This study investigates the notion that congregations act as subcultures which impact their members’ approaches to daily life conflict resolution and decision-making. Fourteen interviews of churchgoers from two congregations in New England were conducted to gain insight into how Catholics and Baptists differ in their approaches to conflict resolution and decision-making in daily life situations and how those approaches are impacted by the ecclesiology of the respective congregations. This study finds that the major differences between the churchgoers’ approaches to conflict resolution and decision-making are the values to which they adhere. It is concluded that those values are a result of each congregation acting as a subculture which has been formed by the importance of hierarchy, global and local focus, and, especially, the role of the church in each congregation. The study also finds that the relationship between church leadership and churchgoers is stronger in the Baptist congregation.
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Laura R. Olson, ‘The Essentiality of 'Culture' in the Study of Religion and Politics’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, vol. 50, no. 4 (2011), pp. 639–653, at p. 645.
Michael S. Evans, ‘Religion and Political Decision Making’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, vol. 53, no. 1 (2014), pp. 145–163; Anselmo Ferreira Vasconcelos, ‘Intuition, Prayer, and Managerial Decision-making Processes: A Religion-based Framework’, Management Decision, vol. 47, no. 6 (2009), pp. 930–949; G. Hilary and K.W. Hui, ‘Does Religion Matter in Corporate Decision Making in America?’ Journal of Financial Economics, vol. 93, no. 3 (2009), pp. 455–473.
Ibid., p. 648.
Scott Schieman, ‘Education and the Importance of Religion in Decision Making: Do Other Dimensions of Religiousness Matter?’ Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, vol. 50, no. 3 (2011), pp. 570–587.
Amy Adamczyk, ‘The Effect of Personal Religiosity on Attitudes toward Abortion, Divorce, and Gender Equality – Does Cultural Context Make a Difference?’ EurAmerica, vol. 43, no. 1 (2013), pp. 213–253; Nittin Essoo and Sally Dibb, ‘Religious Influences on Shopping Behaviour: An Exploratory Study’, Journal of Marketing Management, vol. 20, no. 7–8 (2004), pp. 683–712; Luc Renneboog and Christophe Spaenjers, ‘Religion, Economic Attitudes, and Household Finance’, Oxford Economic Papers, vol. 64, no. 1 (2012), pp. 103–127.
Rachel Goldberg and Brian Blancke, ‘God in the Process: Is there a Place for Religion in Conflict Resolution?’ Conflict Resolution Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 4 (2011), pp. 377–398; Hammad Sheikh, Jeremy Ginges, Alin Coman, and Scott Atran, ‘Religion, Group Threat and Sacred Values’, Judgment & Decision Making, vol. 7, no. 2 (2012), pp. 110–118.
Ibid., p. 20.
Ibid., p. 53.
Francis A. Sullivan, The Church We Believe In: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic (New York: Paulist, 1988); Paul McPartlan, Service of Love (Washington, dc: Catholic University of America Press, 2013), p. 10.
Stephen R. Holmes, Baptist Theology (London: T & T Clark, 2012), p. 101. Holmes goes as far as saying that any sort of authority trying ‘to control the gathered church is, on a classical Baptist understanding, simply and precisely usurping the place of Christ’.
James Leo Garrett, Jr., ‘An Affirmation of Congregational Polity’, Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry, vol. 3, no. 1 (2005), pp. 38–55, at p. 38.
See David Desormeaux, Mass Appeal: The Depth and Beauty of the Eucharistic Celebration at an Understandable Level (San Jose: Writers Club, 2001); Timothy Radcliffe, Why Go to Church?: The Drama of the Eucharist (London: Continuum, 2008).
Julie Scott Jones and Sal Watt, Ethnography in Social Science Practice (London: Routledge, 2010).
Cory Labanow, ‘Researching Local Churches,’ in Practical Theology and Qualitative Research, by John Swinton and Harriet Mowat (London: scm, 2006), pp. 133–155.
Scimecca, ‘Conflict Resolution in the United States’, pp. 25–27.
T.M. Luhrmann, When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012); Ilonka Terlouw, Real Faith: Performativity and Materiality in the Personal Relationship with Jesus of Evangelical Protestants (Delft: Eburon Academic, 2015).
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This study investigates the notion that congregations act as subcultures which impact their members’ approaches to daily life conflict resolution and decision-making. Fourteen interviews of churchgoers from two congregations in New England were conducted to gain insight into how Catholics and Baptists differ in their approaches to conflict resolution and decision-making in daily life situations and how those approaches are impacted by the ecclesiology of the respective congregations. This study finds that the major differences between the churchgoers’ approaches to conflict resolution and decision-making are the values to which they adhere. It is concluded that those values are a result of each congregation acting as a subculture which has been formed by the importance of hierarchy, global and local focus, and, especially, the role of the church in each congregation. The study also finds that the relationship between church leadership and churchgoers is stronger in the Baptist congregation.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 413 | 93 | 11 |
Full Text Views | 128 | 4 | 1 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 41 | 8 | 2 |