A Sociologist Looks at His Own Parish

Abstract

This chapter is a dialogue with and reflection by John A. Coleman, S.J., a trained, well-published sociologist and Jesuit pastor in Northern California. In describing and exploring his own experience as a sociologist and pastor, he models the kind of inquiry raised by previous chapters, applying them in a practical way to a single parish to which the author belongs. Through lived experience and his bipartite role as sociologist and parish priest, Fr. Coleman shares in a personal way his own approach to the study of Catholic parishes. The chapter contains numerous questions and tools for applied sociological parish studies.