Center for the Study of Latino Religion

University of Notre Dame
206 McKenna Hall
574-631-4440

The Center for the Study of Latino Religion
The Center for the Study of Latino Religion (CSLR) conducts research on the impact of religion and spirituality on the development of social capital in the Latino community. CSLR serves as a national center and clearinghouse for ecumenically focused social-scientific study of the US Latino church, its leadership, and the interaction between religion and the population.

Latinos and Organized Religion
Church attendance is not only of spiritual but also of practical value to Latinos, since there is empirical evidence that it plays an important role in integrating many new residents into community life. At the same time, Latinos are important to the development of many churches, as established residents and new immigrants increase in Christian congregations throughout the United States.

Activities
Highlighting the ways in which religion strengthens and improves the quality of public life, the Center examines the role of religious beliefs, leaders, churches, and faith-based organizations in Latino communities. Through analysis of both original and existing data sets, CSLR investigates the religious life and experience of US Latinos/as and Latino congregations and provides timely, empirically grounded applied scholarship that stimulates public learning and contributes to dialogue on the role of the Latino church in American public life.

Among the CSLR’s primary tasks is studying the connections among congregations, faith-based organizations, and their neighborhoods and examining the function that religious institutions serve in Latino communities.

The Center acts as a national clearinghouse, focusing on collecting and synthesizing existing research on the levels of Latino participation in theological education and in related nonprofit training programs. Investigating the effects of training in faith-based nonprofit organizations, the CSLR also explores the relationship between leadership skills and effective community involvement.

Publications
A list of CSLR publications can be viewed here.