Current Studies in the Sociology of Religion Edited by Kent R. Kerley Printed Edition of the Special Issue Published in Religions www.mdpi.com/journal/religions Kent R. Kerley (Ed.) Current Studies in the Sociology of Religion This book is a reprint of the special issue that appeared in the online open access journal Religions (ISSN 2077-1444) in 2014 (available at: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/sociology_religion). Guest Editor Kent R. Kerley Department of Justice Sciences University of Alabama at Birmingham 1201 University Blvd., Suite 210, Birmingham AL 35294-4562 USA Editorial Office MDPI AG Klybeckstrasse 64 Basel, Switzerland Publisher Shu-Kun Lin Managing Editor Jeremiah R. Zhang 1. Edition 2015 MDPI • Basel • Beijing ISBN 978-3-03842-018-7 © 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. All articles in this volume are Open Access distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. However, the dissemination and distribution of copies of this book as a whole is restricted to MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. III Table of Contents List of Contributors .......................................................................................................... VII Kent R. Kerley Editor’s Introduction to “Current Studies in the Sociology of Religion” ............................ XIII Section I: Empirical Research on Congregations and Denominational Variations John P. Bartkowski, Xiaohe Xu and Ginny E. Garcia Religion and Infant Mortality in the U.S.: A Preliminary Study of Denominational Variations Reprinted from: Religions 2011, 2(3), 264-276; doi:10.3390/rel2030264 http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/2/3/264 .............................................................................. 2 Troy Blanchard, Samuel Stroope and Charles Tolbert Bringing the Congregations Back in: Religious Markets, Congregational Density, and American Religious Participation Reprinted from: Religions 2014, 5(3), 929-947; doi:10.3390/rel5030929 http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/5/3/929 ............................................................................ 15 Casey Borch, Matthew West and Gordon Gauchat Go Forth and Multiply: Revisiting Religion and Fertility in the United States, 1984-2008† Reprinted from: Religions 2011, 2(4), 469-484; doi:10.3390/rel2040469 http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/2/4/469 ............................................................................ 35 R. Khari Brown The Connection between Worship Attendance and Racial Segregation Attitudes among White and Black Americans Reprinted from: Religions 2011, 2(3), 277-296; doi:10.3390/rel2030277 http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/2/3/277 ............................................................................ 51 Kevin D. Dougherty, Melanie Hulbert and Ashley Palmer Marital Naming Plans among Students at Four Evangelical Colleges Reprinted from: Religions 2014, 5(4), 1116-1131; doi:10.3390/rel5041116 http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/5/4/1116 .......................................................................... 71 Todd W. Ferguson The Optimal Level of Strictness and Congregational Growth Reprinted from: Religions 2014, 5(3), 703-719; doi:10.3390/rel5030703 http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/5/3/703 ............................................................................ 87 IV Stephen M. Merino Neighbors Like Me? Religious Affiliation and Neighborhood Racial Preferences among Non- Hispanic Whites Reprinted from: Religions 2011, 2(2), 165-183; doi:10.3390/rel2020165 http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/2/2/165 .......................................................................... 106 Joshua J. Rendon, Xiaohe Xu, Melinda Lundquist Denton and John P. Bartkowski Religion and Marriage Timing: A Replication and Extension Reprinted from: Religions 2014, 5(3), 834-851; doi:10.3390/rel5030834 http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/5/3/834 .......................................................................... 126 Section II. Empirical Research on Social Institutions and Deviance Michael Howell-Moroney The Empirical Ties between Religious Motivation and Altruism in Foster Parents: Implications for Faith-Based Initiatives in Foster Care and Adoption Reprinted from: Religions 2014, 5(3), 720-737; doi:10.3390/rel5030720 http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/5/3/720 .......................................................................... 145 Kent R. Kerley, Heith Copes, Alana J. Linn, Lauren Eason, Minh H. Nguyen and Ariana Mishay Stone Understanding Personal Change in a Women’s Faith-Based Transitional Center Reprinted from: Religions 2011, 2(2), 184-197; doi:10.3390/rel2020184 http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/2/2/184 .......................................................................... 162 Kent R. Kerley, Jessica R. Deitzer and Lindsay Leban Who is in Control? How Women in a Halfway House Use Faith to Recover from Drug Addiction Reprinted from: Religions 2014, 5(3), 852-870; doi:10.3390/rel5030852 http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/5/3/852 .......................................................................... 176 Todd Matthews, Lee Michael Johnson and Catherine Jenks Does Religious Involvement Generate or Inhibit Fear of Crime? Reprinted from: Religions 2011, 2(4), 485-503; doi:10.3390/rel2040485 http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/2/4/485 .......................................................................... 196 Gabriella Pusztai Schools and Communities of Norm-awareness Reprinted from: Religions 2011, 2(3), 372-388; doi:10.3390/rel2030372 http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/2/3/372 .......................................................................... 215 Section III. Conceptual and Review Papers Roberto Cipriani Diffused Religion and Prayer Reprinted from: Religions 2011, 2(2), 198-215; doi:10.3390/rel2020198 http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/2/2/198 .......................................................................... 234 V Paul Froese Religion and American Politics from a Global Perspective Reprinted from: Religions 2014, 5(3), 648-662; doi:10.3390/rel5030648 http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/5/3/648 .......................................................................... 253 Michael Hallett and Byron Johnson The Resurgence of Religion in America’s Prisons Reprinted from: Religions 2014, 5(3), 663-683; doi:10.3390/rel5030663 http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/5/3/663 .......................................................................... 268 Tom P. O’Connor and Jeff B. Duncan The Sociology of Humanist, Spiritual, and Religious Practice in Prison: Supporting Responsivity and Desistance from Crime Reprinted from: Religions 2011, 2(4), 590-610; doi:10.3390/rel2040590 http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/2/4/590 .......................................................................... 289 Samuel Stroope Hinduism in India and Congregational Forms: Influences of Modernization and Social Networks Reprinted from: Religions 2011, 2(4), 676-692; doi:10.3390/rel2040676 http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/2/4/676 .......................................................................... 311 VI VII List of Contributors John Bartkowski, Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at San Antonio, focuses on the linkages between religion, gender, and family. His forthcoming book, Faith and Lucre (Oxford University Press), examines how religion and public funding influence social service provision among nonprofits. Paul Froese is a Sociology Professor at Baylor University who specializes in comparative historical and cultural sociology. His first book The Plot to Kill God explored the effects of religious repression in the Soviet Union and won the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion’s best book award. With America’s Four Gods, he analyzed of how images of God predict moral, social, and political attitudes. He has just completed On Purpose: A Sociology of Life’s Meaning, an exploration of how people imagine the purpose of life. Troy C. Blanchard is an Associate Dean in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor in the Department of Sociology at Louisiana State University (LSU). He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from LSU in 2001. He is a demographer with research interests in the areas of migration, health, socioeconomic inequality, demographic methods, and social impact assessment. Casey Borch obtained his Ph.D. in Sociology with a concentration in Quantitative Methods from the University of Connecticut and Masters in Sociology from the University of South Carolina. He has published research articles in the fields of social psychology, political and economic sociology, and demography. He is currently a statistical consultant with the Pequot Consulting Group and involved in several community-based outreach programs as well as in the analysis of internal migration trends and patterns in Alabama and the U.S. R. Khari Brown is an Associate Professor in the department of sociology at Wayne State University and an adjunct research scientist at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. He is currently working on a series of articles on the relationship between race, religion, and social-political attitudes. As a research scientist at ISR, he is working on a grant to collect data on religion, social justice attitudes, and political partisanship in the U.S. VIII Roberto Cipriani