Doing Identity: Power and the Reproduction of Collective Identity in Racially Diverse Congregations
Congregational identity formation is a challenge for any head clergy. It is particularly challenging for head clergy of racially and ethnically diverse congregations as these leaders occupy positions uniquely situated for destabilizing or instantiating racial hierarchies. Drawing upon the Religious...
| Authors: | ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford Univ. Press
[2019]
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| In: |
Sociology of religion
Year: 2019, Volume: 80, Issue: 4, Pages: 518-541 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Religious Leadership and Diversity Project
/ USA
/ Church congregation
/ Multi-cultural society
/ Group identity
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| IxTheo Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy CH Christianity and Society KBQ North America |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | Congregational identity formation is a challenge for any head clergy. It is particularly challenging for head clergy of racially and ethnically diverse congregations as these leaders occupy positions uniquely situated for destabilizing or instantiating racial hierarchies. Drawing upon the Religious Leadership and Diversity Project (RLDP), this article examines multiracial church pastors' stories of how they achieve ethnic and racial inclusion in their congregations. We pay particular attention to how these leaders reference and draw upon four contestable cultural worship elementslanguage, ritual, dance, and musicthat operate as primary terrain for collective identity construction. Integrating theories on identity, race, ethnicity, and culture, we take a realistic context-sensitive approach to the nature of how worship works as a bridge, recognizing that cultural markers are not neutral but can simultaneously activate ethno-specific identities in racially and ethnically diverse spaces, instantiating hierarchies of value and thus making worship a potential barrier to the formation of a unified diverse community. |
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| ISSN: | 1759-8818 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Sociology of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/socrel/srz002 |