Information Culture and Belief Formation in Religious Congregations A dissertation submitted to Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Darin Freeburg December, 2013 Dissertation written by Darin Freeburg M.A., Nazarene Theological Seminary, USA, 2009 B.A., MidAmerica Nazarene University, USA, 2007 Approved by ___________________________________ Don A. Wicks, Ph.D., Co-Chair, Doctoral Dissertation Committee ___________________________________ Danielle Coombs, Ph.D., Co-Chair, Doctoral Dissertation Committee ___________________________________ Daniel Roland, Ph.D., Member, Doctoral Dissertation Committee ___________________________________ Lynne Guillot-Miller, Ph.D., Member, Doctoral Dissertation Committee ___________________________________ George Cheney, Ph.D., Faculty Representative, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Accepted by ___________________________________ Stanley T. Wearden, Ph.D., Dean, College of Communication and Information Table of Contents LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................................................... V ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ....................................................................................................................................... VI CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 1 TERM DEFINITIONS ................................................................................................................................................................... 2 UCC .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 2 OPEN AND AFFIRMING ............................................................................................................................................................. 3 ONA OPPOSITION ..................................................................................................................................................................... 4 BELIEFS ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 5 COLLECTIVE BELIEF .................................................................................................................................................................. 6 MUTUAL INFLUENCE IN CONGREGATIONS ........................................................................................................................ 11 IMPACTS OF BELIEF ................................................................................................................................................................ 12 IMPACTS ON BELIEF ............................................................................................................................................................... 16 STRENGTH OF BELIEF ............................................................................................................................................................ 17 RESEARCH QUESTIONS .......................................................................................................................................................... 19 THE PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE ...................................................................................................................... 19 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................. 21 RESEARCH QUESTION ONE ................................................................................................................................................... 21 RESEARCH QUESTION TWO .................................................................................................................................................. 26 RESEARCH QUESTION THREE .............................................................................................................................................. 33 CULTURE .................................................................................................................................................................................. 39 INSTITUTION ........................................................................................................................................................................... 41 CHAPTER III: METHODS .................................................................................................................................. 48 PREVIOUS RESEARCH ............................................................................................................................................................ 48 RESEARCH EPISTEMOLOGY ................................................................................................................................................... 49 METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................................................................................................... 55 METHOD ................................................................................................................................................................................... 58 TYPOLOGIES AS THEORY ....................................................................................................................................................... 71 CHALLENGES ........................................................................................................................................................................... 72 CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS ................................................................................................................................... 76 INFORMATION TYPE .............................................................................................................................................................. 76 INFORMATION SOURCE .......................................................................................................................................................... 86 INFORMATION CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................................................... 97 BELIEF EXPRESSION ............................................................................................................................................................... 98 BELIEF HIERARCHY .............................................................................................................................................................. 105 BELIEF CONCLUSIONS .......................................................................................................................................................... 113 SMALL WORLDS .................................................................................................................................................................... 114 CHAPTER V: DISCUSSION .............................................................................................................................. 123 HOW WAS RQ1 ANSWERED? ............................................................................................................................................. 123 HOW WAS RQ2 ANSWERED? ............................................................................................................................................. 125 RQ3: A SYNTHESIS OF RQ1 AND RQ2 ............................................................................................................................ 126 CULTURE CONCLUSIONS ...................................................................................................................................................... 129 LINKS WITH PREVIOUS RESEARCH .................................................................................................................................... 130 SUMMARY OF PRIMARY FINDINGS .................................................................................................................................... 135 GROUNDED THEORY ............................................................................................................................................................ 145 CONTEMPORARY APPLICATIONS ....................................................................................................................................... 150 iii Table of Contents IMPLICATIONS FOR CONGREGATIONS ............................................................................................................................... 156 LIMITATIONS, CRITICISMS, AND FUTURE RESEARCH .................................................................................................... 157 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................................................................... 160 APPENDICES ....................................................................................................................................................... 162 APPENDIX A: FOCUS GROUP GUIDE 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