Congregations in America (review)

In the last decade government initiatives and federal welfare laws have expanded the role of religious organizations in social service provision, prompting widespread debate about the appropriate role of religious organizations in social service provision and in public life. Pundits and religious leaders alike have taken sides on every imaginable side of the issue, and sociologists have not been far behind. At least a dozen monographs and numerous sociological papers directly address related issues, ranging from case studies of church soup kitchens to surveys on clergy's perceptions of the consequences of taking government funds. Despite the wide ranges of issues addressed, most sociological studies (like the debates and government initiatives), assume that religious groups, and in particular congregations, have an interest in providing social service, or in fact do so.

Enter Mark Chaves' excellent new book Congregations in America, which demonstrates that this assumption is incorrect. Congregations, the most ubiquitous religious organization in American life (and arguably the seat of Americans' religious activities) may "host" a homeless shelter in its facilities, or a small group of congregants may actively be involved in sponsoring a soup kitchen or other specific social service programs, But on the whole, congregations are not as involved as proponents would like, or detractors fear. Congregations, Chaves tells us, focus on worship and religious education, and commit most of their resources to those pursuits. That these findings are worth printing says volumes about the influence of popular debates on research on religion, and Chaves' book reads in part as an argument for a return to studies in religion that are not directed by fleeting political concerns. "Overstating the extent of congregations' social service work misleads about the nature of congregations," he argues, stating that "we should not let notions of what congregations ought to look like influence our assessment of what they do look like" (93).

While the immediate value of Congregations in America lies in this and similar correctives, its lasting value rests in numerous observations about many aspects of American congregational life. Chaves' purpose is to understand what "congregations do," and is built on findings from the 1998 National Congregations Survey (NCS). The 1998 NCS is the first survey of its kind to systematically sample American congregations on a national scale, and for this reason alone deserves attention. Much of what Chaves reports admittedly align with what sociologists of religion already know from previous (smaller scale) statistical analyses, historical research, or individual congregational case studies. While it is supremely useful to have the statistics in hand, it will come as no surprise that the majority of congregations are small, employ few people, and have very small endowments, or that political activities (similar to social service provisions) remain "peripheral" for the vast majority of conservative and liberal congregations.

That said, many of Chaves' findings are strikingly "new." For example, Chaves finds that congregations play an important role in sustaining American art worlds and ". . . facilitate art, and perhaps, on occasion, even beauty, more commonly and more intensively than they pursue either charity or justice" (201). Americans are more likely to attend a concert or play in a congregation than in any other setting, regardless of whether they are regular churchgoers. Congregations present manifold opportunities for individuals to participate in the arts: indeed, they provide many more opportunities to hone "artistic skills" than "civic skills." In making observations about the arts (and, in another chapter on worship styles), Chaves draws attention to realms of religious life that have received comparatively little attention of late. Both chapters suggest new avenues for research and a framework that tempers the unabated (and perhaps misplaced) fascination with the role of religion in politics.

Congregations in America is an extremely well made and clearly written book. Its many positive attributes should not, however, keep readers from heeding the cautions that Chaves notes in the final chapter regarding what the survey itself might obscure about American congregational life. Built into the survey, for example, is an assumption that all congregations act with similar "agency," masking how congregations are...