Marta Trzebiatowska

Why are women more religious than men

1. The Great Divide 2. New Religions 3. Spirits and Bodies 4. New Age and Spirituality 5. Conservative Religion 6. Biology, Roles, and Attitudes 7. Risk 8. Ways of Life 9. Secularization 10. The Sum of Small Differences

Bourdieu, Capital, and Conflict in a Religious Field: The Case of the ‘Homosexuality’ Conflict in the Anglican Communion

Although Bourdieus sociological project is a generalised sociology of religion, his work has not been as influential among sociologists of religion as one might have expected it to be. In this article we provide an overview of Bourdieus analysis of religion, paying particular attention to key problems that have been identified in the literature and suggesting how his work can be understood in such a way as to overcome these limitations. Drawing upon research by two of the authors, we show how Bourdieus sociology is helpful for understanding the conflicts over sexuality in the Anglican Communion.

Beyond compliance and resistance: Polish Catholic nuns negotiating femininity

This article examines the production of consecrated femininity in contemporary Polish convents. Drawing on qualitative data from 35 interviews in five religious communities the article explores the type of female agency which transforms the dominant model of Polish femininity instead of resisting it. Following Lois McNay’s (2000) concept of narrative identity, the article argues that female agency does not necessarily emerge out of subversion of the male-dominated Polish Catholic Church. Rather than simply being placed within discursive structures, Catholic nuns reflexively alter them by using a mixture of gender ideology and spiritually driven gender work in order to produce coherent and socially meaningful narratives of consecrated femininity.

‘Atheism is not the problem. The problem is being a woman’. Atheist women and reasonable feminism

ABSTRACT While the percentage of religiously unaffiliated women is growing in the West, little is known about the relationship between atheism and feminism. This article redresses the gap by exploring women’s identification with atheism and feminism. The central argument draws on qualitative interview data from the UK, Australia, the US and Poland and emphasizes the role of atheism as a background identity marker through which female subjectivity is enacted in everyday life. The findings are two-fold: first, atheism and feminism are both devalued identities when embraced by women; and second, identifying as an atheist affords the participants an impetus to invent a new vocabulary to account for their identity. In conclusion, I argue that atheism provides a catalyst for the post-feminist discourse of independence, empowerment and freedom of choice as the participants construct narratives of ‘reasonable feminism’.

The Politics of Morality: The Church, the State, and Reproductive Rights in Postsocialist Poland

be voluntary, but it is in fact obligatory, given that the consequences of breakdown could be so serious. Reciprocity extends to greetings, mutual help, and mutual concern at times of difficulty and celebration. It includes members of both religions visiting each other’s holy places and sites of memory with a mixture of fascination and mystery, without these visits going beyond imitative gestures deemed to be effective, especially when it comes to sources of healing. There is one exception and one that is confined to Christians: the salience for Christians of the practice of blood sacrifice along the lines of the Muslim kurban. This ritual is more important for local Christians than the Eucharist and this is perhaps the right place to note Christian scepticism about the Orthodox priesthood, which perhaps echoes scepticism in Bulgarian society as a whole about the clergy, particularly given the display of conspicuous consumption by some higher clerics since the fall of Communism. Reciprocity involves avoiding divisive subjects, such as religion, and hiding resentment behind an obligatory wall of silence. This poses an ethical problem for any researcher anxious to expose the dark side to the light. Stability is an overriding concern and openness about ancient fears, memories, and resentments could easily threaten stability. The dark side is made up of oral memories of past traumatic events—or of what are taken to be traumatic events. There are martyrologies on both sides that mimic each other in their narrative structure. At the same time, these narratives will only be activated if stirred up at the national level and further stimulated by geo-political events. For the moment at least, the people of this part of the Rhodope mountains congratulate themselves on avoiding situations elsewhere where apparent neighbourliness and reciprocity broke down in ethnic cleansing and throat slitting.

Becoming a ‘real’ Catholic: Polish migrants and lived religiosity in the UK and Ireland

Abstract The effect of migration on religiosity is a well-documented theme in the sociology of religion. Despite the rapid growth in the number of Polish Catholics in the UK and Ireland, little has been written on the spiritual and religious aspects of their journeys. This article is based on the authors’ ethnographic fieldwork with Polish migrants in the UK and Ireland. Drawing on qualitative interviews and participant observation with Polish migrants of various ages and class backgrounds, we identify three possible outcomes for individuals of Catholic faith being transplanted to a secular context: firstly, Catholic Poles continue to practise in the same way as they did in their home country; secondly, they begin to question their faith and leave the church altogether; thirdly, they take the opportunity to explore their faith in a flexible and relatively independent manner. We argue that the third possibility leads to the privatisation and intellectualisation of their Catholicism. Thus, the experience of migration gives some Polish Catholics the freedom and courage to question their beliefs, but it does not necessarily make them irreligious. In their own words, they ‘believe in the way they have always wanted to but did not dare’. In conclusion, this article highlights the secondary benefits of migration for the personal experience of religious faith.

‘It’s all for girls’: re-visiting the gender gap in New Age spiritualities

Women’s disproportionate involvement in religion has been the subject of debate in the sociology of religion for some time. In particular, the gender gap in New Age spiritualities appears considerably greater than that found in the congregational sphere of mainstream religion. This article argues that there is nothing in being a woman per se that may attract an individual to certain spiritual activities but rather, that it is the elective affinity between women as a group and such activities that creates the impression of a direct appeal. Much of the holistic spirituality milieu is designed by women for women, not least the most popular elements concerned with healing and well-being. It is therefore possible that the initial gap between men and women is small but it becomes subsequently reinforced and widened due to the gendered nature of alternative spirituality courses, workshops and treatments.

Habit Does Not a Nun Make? Religious Dress in the Everyday Lives of Polish Catholic Nuns

This article explores the role of the religious habit in the lives of Catholic sisters in Poland. It is based on research data from qualitative interviews carried out by the author in five Polish convents. The argument focuses on the indeterminacy of the message which the habit sends to the lay audience. It considers the significance of the habit through a Durkheimian lens. The nuns’ accounts of their encounters with the lay public are used to illuminate the precarious position of the Catholic Church in twenty-first century Poland. The article concludes that the habit acts as a ‘barometer’ for attitudes towards institutionalised religion in Polish society.