Public Confidence in Religious Leaders: A Perspective from Secularization Theory

Scholars studying religion as a social institution have struggled to explain two contradictory trends. Secularization theory posits America as increasingly less religious, yet religious participation and other indicators of spirituality remain high. Our study provides information critical to this de...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Review of religious research 1996-09, Vol.38 (1), p.79-87
Main Authors: Kleiman, Michael B., Ramsey, Nancy, Palazzo, Lorella
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Christian churches
Demography
Faith
History and sciences of religions
Judaism
Leaders
Leadership
Married status
Public confidence
Public Support
Religiosity
Religious sociology
Secularization
Secularization theory
Social surveys
Spiritual belief systems
Studies in religion
Trust
United States of America
USA
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Summary:Scholars studying religion as a social institution have struggled to explain two contradictory trends. Secularization theory posits America as increasingly less religious, yet religious participation and other indicators of spirituality remain high. Our study provides information critical to this debate by employing national data collected over a 22 year period to analyze the public's lack of faith in religious leaders as distinguished from individual levels of religiosity. Findings indicate that public confidence in religious leaders has fallen sharply -- both for the population as a whole and for every demographic subgroup -- whereas personal commitment to religion itself has grown. These results are important because they provide an empirical test of newer theories which describe secularization as a loss of the influence of religious authority rather than a decline in individual piety. We discuss the implications of our findings, not only for secularization theory but also for organized religion itself.
ISSN:0034-673X
2211-4866
DOI:10.2307/3512542