Steven Foertsch

Emergent religious groups (frequently referred to as new religious movements) are constantly changing over time, and it is often difficult for academics to follow the many shifts of the tide. One such major change currently underway is a bitter schism within the Unification movement, which has received consistent scholarly attention in the past. Up until this point, though, there has been little academic work focusing exclusively on the ongoing split, and the various organizational reasons as to why it has occurred. Through historical content, qualitative interview, and participant observation analysis of the contemporary Unification movement, we rectify this omission. Findings such as niche mechanics suggest that religious organization ecology is a relevant theory to understand schism in religious organizations and could help reintroduce structure and comparison to cultural studies of religion. Recently spotlighted in Religion Watch, see the links below.

In this article, we propose meta-subjectivity and ideational analysis. Meta-subjectivity is a philosophically grounded social ontology that posits the self as a dynamic intersubjective and relational environmental process. Ideational analysis is a sociohistorical abductive method for studying the generation of collective belief systems and their structuration. We critique contemporary epistemologies found within the humanities and social sciences, such as Smith and Searle’s critical realism. Building on Storm’s metamodernism, we offer our perspective as innovation. We conclude with a call for greater interdisciplinarity and methodological plurality in the humanities and social sciences, in the spirit of Storm, Feyerabend, and Kuhn.

Christian nationalism and Christofascism theorists have surrendered the discursive floor to their empiricist critics. A flurry of recent research has asserted that critical paradigms within the sociology of religion are ideologically committed and empirically invalid. In this reply to Jesse Smith’s “Old Wine and New Wineskins” (2024), I contend several things: 1. Christian nationalism and Christofascism research is based in empirical validity, 2. claims of “conceptual slippage” are irrelevant given the sociopolitical context, 3. rejection of the critical perspective reifies the unjust power structure through a normative appeal to rational-legal scientific authority, and 4. critical epistemology in the sociology of religion remains a crucial tool in combating authoritarian slippage. It is my hope that this reply sparks further reflection and debate into the role of sociology and the nature of sociological praxis.

Spanning over four years and analyzing over 64 interviews, 220 sources, and 100 historical documents, this research program sets out to establish if a generalized theory of religious organization schism could be established. Three propositions, drawn from a blend of religious economies, new institutionalism, and organizational ecology theory were tested over three cases and their schismatic organizations: The Church of Satan, the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, and The United Methodist Church. Findings suggest the importance of institutionalization, authority and doctrine, and niche conditions across case, making Religious Organization Ecology (ROE) a general paradigm that consolidates all previous theoretical perspectives on schism in religious organizations into one.

For generations, a silent symbol of politics in U.S. religious congregations has been the presence of the national flag in worship spaces. Despite debates over the flag, there is limited empirical research on its contemporary prevalence or influence in congregations. Building upon research on social sorting, we hypothesize that people with conservative religion and conservative politics sort into congregations displaying the flag. Additionally, we hypothesize a priming effect whereby worshipping with the U.S. flag elevates support for Christian nationalism. Findings from the 2021 Baylor Religion Survey reveal that nearly half of religiously affiliated U.S. adults worship with the flag, most notably members of white Protestant religious traditions (more so than Catholics) and older adults. Regardless of religious tradition or political ideology, worshipping with the flag is associated with support for Christian nationalist beliefs. These finding highlight a sorting process into American congregations and hint at political socialization occurring within them.

Emergent religious groups (ERGs) are an innovative but chronically understudied and misunderstood realm of contemporary religion. This may be due to notorious difficulties encountered when estimating the size of populations involved with emergent religious groups at any given time. The purpose of this article is to estimate the percentage of the U.S. population involved with ERGs over the past 50 years. Findings from three national surveys suggest .2-2.2% of the United States population involved with ERGs regardless of year. ERGs are a viable case for quantitative sociologists of religion, which has hitherto been dominated by qualitative case study, although creativity and further research is needed to verify the findings.

QAnon is beginning to gain attention in scholarly circles, but these sources often disagree about how to categorize the movement. This amounts to the meta-dispute between those who view QAnon primarily as a religious “cult,” and those who grant it greater credibility as a political populist movement. Using quantitative and qualitative methods we test the proposition that QAnon could be a mix of both. Results from both analyses suggest that QAnon is best understood primarily as a political populist movement, but one that utilizes religious rhetoric. The findings thus highlight the asymmetric nature of the conflation of religion and politics in the contemporary American civil sphere.

