Hart M. Nelsen

Black Church in the Sixties

Gertrud Lenzer is to be congratulated for combining the standard with less well-knowrn works of Comte, thereby giving a full and intellectually faithful representation of his thought. Her introductory essay provides a penetrating account of the intellectual, social, and cultural contexts of his system of positivism....Professor Lenzers volume will go far in establishing Comtes relevance for contemporary social science. -NEIL J. SMELSER

Gender Differences in Images of God

Images of God data from the General Social Survey (1983) are subjected to factor analysis. Three images of God factors are identified: God as king, as healer, and as relational. Women score higher only on the God as healer image. The three images are positively interrelated and have substantial, positive relationships with church attendance. The finding that women score higher on God as healer, or a supportive factor, is viewed in part as related to succor women have traditionally received in church participation; the differences by gender in regard to holding this image of God are diminished when church attendance is controlled. The findings are compared with conclusions drawn by Vergote et at and Roof and Roof. The claim that Americans are more likely to emphasize instrumental (God as king) rather than supportive (God as healer) images is challenged.

The Structuring of Political Attitudes among Liberal and Conservative Protestants

Twenty years ago Johnson (1967) found that conservative Protestant clergy took less consistent stands than their liberal Protestant counterparts on a variety of political issues. Later research, however, suggests that members of conservative Protestant denominations may have become a politicized mass public. We approach this question by comparing conservative and liberal Protestants on their level of abstract political conceptualization and political belief system consistency. Using data from the 1972, 1980, and 1984 American National Election Studies, we find that conservative Protestants continue to show somewhat lower levels of political sophistication, attitude consistency, and consensus on issues. The results show that the conservative Protestant mass public remains less likely to link issues to the left/right political ideology in which political conflicts are framed and suggest a somewhat lower level of psychological involvement with politics among conservative Protestants.

Gender Differences in the Effects of Parental Discord on Preadolescent Religiousness

Differences in gender socialization have male youths receiving more power assertion, while female youths are given more nurture. Self-reliance and increasing autonomy are emphasized for the former, while obedience is the pattern for the latter. Applied to religious transmission, with parental discord as one context, and coupled with Kelmans processes of social influence, this suggests that by junior high school, boys, especially those perceiving their parents as high in discord, should show a decline in religiousness, compared to boys in grades 4-6 (the data are cross-sectional and are from 2724 youths in intact families in Minnesota). For this group the decline should occur only for those receiving corporal punishment. T-tests of means supported this hypothesis. An examination of the means suggests that boys in this same group at grades 4-6 score higher in religiousness than would be expected based on their perceptions of their parents religious levels. Parental discord does not have as clear an effect upon girls. In general girls in grades 7-8 are less likely to see their parents as religious than are girls in grades 4-6. There is a general decline in religiousness by grade for girls. It is concluded that family relations are important in the transmission of religiosity across generations.

Parental Use of the Threat "God Will Punish": Replication and Extension

Nunn (1964) presented data to give limited support to the thesis that in order to secure compliance from their children, powerless parents tell them God will punish them if they misbehave. Youths who subscribe to this belief have higher levels of self-blame and greater feeling they should be obedient than youths who do not. Using data from Minnesota children in grades four through eight, we find little support for the hypothesis that it is powerless parents who use this technique. However, like Nunn, we find the belief that God punishes youths who are bad is positively associated with selfblame and obedience. We introduce an additional variable, i.e., subscribing in general to the image of God as punishing or angry. Using this variable in relation to the belief that God punishes youths who are bad gives four cells, one of which is the image of God as angry/punishing but rejecting the belief that God punishes youths who are bad (this combination is one of a malevolent but impersonal God.). Youths subscribing to this combination have the lowest levels of self-blame and feeling of obedience to parents. Our findings agree with Nunns linkage of parental coalition with God and the childs benevolent image of God; the malevolent view is linked with a lower level of internalization.

Life without Afterlife: Toward Congruency of Belief across Generations

Wuthnow has argued that a shift in religious trends occurred when those under age 35 differentiated themselves symbolically from their elders. He used belief in afterlife, among other data, as a dependent variable. I report data concerning this central tenet from 1944, 1960, and 1973-75-76-78, and I show a long-range decline in belief for older Americans and a blip in belief (an increase in 1960 over 1944) for young Americans and then a decline for them. A positive relationship between age and belief existed in 1944 but not in 1960 or the mid-1970s. The concept of the formation of a generational gap in religiousness subsequent to the religious revival of the 1950s cannot be supported by data on belief in afterlife. Future studies should chart whether this belief continues to erode and should explore the implications of the apparent disappearance of this traditional appeal for older Americans to be religious.

The Black Church in the African American Experience.

Black churches in America have long been recognized as the most independent, stable, and dominant institutions in black communities. In The Black Church in the African American Experience, based on a ten-year study, is the largest nongovernmental study of urban and rural churches ever undertaken and the first major field study on the subject since the 1930s.nnDrawing on interviews with more than 1,800 black clergy in both urban and rural settings, combined with a comprehensive historical overview of seven mainline black denominations, C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya present an analysis of the Black Church as it relates to the history of African Americans and to contemporary black culture. In examining both the internal structure of the Church and the reactions of the Church to external, societal changes, the authors provide important insights into the Church’s relationship to politics, economics, women, youth, and music.nnAmong other topics, Lincoln and Mamiya discuss the attitude of the clergy toward women pastors, the reaction of the Church to the civil rights movement, the attempts of the Church to involve young people, the impact of the black consciousness movement and Black Liberation Theology and clergy, and trends that will define the Black Church well into the next century.nnThis study is complete with a comprehensive bibliography of literature on the black experience in religion. Funding for the ten-year survey was made possible by the Lilly Endowment and the Ford Foundation.