The Concept of Lived Religion in Living Faith: Everyday Religion and Mothers in Poverty by Susan Crawford Sullivan

Tatan Setiawan (UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung)
Abdul Hanan (UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung)
Dody S. Truna (UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung)
Rifki Rosyad (UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung)

Majority Science Journal
Vol. 4 No. 3 (2026): MSJ - August

This article examines the concept of “lived religion” as developed in Susan Crawford Sullivan’s Living Faith: Everyday Religion and Mothers in Poverty. The study focuses on how religion is practiced in the everyday lives of low-income mothers in the United States. Drawing on Sullivan’s qualitative-ethnographic study, the article shows that religion for these women does not depend primarily on institutional participation but is sustained instead through personal, flexible, and context-sensitive practice. The article analyzes Sullivan’s principal findings and assesses her contribution to the sociology of religion, arguing that religion functions simultaneously as a coping mechanism, a source of meaning, and a resource for moral negotiation under conditions of structural constraint. The discussion closes by considering the concept’s relevance for contemporary religious studies more broadly, including its potential application to Islam as a discursive tradition.