American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us

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American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us

3.87 of 5 stars 3.87 · rating details · 291 ratings · 100 reviews

American Grace is a major achievement, a groundbreaking examination of religion in America.

Unique among nations, America is deeply religious, religiously diverse, and remarkably tolerant. But in recent decades the nation's religious landscape has been reshaped.

America has experienced three seismic shocks, say Robert Putnam and David Campbell. In the 1960s, religious obse...more American Grace is a major achievement, a groundbreaking examination of religion in America.

Unique among nations, America is deeply religious, religiously diverse, and remarkably tolerant. But in recent decades the nation's religious landscape has been reshaped.

America has experienced three seismic shocks, say Robert Putnam and David Campbell. In the 1960s, religious observance plummeted. Then in the 1970s and 1980s, a conservative reaction produced the rise of evangelicalism and the Religious Right. Since the 1990s, however, young people, turned off by that linkage between faith and conservative politics, have abandoned organized religion. The result has been a growing polarization—the ranks of religious conservatives and secular liberals have swelled, leaving a dwindling group of religious moderates in between. At the same time, personal interfaith ties are strengthening. Interfaith marriage has increased while religious identities have become more fluid. Putnam and Campbell show how this denser web of personal ties brings surprising interfaith tolerance, notwithstanding the so-called culture wars.

American Grace is based on two of the most comprehensive surveys ever conducted on religion and public life in America. It includes a dozen in-depth profiles of diverse congregations across the country, which illuminate how the trends described by Putnam and Campbell affect the lives of real Americans.

Nearly every chapter of American Grace contains a surprise about American religious life. Among them:
● Between one-third and one-half of all American marriages are interfaith;
● Roughly one-third of Americans have switched religions at some point in their lives;
● Young people are more opposed to abortion than their parents but more accepting of gay marriage;
● Even fervently religious Americans believe that people of other faiths can go to heaven;
● Religious Americans are better neighbors than secular Americans—more generous with their time and treasure even for secular causes—but the explanation has less to do with faith than with their communities of faith;
● Jews are the most broadly popular religious group in America today.

American Grace promises to be the most important book in decades about American religious life and an essential book for understanding the United States today.(less)

Hardcover, 688 pages

Published October 5th 2010 by Simon & Schuster (first published October 1st 2010)

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May 18, 2013 Phillip rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: religion, favorites-among-favorites

This book really appeals to me. It is loaded with graphs of statistical data from a 2006 phone survey of over 3000 participants.

It is like finding a particularly striking fossil on the shelf of a souvenir shop. It is probably just another fossil (just another book about religion), more or less, the same as all of the rest on the shelf that are for sell. But this one appeals to you (in this case me).

This book should appeal to people interested in looking at and evaluating the statistical data. T...more

