Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Religious Certainty as Social Capital

  • Original Research
  • Published:
Review of Religious Research

Abstract

Background

Recent scholarship on the social embeddedness of religion indicate that religious choices are often best explained through social ties, and religious belief and practice is influenced by congregational embeddedness. Berger’s theory of secularization argued that plausibility structures were maintained by interactions with others with the same worldview, and that outgroup ties can reduce one’s certainty in religion and be detrimental to the religious group. Taken together these approaches suggest that religious certainty functions like Coleman’s conceptualization of social capital.

Purpose

The purpose of this present study is to begin to conceptualize religious certainty as a form of social capital: something that inheres in social relationships and serves as a resource for future religious action of the individual; as well as potentially serving a resource for congregations.

Methods

Using the Baylor Religion Study 2005 data I operationalize religious certainty as the certainty in the belief of the existence of God, and then perform logistic regression on certainty in God’s existence using social ties variables. Then I operationalize religious participation as attendance and run a multiple regression on attendance using certainty in the belief of God as an independent variable.

Results

The findings from the logistic regression on certainty indicate support for the hypotheses concerning social ties and certainty. The study finds that family religiosity and the number of friends one has who attend the same congregation the higher odds of certainty; whereas and the number of non-religious friends one has decreases the odds of certainty in the existence of God. The multiple regression on attendance suggests that religious certainty, net of all other variables, has a strong positive influence on attendance.

Conclusions and Implications

The results offer preliminary support for the argument: religious certainty does in fact appear to be a form of social capital since it inheres in social relationships and serves as a resource for individual action. This has important implications for congregations as those with higher stocks of social capital will have greater resources for religious action. It also offers some empirical support for the microfoundations of Berger’s theory of secularization.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Much of the previous scholarship on religious certainty has focused on the relationship between certainty and well -being. See Ellison 1991; George et al 2002; Stillman and Baumeister 2009; van den Bos 2009; Galen and Kloet 2010.

  2. I have chosen to use God with a capital G throughout the article since that was how it was written in the survey instrument.

  3. Descriptive statistics for all variable can be found in the table in “Appendix”.

  4. Models were run with these cases included but coded as doubt with the probably and probably not responses. This did not change the directionality or remove significance. It did however reduce some of the size of coefficients and lower the level of significance.

  5. The household income variable was missing a significant amount of data, there were too many cases with missing data to use the multiple imputation procedures so these values were imputed using the mean. Models were run excluding income; these models did not differ in any meaningful way with the models including income as a control variable except that the R2 results were a little lower.

  6. The models were run with controls for reltrad following Steensland et al. (2000) however using these controls in these models led to very high standard errors due to the small N of Black Protestants and the fact that there was no variation in the dependent variable across this category. I considered combining Black Protestants with another religious tradition but could not decide whether it was better to recode them with Mainline Protestants with whom they tend to share social values or with Evangelicals with whom they tend to share theological values. In the end I followed the advice of the anonymous reviewers and combined Black protestants into the Other category, and included the results as a separate model.

  7. This variable also had missing cases and data was imputed using the multiple imputation procedure at the same time as the other variables with missing data.

  8. Additionally, I have intentionally left out of the analysis the belief in literal interpretation of sacred scripture even though we know that for Christians for example the literal interpretation of the Bible is a strong predictor for other religious activities. I have done so because this paper is a first attempt to conceptualize certainty as a form of social capital and it focuses on certainty in the existence of God. It is entirely possible that belief in the literal interpretation of sacred scripture could be another aspect of religious certainty. Given this possibility I have left it out of the analysis so at to not confound it and to leave it for now as a potential thread of future research and theorizing.

  9. Reviewers noted some concern in regards to multi-collinearity among the independent variables in the models. Additional testing indicated that there was no evidence of worrisome multi-collinearity, all VIF scores were under 5.

References

  • Baker, Joseph O. 2010. Social Sources of the Spirit: Connecting Rational Choice and Interactive Ritual Theories in the Study of Religion. Sociology of Religion 71(4): 432–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker, Joseph O., and Buster G. Smith. 2009. The Nones: Social Characteristics of the Religiously Unaffiliated. Social Forces. 87(3): 1251–1263.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker, W.E. 1990. Market Networks and Corporate Behavior. American Journal of Sociology. 96: 589–625.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baylor University. 2005. The Baylor Religion Survey. Waco, TX: Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion [producer].

  • Bellah, Robert N. 1970. Beyond Belief: Essays on Religion in a Post-traditionalist World. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger, Peter. 1967. The sacred canopy. New York: Doubleday.