Recent theorists of cultural studies have noticed the emergence of metamodernity as an ideal type, categorized by an oscillation between postmodern deconstructivism and modern idealism, into a form of transcendentalism. I argue in this chapter that this type of transcendentalism, informed by the historical American Transcendentalist Movement, is the emerging ideal called “Transhumanism.” I use a case study of five Japanese anime to demonstrate how transhumanist, metamodernist, and transcendental thinking often recur in key core plot points and narratives found within. I further suggest that meditation on the major themes in these anime, especially those of metamodernity and transhumanism, is necessary if we are to understand our place in the world today and into the future. The final version of this paper can be found in Anime, Philosophy, and Religion, Ed. Hayashi and Anderson, by Vernon Press. See "external links" for how to order the whole volume, the final version is also available on google books (see link). A previous version of this paper was awarded the Outstanding Doctoral Paper Award 2023, Southwestern Sociological Association.

“How too, for that matter, could such large populations be fed, without chains of command to organize the masses, formal offices of leadership; full-time administrators, soldiers, police, and other non-food-producers, who in turn could only be supported by the surpluses that agriculture provides? These seem like reasonable questions to ask, and those who make the first point almost invariably make the second. But in doing so, they risk parting company with history. You can’t simply jump from the beginning of the story to the end, and then assume you know what happened in the middle” (Pg. 274). In the monograph The Dawn of Everything from Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, anthropologist David Graeber and archaeologist David Wengrow discuss the consequences of state formation theory, and how countless anthropological and archaeological cases disprove common assumptions regarding the evolution of civilization.

Recent literature on Christian nationalism by sociologists of religion in the United States identifies a perceived novel phenomenon: the fusion of authoritarian governmental forms with Christianity. However, the socio-historical origin of this international trend has been left relatively unexplored. Therefore, the goal of this chapter is to create a single international account that lends itself to future comparative theoretical frameworks and analyses through the term "Christofascism." The chapter can also be accessed on google books at the link included in the description. Finally, order the book on Routledge's website, also linked in the description.

The 2010 U. S. Religious Census: Religious Congregations and Membership Survey (RCMS) is the most comprehensive picture of U.S. religious life, county by county. How thorough is the RCMS in covering local religious groups? To answer this question, three county snapshots were performed with collected data compared to the RCMS 2010 reported numbers. Data suggest that there has been an underreport by as much as 25 percent of the number of local congregations in these counties. New and emerging religious movements and denominations as well as ethnic congregations comprise much of this percentage, making it more imperative for scholars to develop methodologies and frameworks in order to capture these “others” and invisible churches in America. Recently spotlighted by Religion Watch, see link below.

Although an inverse relationship between religion and deviance is empirically well-established in the western context, previous studies on Islam and deviance conducted in non-western countries are limited. To address this gap in deviance research, we hypothesized that individual religiosity would be inversely related to deviance with the inverse relationship being more likely for ascetic than anti-ascetic or secular deviance. To test this hypothesis, we applied ordinary least squares and logistic regression methods to analyze data collected from 2,005 survey participants of a Turkish public university student population. Regression results provided partial support for the hypothesis, as we found that religiosity was inversely related to both ascetic and secular deviance. The observed inverse relationship is noteworthy in that it was found in an institutionally secular, Muslim country. Implications of our findings are discussed

Background: With recent attention to the organizational dynamics of contemporary Satanism, updated information on Satanic and Setian organizations is imperative for the field. Purpose: The purpose of this research note is to update the literature surrounding Satanism and Setianism with new organizational and administrative information, which will help scholars studying these groups in developing new theoretical frameworks and interpretations. Methods: A snowball sample interview, participant observation, and ethnographic study was conducted. In person field work was done primarily in Austin, TX, and New York, NY, where occult bookstores, wicca stores, online group pages/forums, Satanic gatherings, and goth clothing shops were frequented for a portrayal of “lived Satanism.” Results: Findings elaborate on the authority structures of five Satanic and Setian organizations, and a long considered defunct Satanic group called the Church of Satanic Brotherhood is uncovered. Participants also elaborate on the previous schisms within the Satanic niche. Conclusions and Implications: Field note recommendations are given to future researchers working in Satanic studies. The organizational findings inform future research and theoretical innovations, including religious organization ecology (ROE) theory.

Orson Scott Card and his Ender Series have had a profound impact on the genre of contemporary science fiction, meriting an academic analysis of some of his more theoretical ideas. I have chosen to analyze his concept of “Center” and “Edge” nations found in Xenocide and Children of the Mind through the lens of international relations, sociological, and political theory, in order to bring nuance to an underdeveloped theory that many non-academics may be familiar with. Ultimately, we must conclude that Card’s concept of “Center” and “Edge” nations is too stagnant and does not account for social and hegemonic change, which influences the justifications of why these “nations” may be considered “Center” in the first place.