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May 13, 2013 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm giving this five stars because I found it really fascinating, but it is quite long and a lot of readers might get bored by all the statistics and graphs and charts. American Grace is composed of hard sociological data and cultural vignettes in roughly equal measure. Campbell and Putnam, professors of political science and public policy, respectively, assembled their study of faith in today’s America using two main sources. One was the Faith Matters survey: a survey of a little over 3000 Amer...more I'm giving this five stars because I found it really fascinating, but it is quite long and a lot of readers might get bored by all the statistics and graphs and charts. American Grace is composed of hard sociological data and cultural vignettes in roughly equal measure. Campbell and Putnam, professors of political science and public policy, respectively, assembled their study of faith in today’s America using two main sources. One was the Faith Matters survey: a survey of a little over 3000 Americans from all over the religious spectrum, administered in 2006 and 2007. To this Campbell and Putnam added case studies of a range of churches from different parts of the country, everything from an Episcopal church in Massachusetts to a LDS stake in Utah to a Protestant “megachurch” in Minnesota. The goal is to answer a series of questions, including: how overtly political are churches today? Where did the so-called “God gap” between Democrats and Republicans come from, and will it shift in the future? Are there clear winners or losers in the religious marketplace? How have congregations changed as America has changed over the last generation or two? And finally, how are all these American faiths able to peacefully coexist, particularly at a time when political and religious vitriol seems so high?
The authors provide an answer to their central question right away. American religion may be polarized, but it is not segregated. Americans today tend to have friends and family from a variety of faiths, and America has a remarkably free religious market. People tend to believe that it is perfectly normal to shop through various congregations until you find one you like. Thus, people are generally tolerant of a diverse range of beliefs. The rest of the book is dedicated to unpacking this diversity, and some conclusions are drawn that readers may find surprising. Religiosity tends to vary a lot by gender, age and race, but hardly at all by income or education. Young people have reacted strongly to the rise of the so-called Religious Right in the 1980s and 90s, basically by turning away from organized religion (and voting Democratic). The gender revolution has been embraced almost across the board, with majorities in practically every group, including evangelicals, favoring larger roles for women in the church. The “God gap” basically can be traced to just two issues, abortion and gay rights, and the Republican embrace of a pro-life, anti-gay platform in the 1980s. This gap could easily change in the future, as opinion on gay rights in particular seems to be rapidly changing. Overt politicking from the pulpit is extremely rare, and perhaps more common in liberal congregations than conservative ones. There is a big difference between modern clergy and laity on some issues, like who will get into heaven. Lay people across the spectrum tend to believe that good people of a variety of faiths can go to heaven, while their ministers disagree. And regardless of all the angry, bible-thumping, fundamentalist rhetoric that we hear in America today, such people actually form a relatively small minority of evangelicals – just 25%.
American Grace serves as a great reference book. There are a multitude of graphs, charting all sorts of beliefs and trends in late 20th century America. The vignette chapters are fascinating. It is certainly possible to quibble about the wording of some of the questions in the Faith Matters survey, but a perfect survey would have been impossible. One critic takes issue with Campbell and Putnam’s claim that the evangelical movement has been in decline since the early 1990s (which is, frankly, kind of a surprising claim). All in all, American Grace is an insightful, breezy read that ought to stimulate a lot of discussion and debate.
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Mar 31, 2012 Maya Bohnhoff rated it 5 of 5 stars

Thorough, comprehensive, and a real eye-opener with respect to the few numbers represented by the most outspoken, most polarized religious groups.

I did feel they gave short shrift to the ideas behind the fact that religious people are more civically involved and giving of time and money. The authors made much of the social aspect of religion and marginalized the idea that the principles a group held in common mattered to their sense of civic responsibility.

Clearly, if a group inculcates values o...more

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Mar 27, 2012 Kkraemer rated it 4 of 5 stars

This explores the fact that America is both deeply religious and extraordinarily diverse in its beliefs, and how "religiosity" affects politics. Utterly fascinating. I didn't know, for example, that the correlation between religion and politics has heightened only in the last several years...before that, there was little correlation. I didn't realize how deeply the rebellions of the 60's/70's affected American culture, either...both the sexual and the political revolution. I hadn't thought about...more

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Sep 28, 2011 Dave Lester rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: politics-current-affairs

Here is a comprehensive look at American Religion and what people think about various faiths, practices and about God. Authors Robert Putnam and David E Campbell are incredibly thorough in their research and presentation of the results of their far reaching surveys. They also seem very even handed and fair in their work to faith perspectives.

The book is loaded with statistics that were gathered from the aforementioned wide reaching surveys. The most fascinating part of this book is finding out w...more

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Jul 25, 2011 Merrill Clark rated it 5 of 5 stars

Fascinating book about what religious people are thinking of themselves, of others, of other religions and of politics with lots of charts. Written by two authors, one of the authors is LDS and a professor at Notre Dame, thus the Mormon element is not ignored.
The thesis of the book, based upon what people are thinking and doing, is: 1) as a result of the liberal sixties, more people became very conservative and religious in the late 70s-90s and now many young people are turned off by the conserv...more

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Mar 12, 2011 Spencer rated it 4 of 5 stars

major sociological study full of a million charts and statistics. If it has a bias, i cant see it. endorsed by folks all over the spectrum as far as i can gather. So here are some cold facts:
Regarding Americans:
roughly-
80% are certain that there is a God
40% attend church nearly every week
30% are evangelical
25% are catholic
15% are mainline protestant
9% are black and black protestant
15% claim no denominational affiliation (this was 7% in 1990)
2% are mormons
2% are jews
1/3 of americans change their...more

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Jan 02, 2011 Ross Emmett rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: religion-and-society

I recently read Huch Heclo's Christianity and American Democracy, which is better that Putnam and Campbell's book as an examination of the relationship between Christianity and political life in America. And you should know that although Putnam and Campbell talk about "religion," they actually almost always mean "Christianity," and Protestantism in particular (see pp. 30-31 for their recognition of this point). They do use some non-Christian religious examples, but not many.

