Sociology Faculty and Staff Publications

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Fall 2002

Abstract

The role of religion in American politics and civil society has drawn significant scholarly focus, but most of the recent attention has fallen on the religious rights political influence and, more recently, on new initiatives to broaden the channeling of social service funding through faith- based organizations. These are important issues, but they exclude another historically important face of religiously-grounded public engagement: religious pressure for deeper political and economic democracy. We examine a widespread contemporary aspect of such engagement, faith-based community organizing (FBCO), through which poor and middle-income religious congregations advance the interests of their members. We analyze data from the first national study of faith-based organizing and link that analysis to recent theoretical work on civil society and the public realm to argue that FBCO makes a distinctive contribution to contemporary democracy by forging 'bridging social capital' and creating 'bridging institutions' that link the civic, political, and state levels of the public sphere.'

Publisher

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy

Publication Title

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 22:11/12, 6-54 (Fall 2002). A DIFFERENT FACE OF FAITH-BASED POLITICS: SOCIAL CAPITAL AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZING IN THE PUBLIC ARENA

Volume

22

Issue

1900-01-11

First Page

6

Last Page

54

Language (ISO)

English

Sponsorship

Interfaith Funders

Keywords

social movements, community organizing, faith-based, religion and politics, United States

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