Since its inception in the 1960s, research on premature (i.e., pre-retirement) clergy attrition from congregational ministry has focused identifying factors that precipitate and mitigate exits, while rates at which leave have been inconsistently tracked. The literature is peppered with claims of alarmingly high departure; however, these studies lack strong empirical support. evidence, fragmenta...

During the late Ming Dynasty, with establishment of Calendar Bureau (历局) by Xu Guangqi (1562-1633) and recommendation missionaries Catholics to take part in revision calendar, Imperial Astronomical (钦天监) became an important institution for stay China played role dissemination development Catholicism. Until beginning Qing a government office most official Catholics. Missionaries were not only ch...

In 1840, Maori elders from New Zealand's north island agreed to the terms and conditions of a British treaty. Amongst its many provisions, the Treaty of Waitangi as it is commonly known, retained Maoris rights in land and taonga (treasures). In 2005, Nextscribe.org, a Catholic think-tank in New Mexico declared that the “network is the church” and set out an ambitious agenda for research into th...

The West of Scotland has traditionally been a focus for Irish migration. Using data from two studies carried out in this region, one quantitative, the other qualitative, this paper shows little difference in drinking and smoking between Scots of Irish descent and other Scots. It does, however, show significant differences in these behaviours according to religious affiliation in adulthood. Rath...

Nineteenth-Century Catholic doctrine strongly opposed state schooling. We show that countries with larger shares of Catholics in 1900 (but without a Catholic state religion) tend to have larger shares of privately operated schools even today. We use this historical pattern as a natural experiment to estimate the causal effect of contemporary private competition on student achievement in cross-c...

While internet-based technologies can open up greater awareness of the world or create self-perpetuating echo-chambers, Catholics & Cultures project aspires to do former. Aiming ‘widen lens’ on variety Catholic communities and practices, site delivers this goal by introducing viewers a vast array articles, pictures videos from around world. The organization country certain key features lived Ca...