부산대학교 도서관

Religious congregations are prominent in American life as both gatherings of religious people and as community resource. We explore how congregations communicate these multiple identities through qualitative content analysis of clergy interviews and congregational websites. Findings suggest that congregations emphasize religiosity even as they articulate community service and highlight congregations as outside, inside, and constituting community. Although congregations are transparent with respect to their religiosity, we suggest that ambiguity serves not just as a function of multiple identities but as indicative of organizations that justify their work in spiritual terms to multiple audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]