Sacred Assemblies and Civic Engagement

Fred Kniss is an associate professor and the chair of the sociology department at Loyola University Chicago. He is the author of Disquiet in the Land: Cultural Conflict in American Mennonite Communities (Rutgers University Press).Paul D. Numrich is the chair of the program in world religions and inter-religious dialogue at the Theological Consortium of Greater Columbus in Ohio and an affiliate research associate professor in the sociology department at Loyola University Chicago.

• Acknowledgments1. IntroductionPart One - Religion Matters2. Purity and Protest: Sectarianism and Immigrant Civic Engagement3. Locating the Moral Authority of Immigrant Congregations4. The Moral Projects of Immigrant CongregationsPart Two - Sacred Assemblies in Social Contexts5. "Making It in America": Occupational and Economic Adaptation in Immigrant Congregations6. Religion, Education, and Civic Tensions in Immigrant Congregations7. Marriage Patterns in Immigrant Congregations: Implications for Social Distance and Group Identity8. Language in Immigrant Congregations: Religious and Civic ConsiderationsPart Three - Civic Engagement9. Individual Engagement: Citizenship in Immigrant Religions10. Organizational Engagement: The Ecology of Immigrant Congregations11. When and How Religion Matters for Immigrant Civic EngagementAppendix A: Research SitesAppendix B: Sectarianism Coding for Research SitesNotesReferencesIndex

The authors have managed to produce a book that is a model of rigorous scholarship, but is at the same time capable of attracting an audience not deeply grounded in that scholarship. It takes the sociological study of immigrant religion to a new state of development. - Peter Kivisto (Richard Swanson Professor of Social Thought, AugustanaCollege) In their examination of the effects of religious ideas, identities, and practices on immigrant life and civic engagement patterns, the authors take up where traditional social science studies leave off. This book will make significant contributions to its field. - Pyong Gap Min (coeditor of Religions in Asian America: Building Faith Communities) This book is an important reminder of the 'religious' aspects of immigrant congregations and how variations in religious doctrines, practices and identities influence civic engagement. - Helen Rose Ebaugh, (author of Religion and the New Immigrants) There is a lot to learn here about immigrant religion and about congregational life generally. This is not a how-to book for interfaith relations, nor does it offer sound bite-style conclusions. But it is worth a careful reading. I found it to be generally optimistic- Kniss and Numrich show that there are several roads to adaptation to a new society and that religious organizations can be relevant in a variety of ways. Many people worry that increasing diversity is damaging the fabric of U.S. society. Carefully researched books such as this one provide plenty of reason to think otherwise. (Christian Century) Sacred Assemblies and Civic Engagement is part of an emerging body of scholarship that counterbalances this trend. Kniss and Numrich examine immigrant congregations not simply as religious versions of ethnic enclaves, but as internally diverse, complex, and dynamic organizations that are civically engaged. (Journal of American Ethnic History)