Paul Lichterman has been Assistant and Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is now Associate Professor of Sociology and Religion at the University of Southern California. He is the author of "The Search for Political Community: American Activists Reinventing Commitment".

• List of Tables and Figures vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 CHAPTER ONE: In Search of the Social Spiral 7 CHAPTER TWO: Studying the Social Spiral 42 CHAPTER THREE: Networkers and Volunteers Reaching Out 60 CHAPTER FOUR: Crying Out: Social Critics 99 CHAPTER FIVE: Christ-like Care: Social Servants 133 CHAPTER SIX: A Social Spiral Winds Outward: Partners 171 CHAPTER SEVEN: Doing Things with Religion in Local Civic Life 216 CHAPTER EIGHT: Doing Things Together: Lessons from Religious Community Service Groups 247 APPENDIX I: Theory and Evidence in a Study of Religious Community Service Groups 264 APPENDIX II: Studying Customs 274 Notes 281 References 303 Index 325

Winner of the 2006 Distinguished Book Award, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion Winner of the 2006 Distinguished Scholarly Book Award, Pacific Sociological Association Honorable Mention for the 2006 Book Award, Section on Sociology of Culture, American Sociological Association "This theory-driven ethnographic study demonstrates that there are different sets of cultural customs that enable and constrain what people do in faith-based civic groups, and that cultural discourses do not create meaning all by themselves, but are filtered through the style of the group using the discourse. A valuable addition to the fields of religion and community development."--Choice "In this detailed analysis of actual interaction in Protestant church groups, Paul Lichterman gives us reason to rethink conventional notions of social capital and the place of religion in civic life... This book is a thorough, insightful ethnography."--Katherine Cramer Walsh, Political Science Quarterly