The Southernization of American Religion: Testing a Hypothesis
The most visible development in American religion in the past two decades is the resurgence of evangelical Protestantism. Because evangelical religion has remained the dominant twentieth century form of Protestantism in the South, and not in other regions of the country, John Egerton (1974) has char...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
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| Published: |
1991
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| In: |
Sociological analysis
Year: 1991, Volume: 52, Issue: 2, Pages: 159-174 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | The most visible development in American religion in the past two decades is the resurgence of evangelical Protestantism. Because evangelical religion has remained the dominant twentieth century form of Protestantism in the South, and not in other regions of the country, John Egerton (1974) has characterized the recent nationwide revival of evangelical Protestantism as a movement of Southern-style religion back into the mainstream of American culture — a process he calls the “Southernization of American religion.” Using the Glenmary Research Center's church memberhsip data, and population and migration data from the United States Census, this article tests the Egerton hypothesis on the spread of Southern religion. In fact, I found that virtually all the membership growth in evangelical churches between 1971 and 1980 can be attributed to growth in specifically Southern evangelical churches. The growth of Southern-style religion was especially marked outside the South and corresponds with regions that experienced high levels of in-migration from the South during the same period — suggesting that migration is an important mechanism by which America's religious landscape evolves. In short, my data support the Egerton hypothesis. Although more research needs to be done in this area, based on my findings, I conclude that a region-based approach to understanding recent changes in American religion is indeed plausible. |
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| ISSN: | 2325-7873 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Sociological analysis
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/3710961 |