Differences in Religious Attendance Among Disabled and Nondisabled Early and Early Midlife Adults In general, disabled people value religion as much as people without disability, but do not attend religious services as often. Empirical evidence to date does not robustly examine whether this patte....

New #OpenAccess study on religion and participation in the JSSR. ➡️ Researchers Scott D. Landes and Katie Mueller found that disabled people value religion equally but attend less due to ableist structural barriers. @sssreligion.bsky.social #Ableism onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Religious Pluralism and Social Networks: How Exposure to Religious Pluralism Through Social Ties Influences Baptism Decisions A longstanding debate in the sociology of religion has focused on how religious pluralism affects religious participation. Existing research shows mixed findings, often relying on macro-level measure...

Out now in @jssreligion.bsky.social:
Using Swedish full-population data, I show that exposure to religious pluralism through social ties is associated with a lower likelihood that parents baptize their child in the Church of Sweden 👇

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Policing (Im)Modesty in Modest Fashion: Islamic Feminist Renegotiations of Modesty in Influencer Culture This article examines how Muslimah influencers based in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom are policed for, and negotiate with the policing of their Islamic modesty in influencer cultu....

@inaashislam.bsky.social examines Muslimah influencers who face constant policing of their modesty, but respond through Islamic feminist reasoning, reframing their aesthetic work as proselytizing. #Islam #Muslimah #Sociology onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Geographic Distribution of LGBT Affirming Christian Churches and Same‐Sex Households by US County In this study, we examine where lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) affirming Christian churches are geographically located across the United States. Notably, many LGBT people practice rel...

New JSSR study on faith & belonging under pressure shows the South is severely underserved in LGBT-affirming churches. Nguyễn, Lotspeich-Yadao & Todd mapped their geographic distribution, showing how geography shapes access to religious community. doi.org/10.1111/jssr...

“I Have to Trust God to Protect My Babies”: Anti‐Black Racism, Black Motherwork‐Related Stress, and Religious Coping This study explores the role of religious coping among Black, predominantly middle class, mothers as a response to motherwork-related stress. This study considers one broad research question: What is...

"I have to trust God to protect my babies." New JSSR research shows how Black mothers use faith as a form of agency against anti-Black racism. When #racism removes other forms of control over their children's safety, religious coping restores empowerment. #OpenAccess doi.org/10.1111/jssr...

Differentiated Threat and Religious Dominance: The Distinct Dynamics of Xenophobia and Islamophobia in the United States Drawing on theories of differentiated threat and religious dominance, this article examines the dynamics of xenophobia and Islamophobia in the United States. Specifically, we analyze the distinct thr...

Xenophobia & Islamophobia operate through different mechanisms. Albanese & Kurpiel's new JSSR study finds Muslims are perceived as an ideational threat to beliefs & culture, while immigrants are seen as a materialist threat to jobs & resources. doi.org/10.1111/jssr...

Partisan and Racial Sorting of Christian Nationalism, 1996–2022: Backlash and Counter Backlash on the (White) Secular Left and Religious Right Christian nationalism scholarship and discourse has surged in the years since Trump's 2016 election victory, even as, by most measures, adherence to Christian nationalist beliefs has declined. Applyi...

Christian Nationalism hasn't grown -- it's sorted. Smith (2026) finds CN beliefs have declined since their 2004 peak. The surge in CN discourse reflects sharp partisan divergence: white Democrats dropped steeply after 2014; Republicans show a modest increase. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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➡️ Join the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and be part of a thriving community of scholars. Receive a subscription to the @jssreligion.bsky.social, discounted conference registration, and grant opportunities for research & travel. Become a member today. sssreligion.org/membership/b...

Introduction: Religion and Bodies Special Issue Click on the article title to read more.

JSSR Special Issue editors Korie Little & @ntammerman.bsky.social say "these scholars encourage us to further reflect on the importance of the body for understanding religion and the importance of religion for understanding the body." @jssreligion.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Special Issue on Religion and Bodies: Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion: Vol 64, No 4 Click on the title to browse this issue

New @jssreligion.bsky.social issue alert: Articles from multiple disciplines, multiple parts of the world and multiple traditions to put a focus on the role of religion in how we live in our bodies and the role of our bodies in how we practice our religion: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14685906...

The Contemporary Debate on Secularization and Its Cross‐National Variation: A Systematization Through Topic Modeling Secularization is a key concept in the social scientific study of religion, yet its meaning remains ambiguous due to varied definitions produced in the literature. This article aims to provide a data...

Out now in @jssreligion.bsky.social with @ruudluijkx.bsky.social
Using topic modeling on 1600+ academic articles, we provide a systematization of secularization literature and test whether researchers tend to study their own communities 👇
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

New @jssreligion.bsky.social. Using @prri.org data with a wording experiment, I find Christian nationalism, insecure masculinity, & belief in replacement theory shapes support for policy that encourages only certain Americans to have kids to preserve a demographic status quo.
doi.org/10.1111/jssr...

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion Click on the title to browse this journal

The SSSR Is Looking for its next Editor-in-Chief (EIC) of the @jssreligion.bsky.social, to begin service in January 2026, for a four-year term. Join us in advancing knowledge and public understanding of #Religion. Learn more ⬇️ sssreligion.org/announcement...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1468...

Religious Inequality in America: The View from 1916 The Censuses of Religious Bodies contain detailed information about early 20th-century American religious groups. However, these data have not been used to their full potential—likely because until r...