Where American Grace...more

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Dec 28, 2010 Shinynickel marked it as to-read

Off this review: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...

In his seminal book "Bowling Alone" (2000), Putnam focused the country's attention on its deteriorating community life. "American Grace" will probably spark similarly fierce debates. It has already commanded attention from some evangelical leaders, who have sounded the alarm about growing secularism. Yet the book seeks to tamp down the culture wars (its conclusions are expressed in the most non-inflammatory language possible).

...

Seen thro...more

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May 30, 2011 Jennifer (JC-S) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: librarybooks

‘America manages to be both religiously diverse and religiously devout because it’s difficult to damn those you know and love.’

This book, by Professors Robert D Putnam and David E Campbell, presents a comprehensive study of religious beliefs and practices in the USA, and provides a detailed overview of an important aspect of American culture. Data was collected as part of a two-step interview survey (Faith Matters 2006, 2007)) which involved more than 3000 respondents across the USA. The series...more ‘America manages to be both religiously diverse and religiously devout because it’s difficult to damn those you know and love.’

This book, by Professors Robert D Putnam and David E Campbell, presents a comprehensive study of religious beliefs and practices in the USA, and provides a detailed overview of an important aspect of American culture. Data was collected as part of a two-step interview survey (Faith Matters 2006, 2007)) which involved more than 3000 respondents across the USA. The series of findings presented make for interesting reading. Consider:

• Between one third to one half of all marriages are interfaith;
• Young people are more opposed to abortion than their parents, but more accepting of same- sex marriage;
• Jews are the most broadly popular religious group in the USA today;
• Roughly one third of Americans have switched religions at some stage.

The findings affirm the importance of organized religion: more than 83% of Americans report that they belong to a specific religion; 59% report that they pray at least once a week and 40% report attendance at weekly services. At the same time, the traditional role of religion has been challenged by ‘the sexually libertine 1960s’ which subsequently resulted in ‘a prudish aftershock of growth in conservative religion, especially evangelicalism, and an even more pronounced cultural presence for evangelicals, most noticeably in the political arena.’ Professors Putnam and Campbell assert that this evangelical revival, which began to recede by the early 1990s was sparked more by deeply personal moral concerns than by hot-button political issues: ‘Abortion and same-sex marriage are the glue holding the coalition of the religious together.’

‘How has America solved the puzzle of religious pluralism – the coexistence of religious diversity and devotion? And how has it done so in the wake of growing religious polarization? By creating a web of interlocking personal relationships among people of many different faiths. This is America’s grace.’

In part, this is due to the nature of American society. The combination of an absence of a religious monopoly and an atmosphere of religious liberty has supported the development of religious pluralism. ‘Religions compete, adapt and evolve as individual Americans freely move from one congregation to another, and even from one religion to another.’

It is true that America’s tradition of peaceful religious coexistence is largely about relative harmony between different Christian denominations. But harmony between Catholics and Protestants is comparatively recent, and the process of how this change came about raises an important question: How do mutual fear, suspicion and intolerance make way for tolerance and trust? What lessons can be drawn from the past?

This is a fascinating study which is highly readable and provides much food for thought.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith
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Feb 15, 2011 Kristin rated it 3 of 5 stars

I had to check it out twice and devote a lot of time to reading it -- it's quite the thick tome of research -- but I did come away with a much better understanding of the different religions in America, which is something I had always felt I was lacking. I appreciated a lot, or course, that their main study included Mormons as a separate subgroup so I could get a sense of how we compare in all these measures. Mainly, though, I got a sense of the vigor and struggles of the American religious grou...more

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Aug 07, 2011 Sophia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, non-fiction

American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us offers a comprehensive look at the American religious landscape from mid-20th century onwards. Putnam and Campbell base most of the chapters on the statistical analysis of their Faith Matters surveys from 2006 and 2007 as well as other broad nation-wide surveys. Intending to reach a lay audience without a statistical background, their writing becomes long-winded at times to preserve precision and provide alternate ways to phrase the findings. Ea...more

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Sep 01, 2011 Tanya rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: general-non-fiction, religion

I requested American Grace from the library because it was repeatedly footnoted in Elder Quentin Cook's talk from the April 2011 LDS General Conference, and I wanted to know more about what it said. This lengthy tome discusses the findings of the authors' 2006 and 2007 "Faith Matters" survey, a massive study of religious, political, and civic attitudes and behaviors of Americans across the faith spectrum. Interspersed with the statistical analysis (and plenty of charts and graphs) were vignettes...more I requested American Grace from the library because it was repeatedly footnoted in Elder Quentin Cook's talk from the April 2011 LDS General Conference, and I wanted to know more about what it said. This lengthy tome discusses the findings of the authors' 2006 and 2007 "Faith Matters" survey, a massive study of religious, political, and civic attitudes and behaviors of Americans across the faith spectrum. Interspersed with the statistical analysis (and plenty of charts and graphs) were vignettes from random congregations across the country, which saved the book from being too dry. Overall I found the information fascinating, but often way too drawn out.

