The Church and Critical Choices in the 1980s
In the 1960s scholars concerned with the future of the church focused on the new social awareness. By the late 1970s it was the age of limits that dominated their thoughts. Both the future course of society and the impact of the public arena on the religious organization seem even less certain now t...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
1981
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| In: |
Sociological analysis
Year: 1981, Volume: 42, Issue: 4, Pages: 303-315 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In the 1960s scholars concerned with the future of the church focused on the new social awareness. By the late 1970s it was the age of limits that dominated their thoughts. Both the future course of society and the impact of the public arena on the religious organization seem even less certain now than they did in the 1960s. This is also true for the ability of organized religion to serve as a value-generating institution in America. One way to approach the future in a structured way is by developing process-oriented scenarios, which let us examine how various courses of development, various choices and events, will interact to produce the social, economic, and religious environment of the next decade or two. Three scenarios are presented — the resource management, frontier spirit, and adversity scenarios — and the trends within each that are particularly relevant to the church are identified. Issues that the church will face in the 1980s are noted. Planning for the future can help die church avoid becoming a moral hostage or an inept, obsolete institution. |
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| ISSN: | 2325-7873 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Sociological analysis
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/3711542 |