Sociology and Space, No. 146, 1999.
Original scientific paper
Urbanity of Pentecostal Communities: Socio-demographic Characteristics of Zagreb Pentecostals
Ankica Marinović Bobinac
Abstract
On the example of the three pentecostal communities in Zagreb, the author discusses
urbanity, i.e. how deeply pentecostal communities have been rooted in urban entities
socially, culturally and the attitude towards the world-wise. On the basis of analyses of the
census data on the number of religious people and on the data from respectable researches
carried out in 1998 and 1999 (the data collected by a survey research, interview and
observation method), she made the picture of these groups of religious people of distinctly
evangelic character.
Examining the basic socio-demographic characteristics of the members of those communities,
she established their social profile: sex structure (nearly equal number and involvement
of women and men), age structure (young persons predominate), socio-professional
background (educational level and profession of both parents of the inquirees), confessional/
religious background, residential status (duration of residency in Zagreb), and socioprofessional
status (employment status, educational level and occupation) evidence that
pentecostal communities in Zagreb are distinctly urban religious communities. Cultural circle
the pentecostals belong to is a prototype of the middle-class of a real urban milieu. This
proved that this tendency in religiousness can not be spoken of as the religion surrogates,
let alone as of “dry branches” that have fallen off the otherwise sane tree of religion orthodoxy.
Namely, on average it is greater number of intellectually and spiritually curious people
who orientate themselves towards smaller religious communities that towards bigger
ones, as they are more often searching for more convincing answers to essential issues of
human existence. Through this the author has confirmed the potential the science has to
more objective explain the phenomenon of religion.
Keywords
pentecostalism; socio-demographic characteristics; urban religious communities; Zagreb
Hrčak ID:
119978
URI
Publication date:
10.12.1999.
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