Habits of the hearth: Parenting, religion, and the good life in America
[Thesis]
Kevin Matthew Taylor
Ammerman, Nancy T.
Boston University
2015
502
Committee members: Edgell, Penny; Lobel, Diana; Petro, Anthony; Prothero, Stephen
Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-321-92932-4
Ph.D.
Religious Studies GRS
Boston University
2015
This dissertation explores visions of the good life in America through the lens of what middle-class parents from Liberal Protestant, Evangelical Protestant, Roman Catholic, Muslim, Hindu, and Atheist communities want for their children. In the book Habits of the Heart, Robert Bellah and associates famously posit that the dominant moral language of America today is one of utilitarian and expressive individualism. In this dissertation, I measure the degree to which parents in America are guided by that individualism and the degree to which they speak alternative languages that encourage concern for others and for the common good. Through participant observation, interviews, and a letter-writing task with eighty-three New England parents connected with particular congregations, as well as twelve comparable non-attending parents, I look at religious traditions, some of them with long histories in America, and others more recently prominent on the religious landscape, to see how religion shapes parental values. To what extent do parents from these traditions agree on what a good life looks like? And to what extent do we find divergence based on social location, ethnic background, and the beliefs and practices of their traditions?
Religion; Sociology; Individual & family studies
Philosophy, religion and theology;Social sciences;Ethics;Family values;Moral philosophy;Parenting;Religious diversity