Compare methods

	Lived Religion Ethnography	Religious Vitality Index
Field	Sociology Of Religion	Sociology Of Religion
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	2008	1994
Originator	Meredith B. McGuire (synthesis); Robert Orsi	Laurence R. Iannaccone
Type	Ethnographic fieldwork on everyday religious practice	Index/model of religious group strength via strictness
Seminal source	McGuire, M. B. (2008). Lived Religion: Faith and Practice in Everyday Life. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 9780195368338	Iannaccone, L. R. (1994). Why Strict Churches Are Strong. American Journal of Sociology, 99(5), 1180-1211.
Aliases	Everyday Religion Ethnography, Lived Religion Fieldwork, Religion-as-Practiced Ethnography, Vernacular Religion Fieldwork	Church Strength Index, Strictness-Vitality Measure, Religious Group Strength Model, Free-Rider Vitality Index
Related	3	3
Summary	Lived religion ethnography studies religion as people actually practice it in everyday life rather than as official doctrine, institutional membership, or survey-reported belief. Synthesized by Meredith McGuire in Lived Religion: Faith and Practice in Everyday Life (2008) and shaped by historians such as Robert Orsi, the approach turns attention from what churches teach and what censuses count to what individuals do - the prayers, objects, rituals, healing practices, and improvised devotions that fill ordinary days and often cut across or ignore official boundaries. Through participant observation and in-depth interviews, the ethnographer documents this embodied, material, and frequently idiosyncratic religion, revealing a far messier and more creative religious life than membership statistics or doctrinal statements suggest.	The religious vitality index operationalizes Laurence Iannaccone's celebrated argument, in his 1994 American Journal of Sociology article 'Why Strict Churches Are Strong,' that demanding religious groups are often the most vital. The seeming paradox dissolves once religion is viewed as a collective good vulnerable to free-riding: if members can enjoy the fellowship, enthusiasm, and mutual support of a congregation while contributing little, average commitment erodes and the group weakens. Strictness - costly, distinctive demands such as dress codes, time obligations, and behavioral prohibitions - works as a screening device that drives out the half-hearted and raises the average commitment of those who remain. The vitality index therefore models a group's strength as a function of its strictness, its members' participation, and its capacity to retain and mobilize committed adherents.