From American church to immigrant church: The changing face of Seventh-day Adventism in Metropolitan New York
From American church to immigrant church: The changing face of Seventh-day Adventism in Metropolitan New York
复制标题
DOI：
10.2307/3712121
复制
发表时间：
1998-12-01
影响因子：
3.1
通讯作者：
Lawson, R
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Lawson, R
1945年，大都会纽约的基督复临安息日会在行政上分为两个会议，其中一个会议的成员几乎完全是白人，另一个是非洲裔美国人。在接下来的25年里，这两个群体都大幅增长，但这种增长伴随着移民的开始，这些移民由于在发展中国家的家乡进行传教活动而成为基督复临信徒。自1970年以来，移民的涌入和他们的非复临信徒的同龄人之间的转换已经蓬勃发展，而美国出生的成员，无论是黑人和白色，在总数和比例急剧阿萨。这里提供的数据表明，在这个地区，“新移民”现在占基督复临信徒的近90%。虽然纽约的情况更为极端，但它反映了整个北美基督复临安息日会信徒的转变。如果没有移民的流动，北美的基督复临安息日会现在将处于一种类似于许多主流新教教派的数量下降的情况。本文试图解释纽约大都市基督复临会的人口结构变化--美国人（白人和非裔美国人）的减少和新移民的巨大增长。它认为，借鉴现代化理论，一个严格的教会与僵化的教义体系和行为守则将下降的选区日益复杂，如果它不适应现代价值观，但可能会成功，在短期内吸引较少的现代人。
In 1945 Seventh-day Adventism in Metropolitan New York was divided administratively into two conferences, one of which had an almost completely Caucasian membership, the other Afro-American. Both groups grew substantially during the following twenty-five years, but this growth was accompanied by the beginning of a flow of immigrants who had become Adventists as a result of missionary activity in their homelands in the developing world. Since 1970, the influx of immigrants and of conversions among their non-Adventist peers - has burgeoned, while American-born members, both black and white, have declined sharply in total number and precipitously asa proportion of the total. The data presented here show that in this region "new immigrants" now account for almost 90 percent of the Adventist membership. While the situation in New York is more extreme, it mirrors a transformation taking place among Adventists throughout North America. Without the flow of immigrants, North American Seventh-day Adventism would now be in a situation of numerical decline akin to that of many of the mainline Protestant denominations. This paper sets out to account for the demographic transformation of Adventism in Metropolitan New York-for the decline of the American segments (Caucasian and Afro-American) and the huge growth among the new immigrants. It argues, drawing on modernization theory, that a strict church with a rigid doctrinal system and behavioral code will decline among constituencies with growing sophistication if it does not accommodate to modem values, but may succeed in the short-term by attracting less modem people.