Singlehood and Religion

The subject of my book is singlehood in conservative religious denominations. I focus on the case of Israeli Religious Zionist singles. The research upon which the book is based includes in-depth interviews with Religious Zionist singles and participant observation at singles events, as well as analysis of primary texts written by rabbis, educators, and singles. Throughout the book I make comparisons, both to secular singles and to singles in other conservative religions.

The book has four parts. The first part looks at singles’ search for love. I found that attitudes toward romantic love and relationships are changing. Marriage, as Cherlin (2004) puts it, has become less of a social institution and more of a relationship. This has made the search for a partner more challenging, especially for religious singles who, to varying extents, practice gender segregation and are expected to remain chaste prior to marriage. Changing gender relations led to new opportunities as well as challenges in this field. The second part of the book looks at religious communities and singles. Singles are marginalized in established communities, but their networks of friends form a community of sorts that is significant in their lives. The third part of the book examines how ongoing singlehood affects religiosity. It was found that singles adopt various strategies to deal with the strain they experience between the family values discourse and their lifestyle. The fourth part of the book focuses on the responses of religious establishments. I found that in Religious Zionist society the nature of guidance that singles received has changed over time.

Taken together, the research found that late-modern process of individualization are affecting religious singles, and these affect various aspects of their lives, including the search for love and their relationship with the divine.