From piety to professionalism--and back? : transformations of organized religious virtuosity / Patricia Wittberg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wittberg, Patricia, 1947-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women in charitable work--United States.

Women in charitable work.

Monastic and religious life of women--United States.

Monastic and religious life of women.

Women in the professions--United States.

Women in the professions.

United States.

Group identity--United States.

Group identity.

Religious institutions--United States.

Religious institutions.

Physical Description:

xii, 339 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, MD : Lexington Books, [2006]

Summary:

Only in recent centuries have Catholic and Protestant women begun the practice of creating formal groups for the express purpose of operating schools, hospitals, and the like. Yet there is evidence that this period of active organizational involvement may already be coming to an end. The resulting effect of denominational groups losing their institutional identities has been greatly overlooked in past research. Patricia Wittberg aims to redress this omission in this noteworthy work. From Piety to Professionalism-and Back? argues that the dissolution of institutional ties has greatly affected denominations-especially specific denominational subgroups such as Catholic religious orders, Protestant deaconesses, and women's missionary societies-in profoundly important ways: shifting or obliterating their recruitment bases, altering the backgrounds and expectations of their leaders, and often causing fundamental transformations in the very identity and culture of the groups themselves. Using the theoretical lens of organizational sociology, Wittberg has created an important and engaging work that will appeal to scholars of sociology and religion.

Contents:

Historical and theoretical overview

Impacts of institutions

Institutional identity and religious withdrawal

Impacts on sponsors.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 303-331) and index.

ISBN:

0739113771

073911378X

OCLC:

62109942