The Question of Cultural Change in the Social Scientific Study of Religion: Notes from the Emerging Church

This article explores how anthropological models of cultural change bolster the social scientific study of the Emerging Church movement. A distinction is drawn between market-oriented approaches to change that measure institutional growth and decline and cultural-oriented approaches that address bro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal for the scientific study of religion Vol. 56; no. 1; pp. 19 - 25
Main Author Bielo, James S.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.03.2017
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Subjects
Anthropological models
anthropology
Comorbidity
Cultural change
Emerging Church
Ethnography
Evangelicalism
Forum on the Emerging Church Movement: What it is and Why it Matters
Religion
Religious beliefs
Religious organizations
Social change
Social conditions & trends
Social research
Sociocultural factors
Transformation
Midwest states
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Summary:This article explores how anthropological models of cultural change bolster the social scientific study of the Emerging Church movement. A distinction is drawn between market-oriented approaches to change that measure institutional growth and decline and cultural-oriented approaches that address broader effects on sociocultural systems. Emphasis is placed on models that emphasize change occurring internal to cultural systems and that recognize the co-occurrence of cultural durability and transformation. This theoretical exploration is grounded in more than three years of ethnographic fieldwork conducted among Emerging evangelical communities in the midwestern United States.
ISSN:0021-8294
1468-5906
DOI:10.1111/jssr.12323