
Orthodox, but also less Christian than adult Americans overall (Massey &
Higgins, 2011). This diversification among immigrants is evident in gateway
cities such as Los Angeles and New York with large immigrant populations
as well as in smaller cities and rural communities where immigrants later
settled or refugees were resettled (Cadge, Levitt, Jaworksy, & Clevenger,
2013; Gozdziak & Martin, 2005; Hernández-León & Zúñiga, 2005; Massey,
2008).
Despite claims that migration is a “theologizing” experience through which
immigrants turn to religion for support (Ebaugh & Chafetz, 2000; Hagan,
2008; Smith, 1978; Warner, 1998; Warner & Wittner, 1998), migration can
actually disrupt religious life (Wuthnow & Christiano, 1979). Recent studies
find that religious participation—although not religious belief—among new
legal immigrants actually drops in the months after receiving their residence
visas in the United States (Connor, 2009; Massey & Higgins, 2011). However,
there is some evidence to suggest that religious participation may eventually
increase (or rebound to previous levels) with additional years spent in the
United States (Akresh, 2011).

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Alongside shifts brought by changing demographics and immigration are
growing numbers of Americans who claim no religious affiliation. A 2012
report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life claimed that 20%
of the public and 33% of young adults did not have a religious affiliation.
Two-thirds of these people say they believe in God, however, and one-third
consider themselves to be spiritual but not religious. Unlike in the past,
many who are unaffiliated today are not seekers looking for a religious
organization to join. Scholars offer a number of explanations for the growing
numbers of “nones,” including demographic trends such as generational
replacement and postponed marriage and parenthood (Hout & Fischer,
2002; Pew, 2012). As patterns of marriage and family formation change,
the small numbers of people raised without religion are less likely to join
churches than they were in the past (Hout & Fischer, 2002). At the same time,
the increasing identification of churches and religiosity with conservative
politics has encouraged detachment from organized religion among socially
moderate and liberal citizens with weaker ties to religion (Fischer & Hout,
2006; Hout & Fischer, 2002; Pew, 2012; Putnam & Campbell, 2010).
It is not just those without religious affiliations who view themselves as
spiritual. Most Americans—about 80%—report in surveys that they are both
spiritual and religious (Chaves, 2011). A small but growing minority—about
20% of those under 40—say they are spiritual but not religious (Chaves,
2011). Spirituality, for many, describes the private ways they find meaning
outside of traditional religious organizations, which people increasingly
describe as too focused on money and power. Senses of spirituality come
from people’s experiences, sociologist Courtney Bender argues, in her study
of metaphysicals or people involved in reiki, yoga, energy healing, and
other alterative practices in Cambridge, Massachusetts (Bender, 2010). Sociologist Nancy Ammerman and colleagues describe spirituality differently
in their study of how people—who were mostly affiliated with religious
organizations—see and experience spirituality in their lives as connected to
God, nature, home, work, and other things (Williams, 2010). They find that
religion and spirituality may appear in expected and unexpected places,
and that people continue to make room for the sacred in their everyday lives
(Ammerman, 2010; Williams, 2010).
CONGREGATIONS
All of these demographic changes have influenced the shape of religious
organizations and the ways religion is a part of broader secular organizations. Congregations remain the central local-level organization through
which many people encounter religion and gather with like-minded others

Institutional Change in American Religion

5

to worship, socialize, and learn. The National Congregations Study estimated in 2006–2007 that there are more than 300,000 congregations in the
contemporary United States. The average congregation has 75 members,
while the average person goes to a congregation with 400 members. Recent
research suggests that people are increasingly going to a smaller number of
larger congregations, perhaps because of suburbanization as well as cultural
and economic changes (Chaves, 2011). American congregations exist to
serve the spiritual needs of their congregants, and they do so by drawing
on a vast resource base of partnerships and connections, such as interfaith
coalitions, clergy alliances, service groups, mission programs, and regional
and denominational organizations (Ammerman, 2005).
Many scholars of American religion have taken up the question of racial
diversity within religious congregations and found that deep racial divides
persist, especially among white and African American members of Protestant congregations (Edwards, 2008; Emerson, 2006; Emerson & Smith, 2000).
Some research points to specific cases in which religious racial integration
has been achieved by developing a congregationally based religious identity among members and drawing on shared rituals and practices (Becker,
1998; Ecklund, 2005a, 2005b; Jenkins, 2003; Marti, 2005, 2009; Stanczak, 2006).
Larger studies based on nationally representative data identify a number
of specific internal and external factors that influence racial diversity and
integration within congregations. Dougherty and Huyser (2008) find that
racial diversity is greater in congregations that have been established more
recently, are larger in size, have racial reconciliation programs, and are led by
clergy of a different race than most members of the congregation. They find
the highest levels of diversity in non-Christian religious groups, followed
by non-Protestant Christian traditions (Dougherty & Huyser, 2008). Multiracial congregations are also more likely to be located in Western or Eastern
regions of the United States, in urban areas, and in communities characterized by racial diversity, higher socioeconomic status, and residential mobility
(Dougherty & Huyser, 2008).
Changing demographics related to immigration have led to a number
of institutional shifts in local and national religious organizations. While
some immigrants have joined existing congregations, others have formed
new congregations—although scholars debate whether that is the right
way to describe them (Cadge, 2005). Some of these congregations are
independent entities, while others are connected to national or international
denominations or organizations. As the American Catholic Church has
received a growing number of immigrants from Mexico, Central America,
and the Philippines (Menjívar, 1999, 2003; Mooney, 2009), it has worked
to accommodate these new members by providing a range of non-English