Since the great majority of my Goodreads friends are Mormon, I thought I'd point out some of the interesting things the authors found about our religion and its place in America.

- We represent roughly 2% of the U.S. population
- Mormons are the most religiously observant group in America, followed by Black Protestants and Evangelical Protestants
- On the question "Of all respondents whose parents were in a given religious tradition, what proportion have left that faith or rarely attend services?" the LDS response was just under 45%. That sounds like a lot to me, but it was the lowest response of all the denominations.
- On the question "How important is it that your children marry someone of your own faith? the Mormons had the highest positive response, with about 66% saying it was somewhat or very important.
- Mormons gave the lowest response when asked if they favored allowing female clergy. 30% said yes, while the highest response came from Mainline Protestants (93% in favor).
- The three least popular religious groups in America are 1)Buddhists, 2)Muslims, and 3)Mormons
- Mormons report warm feelings toward all other religious groups, or as the author says, "Mormons like everyone else, while almost everyone else dislikes Mormons." The one exception to that are Jews.
- Responses to "People not of my faith, including non-Christians, can go to heaven" range from Mormons (98% agree) to Evangelical Protestants (54% agree). Protestant clergy are unhappy at this response, as their doctrine teaches only Christians can go to heaven, and their congregants evidently disagree.
- Questions about politics over the pulpit found that "Mormons and evangelicals have the least politicking and the most Republicans." "Jews and Black Protestants have the most politicking and the fewest Republicans."
- When looking at generosity across different religious traditions they found that overall it mattered more how religious you were than what religion you were apart of, yet they still commented, "Mormons are strikingly more active in giving and volunteering of all sorts."
- One of the vignettes focused on the Pioneer Ward in the Sandy West Stake. It is overall very positive (helped, I'm sure, by the fact that one of the book's authors, a professor of political science at Notre Dame, is a convert to Mormonism). It talks a lot about peoples' service in callings, the attitude of "giving their lives over to God," the fact that ward members also give above average secular community service, and shows Mormon families in a warm fuzzy light. The biggest criticism is that members put pressure on each other to hold Republican views, and that "there's always been kind of this unsaid belief that you can't be a Democrat and a good Mormon."

This is a just a glimpse in what you can find in the 570 pages before the footnotes begin. If this is even marginally appealing to you, you can get a lot out of just looking at all the charts and graphs without going through all the text. Getting through the whole book was a lot of work, but I'm glad I read it.(less)

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Jan 21, 2011 Nick Klagge rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: christianity

Having been a big fan of Putnam's "Bowling Alone", I have to say that I was not that impressed with "American Grace". For one thing, it is incredibly long (550 pages), and its conclusions are mildly interesting at best (to me). BA addressed issues that I hadn't thought about too much, whereas AG addresses things that are all over the media all the time. It's true that the authors turn up some findings that contradict the conventional wisdom, but they don't make for the incredibly forceful type o...more Having been a big fan of Putnam's "Bowling Alone", I have to say that I was not that impressed with "American Grace". For one thing, it is incredibly long (550 pages), and its conclusions are mildly interesting at best (to me). BA addressed issues that I hadn't thought about too much, whereas AG addresses things that are all over the media all the time. It's true that the authors turn up some findings that contradict the conventional wisdom, but they don't make for the incredibly forceful type of argument marshalled in BA.

