Rodney Stark's Why God finds a related issue. "One set of his propositions (illustrated by examples) hold that it is the ecclesiastics, and not the average church-goer, who tries to move a church from a "high tension" relationship to the rest of society to a "lower tension" relationship. The clerics are more likely to turn atheist than the congregants."
Chesterton explained the tension, if I understand what you and he mean by the term, as the point of the thing:
For no one wants to be forgiven for a big sin as if it were a little one. Any one might say that we should be neither quite miserable nor quite happy. But to find out how far one MAY be quite miserable without making it impossible to be quite happy—that was a discovery in psychology. Any one might say, “Neither swagger nor grovel”; and it would have been a limit. But to say, “Here you can swagger and there you can grovel”—that was an emancipation.
I think Christopher's explanation is more likely to explain the graph, but that Chesterton quote is a beauty. If only the difference was attributabvle to that, it would be a fine thing.
One of the components of the "tension" is the requirements to be part of the group. A "high tension" church makes greater counter-cultural demands than a "low tension" one, tending to have fewer but more loyal members. Stark's observations included other religions, in other countries.
The graphs are for "mainline denominations," and in all of those the pastors are required to have college educations or the equivalent. For good reasons or for bad, that reliably correlates with being more liberal.
Rodney Stark's Why God finds a related issue. "One set of his propositions (illustrated by examples) hold that it is the ecclesiastics, and not the average church-goer, who tries to move a church from a "high tension" relationship to the rest of society to a "lower tension" relationship. The clerics are more likely to turn atheist than the congregants."
ReplyDeleteChesterton explained the tension, if I understand what you and he mean by the term, as the point of the thing:
DeleteFor no one wants to be forgiven for a big sin as if it were a little one. Any one might say that we should be neither quite miserable nor quite happy. But to find out how far one MAY be quite miserable without making it impossible to be quite happy—that was a discovery in psychology. Any one might say, “Neither swagger nor grovel”; and it would have been a limit. But to say, “Here you can swagger and there you can grovel”—that was an emancipation.
I think it's more likely the tension comes from ecclesiastics seeing their peer group as academia and politics, and seeking their approval.
ReplyDeleteI think Christopher's explanation is more likely to explain the graph, but that Chesterton quote is a beauty. If only the difference was attributabvle to that, it would be a fine thing.
ReplyDeleteOne of the components of the "tension" is the requirements to be part of the group. A "high tension" church makes greater counter-cultural demands than a "low tension" one, tending to have fewer but more loyal members. Stark's observations included other religions, in other countries.
ReplyDeleteThe graphs are for "mainline denominations," and in all of those the pastors are required to have college educations or the equivalent. For good reasons or for bad, that reliably correlates with being more liberal.
ReplyDelete