The structure of spiritual revolutions: Black Baptists and social change

Goffman's frames (1974) have been vital concerning social movement theorists' renewed interest in studying how ideational forces manage collective behavior and social change (Johnston 1995). Such analysis investigates how frames converge with cultural patterns and how they might be strategically used in mobilization (Johnston and Klandermans 1995). By rendering occurrences meaningful, frames function to organize experience and guide action (Snow et. al 1986) in a similar manner to how Thomas Kuhn's (1962) paradigms steer scientific research. Black Baptist institutions encounter competing frames and consequently some have experienced social change concerning theological and political aspects of church polity. This ethnographic work uses data from fieldwork in two black Baptist churches, interviews, archival data, and secondary research to study how social change occurs in black Baptist institutions. I combine a phenomenological approach with analytical machinery from social movement theory to present the political role of religious elites in conceptualizing, planning, and organizing spiritual revolutions. I demonstrate how social actors are interconnected to an intersection of cultural-conduits and the political process by which knowledge-brokers manipulate cultural tools for thought-collectives to reject older frames for newer ones. I propose that social change be best explained by acknowledging the cognitive frames and values of social actors, thus demonstrating a vital place for cultural sociology in social movement theory.