I actually would have given this book two stars but for two sections. First, all of the "vignettes" where they leave the statistics and profile a few congregations are pretty interesting. Second, I was very interested by the findings in Chapter 13, "Religion and Good Neighborliness". (I would have appreciated reading it as a scholarly article rather than one chapter in a 550-page book, though.) Unsurprisingly it is the chapter most closely related to the subject matter of BA. The authors first find a high correlation between religiosity and various measures of community involvement, giving, and general niceness. I think that result in itself was reasonably well established before this book. What I found particularly interesting, though, is that the authors dove into the statistics to tease out what specific aspects of religiosity drive these things. And their finding, which they present fairly unambiguously, is that statistically speaking, the driver of all those nice things is specifically social connections with people in your religious congregation. This is in contrast to either social ties with "just anyone" (which make a difference, but not nearly as much), as well as strength of religious convictions (for example, that you should follow the Ten Commandments) and frequency of individual religious practice (such as reading the Bible or praying). Interestingly, religious convictions and individual practice have no effect on civic engagement once you control for congregation-based social ties.

I think this is a fascinating result, and one that resonates with positions of Stanley Hauerwas that I have come to identify with. Specifically, Hauerwas contends that the only legitimate way of practicing Christianity is by practicing and living it out in a community informed by the story of Israel and Jesus (and I don't think it's too great a leap to extend this general principle to other religions). It is important that the Kingdom of God is a community and you can't really live it out on your own.

The authors note that it's possible that this finding doesn't necessarily only apply to religion per se, and that it is possible that a similar effect could obtain from other communities where social bonds have a serious moral foundation; but they also note that there are few if any good examples of such other communities in practice.

Both of the above observations are reasons why I recently have started going to church again, so it did make me happy to read that the data are on my side!(less)

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Aug 10, 2011 Anna added it

Shelves: religion, society-and-culture

American Grace is a fascinating survey of the American religious landscape, covering how religion interacts with politics, race and ethnicity, marriage and family life, community engagement, and more. Although I consider myself fairly well-informed about religion in contemporary America, I still encountered information that was new or surprising to me. The authors support their analysis with extensive survey data, and the writing style strikes a good balance between communicating clearly to the...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Shirley Freeman added it

This one took a couple months to finish - it's not a page turner, but I'm very glad to have read it. If you liked Robert Putnam's earlier book about social capital, Bowling Alone, you'll find this one of interest. Using huge data sets and in-depth statistical analysis, Putnam and Campbell describe the state of religion in America over the past 5-6 decades. The statistical chapters are interspersed with 'vignettes' - case studies of a dozen real congregations in the United States. The authors con...more

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Nov 12, 2010 Bob rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a very interesting book by a social scientist that examines the state of religion, primarily Christianity. It overflows with information that is useful and insightful. For instance the marriage between Evangelical Christianity and the Republican Party is likely to lose steam in the next few years despite the recent election. This is because the two issues that unite these groups, same sex marriage and abortion, will be viewed completely differently when the emerging generation takes over...more

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Feb 02, 2011 Tiffany rated it 5 of 5 stars

I heard an interview on NPR featuring the authors just before Christmas. The authors noted some fascinating facts about religiosity in America.

For example, the most religious groups in America are: LDS, Black Protestants, and Evangelicals.
Today, many Americans choose religion based on how it jibes with their politics--vs. choosing politics based on how it jibes with their religion. Religious lines in America are very fluid.

The divides between the religious and non-religious are getting larger...more

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Oct 22, 2011 KC rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: human-behavior

Quality non-fiction books tend to assume one of two forms: an engaging, qualitative study with vivid anecdotes and accessible prose, or a technically superb but fairly dry quantitative study with good methodology and compelling findings. This book manages to blend the strengths of both approaches with spectacular results. Rarely have I come across a book that was so empirically based yet so riveting and surprising. It challenged some of my core beliefs about American religious life and backed it...more

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Apr 20, 2012 Bill Sleeman rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: church-faith

American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us by Robert Putnam and David Campbell (2010). Putnam and Campbell’s book has been, since the initial publication, excerpted and quoted in a variety of venues and media. This is appropriate as this is an important book about America and about our future. As the authors explain it we are unique among nations, America is deeply religious, religiously diverse, and remarkably tolerant…” so why is it that our country, despite the outsized influence of t

...more

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Aug 02, 2012 Meepspeeps rated it 4 of 5 stars

Well-written, weaving in many statistics and conclusions that show how well Americans have adapted to religious diversity and moral teachings without killing each other, as happens sadly in too many other countries. It also alerts us all to the clear divide of the "selfish non-religious" and the altruistic religious even after adjusting for all other socioeconomic variables: sobering and a call to witness. It offers more hope about unity in loving our neighbor than most media presentations of di...more

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Feb 02, 2013 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

Returning from my mission to Italy, I concluded that Americans are more religious than I had realized. This book documents, and even quantifies, American religiosity over time. Their statistics are based on surveys of American attitudes about religion through the years. Their analysis of the data is a model of good writing. They help you interpret each graph. Afterwards, they almost say "now that wasn't so bad was it?"

