Religious Vitality in Christian Intentional Communities: A Comparative Ethnographic Study(Ethnographies of Religion)

Through ethnographic research, Killian examines vitality in Philadelphia and Berea, two Christian Intentional Communities whose participants live in close proximity with one another to achieve religious values. Pulling from Anthony Giddens’ theory of structuration, Killian argues that the vitality of both communities cannot be reduced to deterministic structural, individual, or organizational causes. Rather, vitality in these communities is affected by all of these causes in relationship to one another. In other words, it’s not that each explanation “matters” (e.g., social structures matter, organizational behaviors matter, individual religious choices matter), but that these explanations matter to each other (e.g., social structures matter to individual choices, individual choices matter to organizational behaviors, and social structures matter to organizational choices, etc.). To make this argument, Killian develops the idea of the vitality nexus—the interconnected relationship between the various explanations of religious vitality.

Table of Contents:
Introduction:Christian Intentional Communities 1. Religious Vitality: Understanding the Argument2. A Deeper Look at Philadelphia and Berea 3. Why People Joined Berea and Philadelphia: Structure, Agency, and Religious Vitality 4. Prophecy, Egalitarianism, and a Beautifully Broken Building: Charisma in Philadelphia and Berea5. Cultural Antiphony: Identity, Praxis, and Social Control in Philadelphia 6. The Parish Consciousness: Identity, Praxis, and Ecology in Berea Conclusion: The Religious Vitality Nexus

About the Author :
Mark Killian is assistant professor of sociology at Whitworth University.

Review :
This book provides a solid introduction to the study of intentional communities and religious vitality literatures. The writing is accessible to undergraduates and public audiences, and offers new insight into the contemporary religious landscape. Dr. Killian brings first rate research to bear to develop a badly needed nuanced model of religious vitality. His exploration of CICs not only strengthens our understanding of these kinds of groups, but also provides an ideal place to explore the vitality in all of its daily complexity. This text is immediately indispensable for my courses and my own research. Throughout the history of Christianity, we find deeply devoted religious people who live out their convictions apart from ‘the world’ yet still in community with like-minded others. Killian takes us into two deeply religious communities, both of which consist of devoted Christians who bond together without marriage or kinship to live out their most sacred values. His comparative analysis reveals the joys and challenges of creating an authentically loving and spiritually missional community in the midst of a culture that challenges this way of life. Mark Killian’s new book vividly illustrates the significance of Christian Intentional Communities, both for the broader comparative study of religion and for social movements seeking to thrive amid the conditions of late modernity. Through intimate fieldwork with two urban communities in Midwestern America, he teaches us a great deal about how institutional struggles, attachment to place, and social relations figure in religious vitality.