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

masses and other religious services. Protestant churches are also experiencing such shifts as individual churches receive increasing numbers of
immigrants into their congregations, and Korean, Chinese, and African
ethnic congregations enter major Protestant denominations (Ecklund, 2005a,
2005b; Kwon, Kim & Warner, 2001; Min & Kim, 2002). There are now Islamic
mosques and Buddhist and Hindu temples in most major cities (Hirschman,
2004). Immigrant religious organizations can help immigrants adapt by
providing language training, social service provision, and employment
networks (Ebaugh & Chafetz, 2000; Min, 1992), but they may also strengthen
ties to the sending country (Min, 1992) and act as a buffer from society for
immigrants who are least incorporated (Cadge & Ecklund, 2006).
Many scholars address how religious congregations affect individual-level
political participation, but less is known about how congregations themselves engage in politics. Although congregations exhibit relatively low
levels of political engagement, they do offer opportunities for political
activity at worship services such as petitioning campaigns, lobbying,
demonstrating, and distribute voting guides (Beyerlein & Chaves, 2003).
Some evidence suggests that people are more likely to develop skills
important to external civic engagement by participating in congregational
activities beyond religious service attendance (Beyerlein & Hipp, 2006;
Lichterman 2008). Mainline Protestants, Black Protestants, and Catholics
who spend more hours participating in congregation activities outside of
religious services are more likely to participate in other “bridging” organizations that build linkages among different groups in communities (Beyerlein
& Hipp, 2006). This is not the case for Evangelicals, lending support to the
idea that some religious groups, which may cultivate strong internal ties
but few external ties, may not provide benefits to the broader community
(Beyerlein & Hipp, 2006).
SPECIAL PURPOSE GROUPS
Religious special purpose groups have expanded in recent decades around a
range of diverse issues. Special purpose groups are distinct from other religious institutions in their orientation to achieving focused objectives, and
mobilizing resources and support to attain them (Wuthnow, 1988). According to Wuthnow (1988), special purpose groups, “focus on limited objectives,
attract participants with special interests, and generally do not constitute the
main arenas in which the worship and instruction of the church as a corporate body take place” (p. 108). With the rise of the “New Christian Right” in
the 1980s, many special purpose groups were established around conservative policy aims, while others formed around religious constituencies with
specialized talents, skills, occupations or hobbies.

Institutional Change in American Religion

7

The proliferation of special purpose groups between the 1960s and the
present was a result of the professionalization of religious workers, the
imitation of secular organizations, rising levels of affluence and leisure
time, and most importantly, the expanding influence of the state in areas of
welfare, education, equal rights, and other policy arenas (Wuthnow, 1988).
In response to the actions of the state, special interest groups have formed to
limit, oppose, or promote different types of government action on a variety
of issues from advocating for school prayer to enforcing separation of church
and state (Wuthnow, 1988). Observers of the dramatic growth in special
purpose groups debate both the costs and benefits of these developments.
While special purpose groups have the potential to revitalize American
religious institutions, there is also the danger that they fracture religious
communities along the social and political cleavages and controversies
evident in the wider society (Wuthnow, 1988).
Special purpose groups also provide a venue through which immigrants
and others new to American shores can stake their claim to a piece of
American civic life beyond congregations. Groups of Muslims, for example,
have created Muslim community health organizations through which to
normalize their differences and advance personal and communal interests.
These organizations enable founders to express personal piety outside the
traditional institution of the mosque and to participate in the American civil
society tradition of faith-based organizations (Laird & Cadge 2010). Hindu
Americans have established anti-defamation leagues that combat negative
portrayals of Hinduism and lobbying groups that work to achieve public
recognition for Hinduism as an American religion (Kurien, 2006, p. 730).
OUTSIDE OF RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS
In addition to focusing on American religious organizations, it is important
to consider how broad demographic changes shape the ways people experience religion in nonreligious organizations. Health care organizations, for
example, frequently make space for spirituality and religion in chapels, meditation, and/or prayer rooms, and employ chaplains who work with patients
and families from a range of religious backgrounds, including none. Wendy
Cadge’s recent book traces the history of religion in contemporary health care
organizations, illustrating the multiple spaces in which it is present and the
competing ways it is conceived and acted on by healthcare staff (2013).
Secular universities, prisons, airports, and the military also have chapel,
meditation, and prayer rooms and chaplains who are responsible for addressing religion and spirituality in its multiple guises (Beckford, 2001, Beckford &
Gilliat-Ray, 1998; Brand, 2012). As religion becomes more visible on college
campuses, a number of universities are managing religious diversity and

