Work Family And Religion In Contemporary Society

Until recently, religious institutions have been organized to suit the traditional American family, where the wife stayed at home, caring for children. Today, churches and synagogues are beginning to adapt to the reality of the American family: dual-career marriages, high levels of divorce, interfaith marriages, partnerships that may not be marriages. Religious organizations must serve families that don't fall into the Ozzie and Harriet mold. The first group of papers in this edited volume documents changing trends in the connection between religion, work, and the family. In the second part of the book, we see how changing families and flexible congregations are experimenting with new forms of religious life.

The 1950s religious boom was organized around the male-breadwinner lifestyle in the burgeoning postwar suburbs. But since the 1950s, family life has been fundamentally reconfigured in the United States. How do religion and family fit together today? This book examines how religious congregations in America have responded to changes in family structure, and how families participate in local religious life. Based on a study of congregations and community residents in upstate New York, sociologist Penny Edgell argues that while some religious groups may be nostalgic for the Ozzie and Harriet days, others are changing, knowing that fewer and fewer families fit this traditional pattern. In order to keep members with nontraditional family arrangements within the congregation, these innovators have sought to emphasize individual freedom and personal spirituality and actively to welcome single adults and those from nontraditional families. Edgell shows that mothers and fathers seek involvement in congregations for different reasons. Men tend to think of congregations as social support structures, and to get involved as a means of participating in the lives of their children. Women, by contrast, are more often motivated by the quest for religious experience, and can adapt more readily to pluralist ideas about family structure. This, Edgell concludes, may explain the attraction of men to more conservative congregations, and women to nontraditional religious groups.

Nason-Clark's sociological research reveals how churches and secular organizations have responded - sometimes with assistance, sometimes not - to victims of violence in their midst and how their response could be more effective. By exploring the relationship between violence and Christians' response to it from various perspectives - those of victim, clergy, congregation - this book ultimately encourages a pastoral assistance that reduces violence in the world and helps victims find the inner strength to leave their gardens.

Contested changes: "family values" in local religious life -- |t Religious involvement and religious institutional change -- |t Religion, family, and work -- |t Styles of religious involvement -- |t "The problem with families today ..."--|t Practice of family ministry -- |t Religious familism and social change.

Research in recent decades has proven that the seemingly disparate worlds of family life and the workplace are in fact closely intertwined. Moreover, scholars have begun to recognize the extent to which community life influences the work-family interface, for instance, the lack of fit between school hours and work hours, and assistance provided by community-based child care services. Work, Family, and Community is the first to provide a comprehensive review and analysis of the theoretical and empirical research that has examined the complex interconnections among these domains. This book integrates literature from several disciplines, including sociology, industrial-organizational and occupational health psychology, human development and family studies, management, gender studies, and social work. It documents significant patterns and trends in the economy and looks at the health of communities and neighborhoods, exploring the level of social integration, availability of community services, and the extent to which such services meet the needs of working families. Author Patricia Voydanoff takes an important step in conceptualizing the components and processes that comprise the work-family-community relationship, and provides direction for future theoretical and empirical work on the topic. This volume speaks to scholars, researchers, and students who address the theoretical, empirical, and policy-relevant issues associated with the work-family-community interface.

In 14 essays, US and Canadian sociologists of religion cultivate the growing gender and feminist consciousness in their profession, and challenge established scholars and graduate students to be cognizant of it. They combine biography and scholarly pursuits, academic rigor and personal passion. There is no index. c. Book News Inc.

Handbook for Religion and Social Institutions is written for sociologists who study a variety of sub-disciplines and are interested in recent studies and theoretical approaches that relate religious variables to their particular area of interest. The handbook focuses on several major themes: - Social Institutions such as Politics, Economics, Education, Health and Social Welfare - Family and the Life Cycle - Inequality - Social Control - Culture - Religion as a Social Institution and in a Global Perspective This handbook will be of interest to social scientists including sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, and other researchers whose study brings them in contact with the study of religion and its impact on social institutions.

In a thoroughgoing revision of the first edition of this classic text and reference, published by Plenum in 1987, the editors have assembled a distinguished group of contributors to address such topics as past, present, and future perspectives on family diversity; theory and methods of the family; changing family patterns and roles; the family and other institutions; and family dynamics and processes.