Religion and Inequality in America
Religion and Inequality in America
Darren E. Sherkat , Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
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Religion is one of the strongest and most persistent correlates of social and economic inequalities. Theoretical progress in the study of stratification and inequality has provided the foundation for asking relevant questions, and modern data and analytic methods enable researchers to test their ideas in ways that eluded their predecessors. A rapidly growing body of research provides strong evidence that religious affiliation and beliefs affect many components of well-being, such as education, income, and wealth. Despite the growing quantity and quality of research connecting religion to inequality, no single volume to date brings together key figures to discuss various components of this process. This volume aims to fill this gap with contributions from top scholars in the fields of religion and sociology. The essays in this volume provide important new details about how and why religion and inequality are related by focusing on new indicators of inequality and well-being, combining and studying mediating factors in new and informative ways, focusing on critical and often understudied groups, and exploring the changing relationship between religion and inequality over time.
- Strong group of contributors
- Covers theoretical and empirical approaches
- No similar volume exists
- Lisa Keister is a well-known professor in the area of sociology
Reviews & endorsements
"Keister and Sherkat’s Religion and Inequality in America reviews past research with clarity, offers new analyses and insights, and sets an ambitious agenda for future work. This is a must-read for anyone interested in religion and social stratification."
Roger Finke, Pennsylvania State University
"This important new volume on religion and inequality is impressive in the quality of the individual chapters and in the range of topics covered. It is a comprehensive guide to the best new research on how religion shapes both well-being and attainment, drawing primarily on quantitative analyses of large-scale, nationally representative data sets. Scholars and students across a range of social science disciplines will find this indispensable."
Penny Edgell, University of Minnesota
"A groundbreaking contribution to the joint consideration of two of the most prominent features of any society: religion and social stratification. Religion and Inequality in America is a compilation of excellent chapters dealing with original and provocative topics around this theme and is well grounded in a broad literature that stretches back through the history of sociology."
Duane F. Alwin, McCourtney Professor of Sociology and Demography, Pennsylvania State University
"Religion and Inequality in America stands out from so many others in the depth, rigor, and quality of its contributions. The authors are able to maintain this high standard even while addressing an unusually wide range of cutting-edge issues in the field, greatly expanding our knowledge of processes related to life course, family, ethnicity, and health that explain the relationship between religion and stratification. Each chapter not only provides solid and trustworthy research findings but is also strengthened by active and creative engagement of the theoretical issues at stake. This will be the most cited volume on religion and inequality in two decades - and deservedly so."
David Sikkink, University of Notre Dame
Product details
July 2014Paperback
9781107657113
380 pages
229 × 152 × 20 mm
0.51kg
53 b/w illus. 41 tables
Available
Table of Contents
- Foreword N. J. Demerath
- Introduction Lisa A. Keister and Darren E. Sherkat
- Part I. Education:
- 1. Nonaffiliation and socioeconomic status: differences in education and income between atheists and agnostics and 'nothing in particulars' Rebekah Peeples Massengill
- 2. Religion, gender, and educational attainment among US immigrants: evidence from the new immigrant survey Nadia Amin and Darren E. Sherkat
- 3. Intersectionality and identity: an exploration of Arab-American women Jen'nan Ghazal Read and David Eagle
- Part II. Income, Wealth, and the Labor Market:
- 4. Conservative protestantism, normative pathways, and adult attainment Scott T. Fitzgerald and Jennifer L. Glass
- 5. Religion and wealth mobility: the case of American Latinos Lisa A. Keister and E. Paige Borelli
- 6. The labor market behavior of married women with young children in the US: have differences by religion disappeared? Evelyn L. Lehrer and Yu Chen
- Part III. Attitudes, Cultural Capital, and Power:
- 7. Religion and gender inequality: from attitudes to practices John P. Bartkowski and Sarah Shah
- 8. Religious stratification and social reproduction Ralph E. Pyle and James D. Davidson
- 9. God in the corner office? How religion advances and inhibits professional mobility in the higher circles D. Michael Lindsay
- 10. The religious affiliations of ivy league presidents 1636–2012 Deborah L. Coe and James D. Davidson
- Part IV. Health and Well-being:
- 11. The association between religiousness and psychological well-being among older adults: is there an educational gradient? Christopher G. Ellison, Scott H. Schieman and Matt Bradshaw
- 12. Does believing or belonging have a greater protective effect on stressful life events among young adults? Margarita Mooney, Lin Wang, Jason Freeman and Matt Bradshaw
- 13. Faith, jobs, money, and happiness during the great recession, 2006–10 Michael Hout and Orestes P. Hastings
- Part V. Inequality and Religion:
- 14. Reversing the arrow? Economic inequality's effect on religiosity Frederick Solt.
