| Title | : | Religion in Urban America Program: Chicago Conversations |
|---|---|---|
| Author | : | Cross Currents |
| Release | : | 2008-09-22 |
| Kind | : | ebook |
| Genre | : | Education, Books, Professional & Technical |
| Size | : | 58736 |
| Structure, agency, and adaptation in congregations In debates over the relationship between structure and agency, Lowell Livezey took the position that religion as an institution, in particular the congregation, had "agency." By this he meant that the structures in which all social activity is nested could be changed by the cultural impact of religion. He contrasted agency with adaptation, the process by which congregations adjusted to forces in their environment but did not act positively--which often meant normatively--on it. I would like to discuss this tension between agency and adaptation, why I think Livezey found it provocative, although it remained preliminary in his work, and how I think Livezey might have wanted to push it further. |