    Google Scholar 

  • Black, Helen K. 1999. Poverty and Prayer: Spiritual Narratives of Elderly African-American Women. Review of Religious Research. 40: 359–374.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. 1985. The Forms of Capital. In Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, ed. J.G. Richardson, 241–258. New York: Greenwood Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burt, R.S. 1992. Structural Holes. The Social Structure of Competition: Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cheadle, Jacob E., and Philip Schwadel. 2012. The ‘friendship dynamics of religion’ or the ‘religious dynamics of friendship’? A Social Network Analysis of Adolescents Who Attend Small Schools. Social Science Research. 41: 1198–1212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coleman, James S. 1987. Families and Schools. Educational Researcher. 16(6): 32–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coleman, James S. 1988. Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital. American Journal of Sociology. 94: S95-121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coleman, James S. 1990. Foundations of Social Theory. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, Randall. 2004. Interaction ritual chains. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Collins, Randall. 2010. “The Micro-Sociology of religion: Religious Practices, Collective and Individual” (ARDA Guiding Paper Series). The Association of religion Data Archives at the Pennsylvania State university. http.//www.thearda.com/rrh/papers/guidingpaers.asp.

  • Cornwall, Marie. 1989. The Determinants of Religious Behavior: A Theoretical Model and Empirical Test. Social Forces. 68(2): 572–592.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Draper, Scott. 2019. Religious Interaction Ritual: The Microsociology of the Spirit. Lexington, KY: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durkheim, Emile. 1995 [1912]. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. New Yoek: Free Press.

  • Ellison, Christopher G. 1991. Religious Involvement and Subjective Well-Being. Journal of Health and Social Behavior. 32: 80–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finke, Roger, Matt Bahr, and Christopher P. Scheitle. 2006. Toward Explaining Congregational Giving. Social Science Research. 35(3): 620–641.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • George, Linda K., Christopher G. Ellison, and David B. Larson. 2002. Explaining the Relationships Between Religious Involvement and Health. Psychological Inquiry. 13(3): 190–200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glanville, Jennifer L., Matthew A. Andersson, and Pamela Paxton. 2013. Do Social Connections Create Trust? An Examination Using New Longitudinal Data. Social Forces 92(2): 545–562.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Granovetter, Mark. 1985. Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology. 91: 481–510.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, Warren S. 2009. Secularization Patterns in the Old Paradigm. Sociology of Religion. 70(2): 157–178.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hechter, Michael. 1988. Principles of group solidarity. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoge, D.R., C. Zech, P. McNamara, and M.J. Donahue. 1996. Money matters: Personal giving in American churches. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press.

  • Hout, Michael, Andrew Greeley, and Melissa J. Wilde. 2001. The Demographic Imperative in Religious Change in the United States. American Journal of Sociology. 107(2): 468–500.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krause, N.M. 2005. God-mediated Control and Psychological Well-being in Late Life. Research on Aging. 27: 136–164.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krause, N.M. 2007. Social involvement in religious institutions and God-mediated control beliefs: A longitudinal investigation. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 46(4): 519–537.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krause, N.M., and R.D. Hayward. 2014. God-mediated control and optimism: exploring variations by denominational affiliation. Review of Religious Research. 56(2): 275–290.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Light, I. 1984. Immigrant and Ethnic Enterprise in North America. Ethnic and Racial Studies. 7: 195–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lin, N., W.M. Ensel, and J.C. Vaughn. 1981. Social Resources and the Strength of Ties: Structural Factors in Occupational Attainment. American Sociological Review. 46: 393–405.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lofland, J., and Rodney Stark. 1965. Becoming a World-Saver: A theory of Religious Conversion. American Sociological Review. 30: 805–818.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luckman, Thomas. 1967. The Invisible Religion: The Problem of Religion in Modern Society. New York, NY: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayrl, Damon, and Jeremy E. Uecker. 2011. Higher Education and Religious Liberalization among Young Adults. Social Forces. 90(1): 181–208.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nee, V., J.M. Sanders, and S. Sernau. 1994. Job Transitions in an Immigrant Metropolis: Ethnic Boundaries and the Mixed Economy. American Sociological Review. 59: 849–872.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olson, Daniel V.A.. 1989. Church Friendships: Boon or Barrier to Church Growth? Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 28(4): 432–447.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pargament, K.I., J. Kennell, W. Hathaway, N. Grevengoed, J. Newman, and W. Jones. 1988. Religion and the Problem-Solving Process: Three Styles of Coping. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 17(1): 90–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pargament, K.I., H. Olsen, B. Reilly, K. Falgout, D.S. Ensing, and K. Van Haitsma. 1992. God Help Me (II): The Relationship of Religious Orientations to Religious Coping with Negative Life Events. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 31(4): 504–513.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pollner, Melvin. 1989. Divine Relations, Social Relations, and Well-Being. Journal of Health and Social Behavior. 22: 92–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Portes, A. 1987. The Social Origins of the Cuban Enclave Economy of Miami. Sociological Perspectives. 30: 340–372.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Portes, A. 1998. Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern Sociology. Annual Review of Sociology. 24: 1–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, Robert D., and David E. Campbell. 2010. American Grace. New York: Simon and Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandomirsky, Sharon, and John Wilson. 1990. Processes of Disaffiliation: Religious Mobility Among Men and Women. Social Forces. 68(4): 1211–1229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scheitle, Christopher P., and Amy Adamczyk. 2009. It Takes Two: The Interplay of Individual and Group Theology on Social Embeddedness. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 48(1): 16–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schieman, S., and A. Bierman. 2007. Religious activities and changes in the sense of divine control: Dimensions of social stratification as contingencies. Sociology of Religion. 68(4): 361–381.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schieman, S., A. Bierman, and L. Upenieks. 2018. The powerful other: How divine control shapes the relationship between personal control and psychological distress. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 57(1): 123–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schieman, S., T. Purdoska, and Melissa A. Milkie. 2005. The Sense of Divine Control and the Self-concept: A Study of Race Differences in Late Life. Research on Aging. 27: 165–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seymour, Jeffrey M., Micheal R. Welch, Karen Monique Gregg, and Jessica Collet. 2014. Generating Trust in Congregations: Engagement, Exchange, and Social Networks. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 53(1): 130–144.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sherkat, Darren E. 1997. Embedding religious choices. In Lawrence Young, Ed., Rational Choice Theory and Religion. Routledge.

