Sociology

Social Critique as Religious Formation: Relational Practices in Faith-Based Activism

Document Type

Article

Abstract

For many religious Americans, the start of the twenty-first century has been a period of reflection about deepening socioeconomic inequalities and heightened racial and ethnic tensions. Yet consensus about how faith communities might respond to these problems is inhibited by an ideological divide. Since the 1970s, concerns about sexuality and reproduction have pushed many people of faith toward the Republican Party, and hence away from the political forces typically associated with interventions against structural and social problems. Meanwhile, beginning in the 1980s, the political and cultural ascendancy of the Religious Right began driving politically and theologically liberal believers out of their churches. The result is a religious sphere that offers little institutional backing or cultural validation for Americans who perceive deepening socioeconomic inequalities as a moral crisis that requires an organizational religious response. For them, authentic religious commitment must involve social justice interventions, but cultural and institutional support for such is scarce.

Publication Title

Liturgy

Publication Date

4-2-2020

Volume

35

Issue

2

First Page

25

Last Page

32

ISSN

0458-063X

DOI

10.1080/0458063X.2020.1739477

Keywords

activism, civic culture, community organizing, politics, relational practices

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