An oral history study of the religiosity of fifty Czech-American elderly

People's commitment to a spiritual life, their religiosity occupies a central place in the sociology of religion. In this study individual religiosity is assumed to be the result of a combination of free will and past or present social influences. Thus, in line with this assumption, a unique interpretive approach is outlined which employs a combination of oral histories and personal documents. Oral histories and personal documents are powerful tools for understanding religiosity for the follow­ ing reasons: (1) they account for the factor of time by showing how religiosity evolves over the life cycle; (2) they account for the social and historical influences of family and/or ethnicity upon religiosity; (3) they account for the operation of free will by describing an individual's attitudes and belief system; and (4) they account for social change, with the use of an open-ended oral history interview guide, which is flexible enough to allow for any type of answer. It is recommended that future researchers sample different age, income, and ethnic groups, so that comparisons between various oral history accounts can be made.