CRCC’s Director of Research, Richard Flory, was interviewed on a podcast by Hatchery LA about, CRCC’s project on Religious Competition and Creative Innovation, a $2.6 million initiative funded by the John Templeton Foundation.
An excerpt from the interview:
In the sociological study of religion, there is this theoretical line that argues that all religious groups operate in a religious market place and those with a “better religious product,” whatever that happens to be, are the ones that are more successful. And this generally is measured by the numbers of bodies that you have in services or membership. The “better” is part of this is this capitalist-race notion. We believe that congregations are innovative based on their success and abilities to meet the kinds of needs of the people that they are attracting. The competition between groups are certainly there, but most of what we are seeing is cooperation between groups. where one church helps another church. There are these networks being developed and cooperation being developed that I really find interesting.