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

“inviting” religion into the university by creating new physical spaces to
meet religious and spiritual needs among students (Jacobsen & Jacobsen,
2012; Kazanjian, 2006). Some universities have renovated historically
Christian chapels to serve students from a range of religious and spiritual
backgrounds, while others have opened up new spirituality centers to
accommodate multiple religious and secular ethical organizations (Jacobsen
& Jacobsen, 2012; Kazanjian, 2006; Riess, 2008). In his study of evangelical
Christians, Michael Lindsay has shown how networks facilitate the movement of evangelical Christians across social institutions and shape their
experiences in secular, high-status positions (Lindsay, 2007). Other scholars
have focused on how religious discourse and practice can provide progressive activists, organizers, and movements with important resources to work
for social change (Hart, 2001; Hondagneu-Sotelo, 2008; Lichterman, 2005,
2008; Nepstad Erickson, 2008; Wood, 2002). In order to fully understand
the presence of religion and its impact on contemporary American society,
scholars must continue to trace its influence in spheres outside of explicitly
religious organizations.
RELIGION IN TRANSNATIONAL CONTEXT
Any account of institutional change in the United States is incomplete without attention to immigration, globalization, and transnational connections.
Many existing American religious organizations are part of larger transnational structures with branches of the same organization located in different
parts of the world. Scholars of migration typically characterize transnationalism as the “back-and-forth movements” of immigrants between sending
and receiving countries (Portes, Guarnizo, & Landolt, 1999, p. 219). Religion,
however, often acts as a network connecting people and places, and many
Americans belong to transnational religious groups that are deliberately constituted across national borders (Levitt, 2001, 2004; Wuthnow & Offutt, 2008).
Taking these factors into account, transnational scholars such as Levitt (2007)
argue that religious diversity can be shaped as much by forces at work outside American borders as within them, and that religion is no longer rooted
in a specific country or legal system.
Even though most American churches are still locally oriented, more
American congregations and individual Christians now engage in charity
work, construction projects, education, evangelization, and relief efforts
abroad (Wuthnow, 2009). The Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion,
and international meetings of Presbyterians and Baptists represent a few
of the most visible examples of traditional transnational religious organizations. Newer transnational connections are less centrally organized and
have emerged through the mission efforts of smaller congregations, the

Institutional Change in American Religion

9

development of personal ties, and short-term international visits (Wuthnow
& Offutt, 2008). Immigrant groups have also recreated transnational religious organizations within the United States. For example, Gujarati Hindu
groups have established home-country-based programs that formalize and
reinforce homeland ties with guidance from home-country leaders or local
Indian religious leaders (Levitt, 2004, p. 13).
In a cutting-edge example of how scholars are responding to the complexity
of studying transnational religion, Mooney (2009) focuses on the experiences
of the Catholic Haitian diaspora in Miami, Montreal, and Paris. Through
this comparative work, Mooney shows how different national and political contexts shape the ability of religious organizations to mediate between
immigrants and their host societies. Although the Haitians in her study share
similar beliefs and expressions of religious piety across locations, the ways
in which their faith enables them to confront their socioeconomic conditions
depends on how leaders interact with other institutions in the United States,
Canada, and France.
KEY ISSUES FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
Scholars of religion have closely examined how shifts in religious beliefs,
practices, affiliations, and politics influence the growth and decline of different American religious institutions. They paint a vivid picture of how recent
demographic shifts, including new waves of immigration and growing religious diversity, shape religious—and nonreligious—organizations and the
contexts in which they develop. Although scholars recognize the increasing
number of Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims on American shores, as well as
the diversification of American Christianity, most research still holds Protestant congregations as the organizational model against which non-Protestant
and non-Christian groups are measured. This model has clear limitations
when describing the complexity and nuance of new institutional developments on American soil. As Penny Edgell argues in a recent article, “the
sociology of religion has developed a disproportionate focus on empirical
studies of American Protestantism” that needs to be corrected to fully understand how people in the US experience and practice their religions (2012,
p. 243). In the future, we particularly encourage scholars to focus on people
and traditions from across the religious spectrum. Doing so not only more
accurately reflects the ways religion is lived and experienced in the States
but also challenges the conventional categories and concepts through which
scholars have studied religion in the United States (Bender et al., 2013).
Asking better questions about religion in organizations other than congregations can also help the study of American religion better represent institutional and religious realities. Current research tends to exaggerate the role of