Learn more about complex religion theory in this new @jssreligion.bsky.social Research Note: 'Religious Inequality in America: The View from 1916,' by Melissa J. Wilde, Tessa D. Huttenlocher & Elena G. van Stee.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Barriers Inhibiting Women's Path to the Pulpit and the Gender Gap in Compensation This study examines the gender gap in Protestant churches’ leadership and its connection to head clergy compensation, using the National Study of Congregations’ Economic Practices (NSCEP) data. The a....

Clergywomen, glass ceilings and glass cliffs: Young-joo Lee, David P. King and Brad R. Fulton explore the dynamics of the gender pay gap among Protestant clergy. Learn more in this #OpenAccess article in the @jssreligion.bsky.social. #Religion #Gender onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Tattoo on forearm. Photo by Alexey Demidov on Unsplash.

In their study: 'Religion, Tattoos, and Religious Tattoos: The Body as Sacred Subculture,' researchers Jerome R. Koch, Kevin D. Dougherty & Patricia A. Maloney ask: How religious are people with religious tattoos?

Published in the @jssreligion.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

“Exceptional Bodies” and Lived Religion: Religious and Spiritual Experiences Among Women With Metastatic Breast Cancer A paucity of research has examined the lived religious practices of women with terminal cancer. The purpose of this paper is to examine how women with metastatic breast cancer engage in religious and...

➡️ Findings from a study by Rachel Kraus & Scott A. Desmond "show women with metastatic breast cancer engage in a variety of lived religious practices with more women reporting their participation outside of religious institutions." @jssreligion.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Fellowship in the Fiery Furnace: Do Christian Persecution Narratives Transcend Racial Divides? By Brooklyn Walker and Paul A. Djupe “Section 1. Purpose and Policy. It is the policy of the United States, and the purpose of this order, to protect the religious freedoms of Americans and end the…

Hot off the presses! @pauldjupe.bsky.social and I have a new piece out @jssreligion.bsky.social that argues that Christian persecution beliefs are less racialized than previously believed. (1/4) religioninpublic.blog/2025/06/06/f...

Ethnodoxy and Immigration Attitudes in the Middle East/North Africa Migration is a prevalent social concern in the Middle East/North Africa. In addition to emigration, the countries struggle to incorporate immigrant and transiting populations. This article examines t...

Read and cite Hannah's open-access paper, "Ethnodoxy and Immigration Attitudes in the Middle East/North Africa," here 👇
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

When ethnic group becomes religious orthodoxy YouTube video by JSSR—Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion

Muslim ≠ Arab and vice versa...but for many, ethnicity and religion become conjoined in what's termed "ethnodoxy." Do people who share this view more strongly have different attitudes about immigration? @hmridge.bsky.social explains her findings in this video:
youtu.be/Sz6417k0nGE?...

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion: Vol 64, No 1 Click on the title to browse this issue

📖Table of Contents alert for the March, 2025 issue of our flagship publication: The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (JSSR) @jssreligion.bsky.social.

➡️ Research on Christian nationalism,voting trends, diversity, racial justice, & more. #Religion

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14685906...

Race and Faith: The Role of Congregations in Racial Justice Following the killing of George Floyd, some congregations more fully entered the conversation on race. Although sometimes reinforcing institutional racism, many religious traditions also have tools f...

In their paper "Race and Faith: The Role of Congregations in Racial Justice," Rebecca Glazier, Gerald W. C. Driskill, and Dominika Hanson lay out the varied landscape of how religious congregations address race. Read and cite their work on this here 👇
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

When talking about race isn't enough YouTube video by JSSR—Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion

Rebecca Glazier and her coauthors started with an unsurprising finding: Black Protestants see race as a more important issue than others do. But they also found something they didn't expect: Black Protestants were also less likely to want the church involved in addressing race. youtu.be/KsrhEmInavA

Soc of Religion:
re: in the Pacific Northwest, where most people are "unchurched" but are "spiritual not religious, " participate in esoteric "woowoo " practices, the "mindfulness industry" etc.
DIY spirituality replaces old denominations/sects.

Leaving Haredi Judaism: Coping Resources and Perceived Social Support During Community Transitions and Religious Disaffiliation Navigating transitions across community boundaries, such as former Haredim leaving their covenantal communities of origin to integrate into mainstream society, is a widespread phenomenon with profoun...

New study on Haredi Judaism ➡️ Erhard says "there is a need for a more holistic understanding of disaffiliates’ coping efforts and the resources by which they sustain those, among others, to inform policy and professional practice." @jssreligion.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Religiously Unaffiliated Youth in Europe: Shifting Remnants of Belief and Practice in Contexts of Diffused Religion and Cohort Decline This study investigates the remnants and dynamics of religious beliefs and practices among religiously unaffiliated youth in Europe, comparing them with the older unaffiliated as well as with the rel....

Read and cite their open access article here! 👇
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

"Secularized" doesn't mean "atheist" YouTube video by JSSR—Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion

What does the big decline in religious *affiliation* mean for religious *belief and practice* for young Europeans? Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme and José P. Coutinho talk about what they found out when they dug into that question.
youtu.be/FcEMF7eFsfU

Parental Sanctification, God Images, and Parental Happiness and Satisfaction in the United States The goal of this study was to assess the relationship between non-theistic parental sanctification and well-being among parents, and whether parents’ primary images of God (authoritative, benevolent,...

New study by Upenieks & Ellison shows "the relationship between non-theistic parental sanctification and greater happiness and parental satisfaction was stronger for individuals with either an authoritative or benevolent God image..."@jssreligion.bsky.social ⬇️
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

📢 Calling all religion scholars! 📢Please consider this my personal invitation to submit a paper or organize a session at the upcoming @sssreligion.bsky.social Annual Meeting in Minneapolis this October! Reach out to me or @evanstewart.bsky.social with questions or ideas!