Connecting the Body of Christ? Cohesion and Division in a Decentralized Religious Movement

Michael Wood, Brigham Young University
Monty Lynn, Abeline Christian University
Ryan Jessup, Abeline Christian University
Travis Ashby, UCLA

This project investigates the bipartite network of lectureships and speakers of the Churches of Christ. As a decentralized religious movement with no central authority or binding creeds, the Churches of Christ offer a unique case for studying religious cohesion and fragmentation. Because each congregation is autonomous, lectureships––conferences where attendees listen to talks on religious topics–are one of the few institutionally-supported venues for interaction across congregations. Lectureships vary in size and scale and are organized by a variety of institutional types, including local congregations, regional networks, schools of preaching (where ministers are trained), and universities. Lectureships typically bring together attendees and presenters from different congregations. In this way, lectureships function as bridges between congregations and congregants who might otherwise be isolated within their local churches. However, the exact nature of this bridging is unknown. If lectureships are connected via a core set of speakers who present at a wide range of lectureships, then lectureships may function as invisible conduits of religious centralization that transcends local boundaries. On the other hand, if lectureships have unique, non-overlapping speakers, or if speakers bridge only a small number of ideologically similar lectureships, then lectureships may only reproduce divisions at higher scales. Alternatively, if lectureships have overlapping speakers who only present at a few lectureships, and these speakers do not cluster into non-overlapping groups, then lectureships may function as limited bridges, exposing people to some new perspectives, but without approaching centralization. We analyze the structure and evolution of the lectureship-speakers network using lectureship data from the early 20th century to 2024. We then move to a supplementary analysis of lectureship sermons to investigate whether clustering in the lectureship network correlates with similarity in sermon content. We conclude with a discussion of implications for the study of religious organization and polarization more generally.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 201. Religious Transformation, Community Formation, and Social Change