Religious Orders Helped Catholic Church To Stave Off Fragmentation

February 12, 2001

University Park, Pa. -- The Catholic Church has warded off the fragmentation that plagues Protestantism by creating religious orders that take the place of potentially breakaway sects, according to a Penn State sociologist of religion.

"Catholic religious orders and Protestant sects are formed for the same reason: the need for reform and revival in the face of changing social conditions," says Dr. Roger Finke, professor of sociology. "Furthermore, they follow the same life cycle, which consists of initial enthusiasm and a sense of mission; a gradual accommodation with the culture around them; a loss of distinctiveness and then idealism; and finally, decline."

For the past 1,700 years, the Catholic Church has often co-opted movements that might have turned into separatist sects by institutionalizing them as religious orders, Finke notes. This policy benefited the Church twofold, first by staving off schism and second by giving the Church a testing ground for new ideas in religious observance, teaching, music and outreach, though not basic doctrine.

As a result, the Church has had the opportunity to absorb useful innovations while rejecting those deemed unworkable. In this way, the Church, despite many ups and downs, has preserved a vitality and cohesiveness lacking in modern-day Protestantism now fractured into thousands of denominations and splinter groups, according to the Penn State researcher.

"Within Protestantism, a virtually endless cycle exists of 'revolutionary' sects emerging out of churches and themselves becoming churches. Out of these, new sects appear and the cycle goes on continually," Finke says.

The process begins when a group within an established church begins to question certain dogmas and practices. These dissenters, often energized by a dynamic and charismatic leader, usually take the view that the church has strayed from orthodoxy and should return to its original pristine state. Not surprisingly, the group that wants change finds its message ill-received by the church leaders.

The dissenters become progressively marginalized and at last see no other option but to leave the church -- or face expulsion. Now independent, the resulting sect labors hard to win over others to its conviction and, in its early years, prospers both in terms of numbers and influence, adds the researcher.

"Ultimately, however, the sect loses its original fervor, goes mainstream and becomes yet another 'low-tension,' middle-class denominational church," says Finke, whose paper, "Organizational Revival from Within: Explaining Revivalism and Reform in the Roman Catholic Church," was recently published in the Journal for the Scientific Study for Religion. His co-author is Dr. Patricia Wittberg, associate professor of sociology at Indiana University-Indianapolis.

Finke is also co-author of the new book, "Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion," published by the University of California Press.

The Catholic Church has also had its reformers, and some of them, like Martin Luther, left the fold permanently, with immense theological and cultural repercussions. On many other occasions, however, reformers chose to remain, in large part because the Church was willing to incorporate their ideas without compromising core church teaching.

"As new social conditions arise that call for reform and renewal, the Catholic Church has responded by channeling forces for change into an order," says the Penn State Liberal Arts researcher.

When, in the fourth century, Christianity found itself the de facto religion of the Roman Empire and attained an unexpected respectability, many Christian men and women saw this as a compromise with the world and opted for the monastic life. The earliest orders like the Benedictines and Cistercians sought to accommodate, then rejuvenate the monastic movement over the next 800 years. In time, the monasteries prospered too well, as in the case of the Cistercians, who built a thriving business selling high-quality wool and wine.

"Even with periodic renewals, the largely rural and self-contained monasteries were unable to respond to the growth of cities and commerce. The large-scale changes in the surrounding society soon facilitated the development of a new form of religious life, the mendicant orders, the most prominent of which were the Franciscans and Dominicans, both founded in the 13th century. Stressing poverty and itinerant preaching, the mendicant orders were better adapted to the urban environment," Finke notes.

The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century led to the founding of another prominent order, the Jesuits, who specialized in missionary efforts. As the older orders waxed and waned in numbers and effectiveness, new orders rose up to reinforce or replace them.

"Religious orders follow a life cycle that resembles that of a Protestant sect. However, by undergoing the periodic cycles of revival, decline, and even extinction, the religious orders spare the Catholic Church as a whole from the extremes of this cycle and help to explain the long-term vitality of the Church," Finke says.

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Contacts:

Paul Blaum (814) 865-9481 (o) pab15@psu.edu

Vicki Fong (814) 865-9481 (o)/ (814) 238-1221 (h) vfong@psu.edu

EDITORS: Dr. Finke can be contacted at (814) 865-6257 or at rfinke@psu.edu by email.