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

congregations in American life because it overlooks the larger organizational
fields and social settings in which these religious institutions are embedded (Bender et al., 2013). In the past few decades, scholars have directed
important attention to religious life outside of congregations through studies of “lived” or “everyday” religion (Hall, 1997; McGuire, 2008; Orsi, 2003)
However, this research often conceptualizes religious actions outside of congregations as complementary or resistant to congregational and voluntary
organizational religion (see McGuire, 2008) rather than taking place on its
own terms. By focusing only on religious organizations, scholars miss opportunities to examine how supposedly secular spaces are shaped formally and
informally by changes in contemporary American religion. Secular institutions such as universities, health care organizations, prisons, and the military
are all influenced by shifting religious demographics in ways that deserve
further attention in studies of American religion—not only through the regulatory policies that may enable, mandate, or limit the exercise of religion but
also through the personal beliefs and practices that students or staff members
bring into these social settings.
Finally, without situating studies of the United States in a broader global
context, it is impossible to theorize beyond the American context. According to Smilde and May (2010), over 70% of all US journal articles on religion
focus on religious dynamics in the United States. This becomes problematic
when trying to distinguish general properties of religious identity, belief, and
processes from the US context, or when applying findings from the United
States to other regions of the world. As evident in the work of Mooney (2009),
comparative transnational studies enable scholars to identify relationships
between religion, the society, and the state that would otherwise be invisible
within a single-country study. “Provincializing” the United States and looking to scholarship on non-US contexts will help researchers both identify the
limitations of American frameworks and comprehend the extent to which
“national” aspects of religious life are in fact transnational (Bender et al.,
2013). Moving forward, we hope that sociological research on religion will
be less preoccupied with bounding religion in specific spaces, institutions,
or organizational forms, and will, in the words of Bender et al., “abandon its
assumptions about the places and processes where religion allegedly ‘lives’
and empirically study where it rears its head” (2013, p. 291).
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FURTHER READING
Bender, C., Cadge, W., Levitt, P., & Smilde, D. (2013). Religion on the edge: De-centering
and re-centering the sociology of religion. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Cadge, W. (2013). Paging god: Religion in the halls of medicine. Chicago, IL: University
of Chicago Press.
Chaves, M. (2011). American religion: Contemporary trends. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press.
Edgell, P. (2012). A cultural sociology of religion: New directions. Annual Review of
Sociology, 38, 247–265.
Fisher, C. S. (2006). A century of difference: How America changed in the last one hundred
years. New York, NY: Russel Sage Foundation.
The Immanent Frame. Secularism, Religion, and the Public Sphere. Retrieved from
http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/
Jacobsen, D., & Jacobsen, R. H. (2012). No longer invisible: Religion in University Education. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Kazanjian, V. (2006). Towards a multi-faith community at Wellesley College. In P.
Brodeur & E. Patel (Eds.), Building the interfaith youth movement: beyond dialogue to
action (pp. 109–124). Landham, MD: Rowan and Littlefield.
Kwon, H.-Y., Kim, K. C., & Warner, R. S. (2001). Korean Americans and their religions:
Pilgrims and missionaries from a different shore. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press.
Min, P. G., & Kim, J. H. (2002). Religions in Asian America: Building faith communities.
New York, NY: Alta Mira Press.
Min, P. G. (1992). The structure and social functions of Korean immigrant churches
in the United States. International Migration Review, 26(4), 1370–1394.
Putnam, R. D., & Campbell, D. E. (2010). American grace: How religion divides and unites
us. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Riess, J. (2008). A chapel for the 21st century. Wellesley College Magazine, Fall 2008.
Wuthnow, R. (1988). The restructuring of American religion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press.
Wuthnow, R., & Christiano, K. (1979). The effect of residential migration on church
attendance in the United States. In R. Wuthnow (Ed.), The Religious Dimension:
New Directions in Quantitative Research (pp. 257–276). New York, NY: Academic
Press.

CASEY CLEVENGER SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Casey Clevenger is a PhD candidate in Sociology at Brandeis University. Her
dissertation research explores how women’s local contexts and backgrounds
affect their participation in transnational women’s religious organizations in
the United States and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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WENDY CADGE SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Wendy Cadge is a Professor in the Sociology Department at Brandeis University. She teaches and writes about religion in the contemporary United
States, especially as related to health care, immigration, and sexuality. More
information is at www.wendycadge.com.
RELATED ESSAYS
Lived Religion (Sociology), Nancy T. Ammerman
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Media

Institutional Change in American Religion