  • Sherkat, Darren E., and John Wilson. 1995. Preferences, Constraints, and Choices in Religious Markets: An Examination of Religious Switching and Apostasy. Social Forces. 73(3): 993–1026.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silk, Mark and Walsh, Andrew. 2008. One Nation, Divisible: How Regional Religious Differences Shape American Politics. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

  • Simmel, Georg. 1905. A Contribution to the Sociology of Religion. American Journal of Sociology. 11: 359–376.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smilde, David. 2005. A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Conversion to Venezuelan Evangelicalism: How Networks Matter. American Journal of Sociology 111(3): 757–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smilde, David. 2007. Reason to Believe: Cultural Agency in Latin American Evangelicalism. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Christian, and Patricia Snell. 2009. Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Snow, David A., Louis A. Zurcher Jr., and Sheldon Eckland-Olson. 1980. Social networks and Social Movements: A Microstructural Approach to Differential Recruitment. American Sociological Review. 45(5): 787–801.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stark, Rodney. 1996. The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Stark, Rodney, and Roger Finke. 2000. Acts of Faith. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stark, Rodney, and William Sims Bainbridge. 1985. The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Steensland, Brian, Jerry Z. Park, Mark D. Regnerus, Lynn D. Robinson, W. Bradford. Wilcox, and Robert D. Woodberry. 2000. The Measure of American Religion: Toward Improving the State of the Art. Social Forces 79(1): 291–318.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stillman, Tyler F., and Roy F. Baumeister. 2009. Uncertainty, Belongingness, and the Four Needs for Meaning. Psychological inquiry. 20: 249–251.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stroope, Samuel. 2012. Social Networks and Religion: The Role of Congregational Social Embeddedness in Religious Belief and Practice. Sociology of Religion 73(3): 273–298.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Traunmuller, Richard. 2011. Moral Communities? Religious as a Source of Social Trust in a Multilevel Analysis of 97 Germany Regions. European Sociological Review 27: 346–363.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Troeltsch, Ernst. 1992 [1931]. The Social Teaching of the Christian Church, Vols I and II. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press.

  • Van den Bos, Kees. 2009. Making Sense of Life: The Existential Self Trying to Deal with Personal Uncertainty. Psychological Inquiry. 20: 192–217.

    Google Scholar 

  • Verter, Bradford. 2003. Spiritual Capital: Theorizing Religion with Bourdieu Against Bourdieu. Sociological Theory 21(2): 150–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Welch, Michael R., David Sikkink, and Matthew T. Loveland. 2007. The Radius of Trust: Religion, Social Embeddedness, and Trust in Strangers. Social Forces 86(1): 23–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Welch, Michael R., David Sikkink, Eric Sartain, and Carolyn Bond. 2004. Trust in God and Trust in Man: The Ambivalent Role of Religion in Shaping Dimensions of Social Trust. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 43(3): 317–343.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Danielle Cossey, Mark Killian, the members of the UW religion working group, and three anonymous reviewers for their comments. However, all errors of fact and omission are those of the author.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Whitworth University, 300 W. Hawthorne Rd, Spokane, WA, 99251, USA

    Jason Wollschleger

Authors
  1. Jason Wollschleger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jason Wollschleger.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 3.

Table 3 Descriptive statistics for all variables
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wollschleger, J. Religious Certainty as Social Capital. Rev Relig Res 63, 325–342 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-021-00462-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-021-00462-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation