American Parishes

Parishes are the missing middle in studies of American Catholicism. Between individual Catholics and a global institution, the thousands of local parishes are where Catholicism gets remade. American Parishes showcases what social forces shape parishes, what parishes do, how they do it, and what this says about the future of Catholicism in the United States. Expounding an embedded field approach, this book displays the numerous forces currently reshaping American parishes. It draws from sociology of religion, culture, organizations, and race to illuminate basic parish processes, like leadership and education, and ongoing parish struggles like conflict and multiculturalism.

American Parishes brings together contemporary data, methods, and questions to establish a sociological re-engagement with Catholic parishes and a Catholic re-engagement with sociological analysis. Contributions by leading social scientists highlight how community, geography, and authority intersect within parishes. It illuminates and analyzes how growing racial diversity, an aging religious population, and neighborhood change affect the inner workings of parishes.

Contributors: Gary J. Adler Jr., Nancy Ammerman, Mary Jo Bane, Tricia C. Bruce, John A. Coleman, S.J., Kathleen Garces-Foley, Mary Gray, Brett Hoover, Courtney Ann Irby, Tia Noelle Pratt, and Brian Starks

Introduction: What Is a Parish? Why Look at Catholic Parishes?
Gary J. Adler Jr., Tricia C. Bruce, and Brian Starks | 1

Part I : Seeing Parishes Through a Sociological Lens

1. A Brief History of the Sociology of Parishes in the United States
Tricia C. Bruce | 25

2. Studying Parishes: Lessons and New Directions from the Study of Congregations
Nancy T. Ammerman | 47

Part II: Parish Trends

3. The Shifting Landscape of US Catholic Parishes, 1998–2012
Gary J. Adler Jr. | 69

4. Stable Transformation: Catholic Parishioners in the United States
Mark M. Gray | 95

Part III: Race, Class, and Diversity in Parish Life

5. Power in the Parish
Brett C. Hoover | 111

6. Liturgy as Identity Work in Predominantly African American Parishes
Tia Noelle Pratt | 132

7. A House Divided
Mary Jo Bane | 153

Part IV: Young Catholics In (and Out) of Parishes

8. Parishes as Homes and Hubs
Kathleen Garces-Foley | 173

9. Preparing to Say “I Do”
Courtney Ann Irby | 196

Part V : The Practice and Future of a Sociology of Catholic Parishes

10. A Sociologist Looks at His Own Parish: A Conversation with John A. Coleman, SJ
John A. Coleman, SJ, with editors Gary J. Adler Jr., Tricia C. Bruce, and Brian Starks | 217

Conclusion: Parishes as the Embedded Middle of American Catholicism
Gary J. Adler Jr., Tricia C. Bruce, and Brian Starks | 231

Acknowledgments | 247

List of Contributors | 249

Index | 253