Religion and Relationship Stability SO 200 Dec 2024 PDF

Religion and Relationship Stability SO 200 December 4, 2024 Prof. Joseph Roso Boulis and Torgler (2024) What was the main question Boulis and Torgler were trying to answer? What was the answer to that question? Is this finding surprising to you, or it is it what you expected? Intr...

Religion and Relationship Stability SO 200 December 4, 2024 Prof. Joseph Roso Boulis and Torgler (2024) What was the main question Boulis and Torgler were trying to answer? What was the answer to that question? Is this finding surprising to you, or it is it what you expected? Intrafaith Relationship: a relationship between people who are both within the same faith tradition Interfaith Relationship: a relationship between people who are from different faith traditions Mixed Relationship: a relationship where one person is is affiliated with a religious faith and the other person is not affiliated with any faith Sanctification Theory (Boulis and Torgler) A process where aspects of life take on “spiritual significance” Familial ties and marriage become sacred Religion can fortify relationships The Domain of Religion (Durkheim) Profane Sacred Part of ordinary life Special, elevated Banal, not important to Must be protected protect through prohibitions – separate from profane The Domain of Religion (Durkheim) Profane Sacred Part of ordinary life Special, elevated Banal, not important to Must be protected protect through prohibitions – separate from profane Boulis and Torgler argue that religion puts marriage and family in this category Measures Affiliation Observance Composition (intrafaith, Frequency of attending interfaith, mixed, religious services unaffiliated) Importance of religion Religious group (Catholic, Within the couple, any Protestant, etc.) differences between those Gender composition (e.g. answers male Catholic/female unaffiliated, male Protestant/female Catholic etc.) Boulis and Torgler (2024) findings Intrafaith couples have the lowest risk of dissolution Non-Christian faiths lowest risk of dissolution Interfaith, intrafaith, and mixed couples all have lower rates of dissolution than unaffiliated couples Gender matters Male Catholic/female Protestant couples less likely to break up than female Catholic/male Protestant couples Higher religious attendance = less chance of dissolution “While society often perceives long-lasting relationships as indicators of happiness or quality, it is worth noting that not all enduring relationships signify healthiness.” -Boulis and Torgler (2024:284) Sharp (2009) What was the main question Sharp was trying to answer? What was the answer to that question? Is this finding surprising to you, or it is it what you expected? “(3) Some Pharisees came to Him, and to test Him they asked, ‘is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?’ (4) He answered, ‘Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning “made them male and female,” (5) and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?” So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’ (7) They said to Him, ‘Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?’ (8) He said to them, ‘It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, btu at the beginning it was not so. (9) And Is ay to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery.’” -Matthew 19:3-9 (NRSV) “(3) Some Pharisees came to Him, and to test Him they asked, ‘is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?’ (4) He answered, ‘Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning “made them male and female,” (5) and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?” So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’ (7) They said to Him, ‘Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?’ (8) He said to them, ‘It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, btu at the beginning it was not so. (9) And Is ay to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery.’” -Matthew 19:3-9 (NRSV) The “Matthean exception clause” Symbolic Entrapment: A situation when a person is prevented from taking courses of action because these actions threaten symbolic boundaries that crucially define important and salient social identities Sharp (2009) Looks at conservative Christians in abusive relationships who feel prevented from divorcing because of strong proscriptions against divorce How do women leave while preserving their religious identity? Three strategies: Normative – reasons within the religious culture (adultery) Transforming – reinterpret what “unfaithfulness” means to include spousal abuse Neutralizing – recognizing divorce is wrong, but offering “acts of contrition” to neutralize the symbolic boundary For Next Time… Read: McDaniel et al. chapter 10