The Cyclical Nature Of American Religion By Roger Finke And Rodney Stark

The Cyclical Nature of American Religion All Americans walk different paths of faith that each have varying a distinction and tradition. Each of these paths falls within the four major categories of American religion we are examining: Pentecostalism, Restorationism, Metaphysics, and Humanism. In Roger Finke and Rodney Stark’s The Churching of America 1776-2005, they offer a provocative narration of the idea of a religious free market economy. This idea sheds light on the constant social and cultural tension that pulls on the souls of followers to be freely traded and bargained for. The two dividing factors in American religion fall into what can be defined as ordinary traditional religion and extraordinary secular religions. While Finke and Stark are trained as sociologist, their thesis is explained through the lens of free market …show more content…
In chapter one, the authors reintroduce the idea that when individuals act on their own accord they will be much more committed to their idea and will not waiver through the time. This idea is captured in the “voluntary principle” (Finke and Stark 4) that the authors and Andrew Reed used to describe America's religious state. When considering the failure of traditional religions to move west, this is at the center of division between mainstream ordinaries. This failure is a culmination that is rooted back to the days of the well served Yale and Harvard students who made up the majority of leadership in traditionalist teachings. These “educated clergy [were] able to command well-paying pulpits” (Finke and Stark 148) and viewed by many as unfit to serve the needs of the frontier life out west. To have these same clergy serve people of a polar opposite socioeconomic class would undermine the needs of the congregation and would be an ill fit between leadership and followers to grow successful