The Emergence of Southern Baptist Congregations

• In Event: 341 - Section on Sociology of Religion Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 01. Religious Organizations

Abstract

Just like other types of organizations, congregations are goal-directed, boundary-maintaining, and socially constructed systems of human activity. Unlike more traditional organizational forms, however, congregations are primarily dealers in otherworldly goods. Due to this distinction, the sociology of religion has generally overlooked theories of organizational competition when trying to account for macro-level changes in religious participation. Unfortunately, the theories that supposedly account for religious competition within the sociology of religion do not actually measure competition in meaningful ways. To remedy this important problem, I rely on insights from neo-institutionalism and population ecology to address the following research question: How does the organizational environment affect the emergence of new religious congregations? My analyses reveal that congregations are subject to the same types of environmental pressures as other types of organizations. More specifically, legitimacy increases the number of new religious congregations and competition has the opposite effect.

Author

• Matthew May, Oakland University