It also documents the decline of mainstream Christian denominations and the ri...more

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Apr 24, 2012 Jay Winters rated it 4 of 5 stars

Book Closing: It took me forever to finish this book - started in early February. But that wasn't because it wasn't readable or interesting - it was just long. In fact, Putnam and Campbell have put together one of the most readable and exhaustive tomes on the sociology of America's religion that I have ever seen.

Describing the data of the "Faith Matters" Survey of 2006, Campbell and Putnam comb through the data to show us what Americans believe, how they behave, and who have a sense of belongin...more Book Closing: It took me forever to finish this book - started in early February. But that wasn't because it wasn't readable or interesting - it was just long. In fact, Putnam and Campbell have put together one of the most readable and exhaustive tomes on the sociology of America's religion that I have ever seen.

Describing the data of the "Faith Matters" Survey of 2006, Campbell and Putnam comb through the data to show us what Americans believe, how they behave, and who have a sense of belonging with.

Through the book, they show conclusively that faith is important to the American landscape, but that it is a landscape that is actively changing as religious groups experience interplay between each other. They call this interplay, the fluidity of the landscape, "America's grace".

Succeeding in the task of remaining objective while being people of faith themselves (a Jew and a Mormon), Putnam and Campbell show the contours of America's demographics of belief and how those demographics display the interaction between faith and person, religion and community. They do this through dissecting the data and also through vignettes of the lives of communities of the faithful that they have been able to observe.

I certainly recommend picking up American Grace.

Book Opening: I'm actually re-opening this book. I had started to read it a while back because it was the subject of something my "PostSeminary Applied Learning and Support" group was discussing - I bought the whole book although a chapter is all we really needed. Then I got invited to speak at a conference where David E. Campbell is going to be speaking as well - so I figured it would be a good time to open it again...maybe I can get his autograph at this conference.

Of what I've already read, this promises to be a great book. The language is clear and easy to read, and thank goodness, the tome is a whopping 550 pages not counting appendices, acknowledgments, and indexes. It discusses something that I'm obviously interested in, the sociology of religious practice and behavior.

See you on the other side.(less)

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Apr 29, 2012 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: religious, history, government-politics

This was a really interesting book providing a picture of the history and relationships and changes in religion in America over the years. It's well researched and the authors do a good job of helping readers understand several different religions specifically and create a greater appreciation and respect for others' beliefs. One of the most important founding principles of our country was religious freedom. This freedom creates and allows for a diversity of faith and belief. It's interesting to...more

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Aug 22, 2011 Barbara Lovejoy rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a book that I highly recommend!!! I first heard about it when I heard one of the authors, David Campbell, being interviewed on a TV show and his comments piqued my interest. I didn't know until I started reading the book that David Campbell is LDS which was interesting to me. Then I have also really liked others works (such as Bowling Alone) by the other author, Robert Putnam. This book has definitely influenced how I view religiosity as well as causing me to do some personal soul-search...more

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Apr 28, 2011 Emily rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, meridian, religion

Finally! I'm done!! After renewing the book five times (with two separate checkouts) I have finally read the last page!

It's a bit on the long side. But in its favor, the print is not miniscule and there are plenty of graphs and charts (some a bit more obtuse than others) that take up considerable space, too.

American Grace provides some fascinating insights into religious life in the United States over the past seventy or so years. Putnam and Campbell trace the "shock and two aftershocks" that pr...more Finally! I'm done!! After renewing the book five times (with two separate checkouts) I have finally read the last page!

It's a bit on the long side. But in its favor, the print is not miniscule and there are plenty of graphs and charts (some a bit more obtuse than others) that take up considerable space, too.

American Grace provides some fascinating insights into religious life in the United States over the past seventy or so years. Putnam and Campbell trace the "shock and two aftershocks" that prompted major shifts in spirituality, religious identification, religious activity, even stretching into politics and social life. No surprise, the first major shock was "the sexually libertine 1960s," which was followed by "a prudish aftershock of growth in conservative religion." Finally, another opposing reaction occurred: "a growing number of...young people have come to disavow religion" in response to the greater association between religion and conservative politics. Within that general framework, the authors discovered a remarkable fluidity to American religious life.

Putnam and Campbell cover almost every imaginable angle of the data they have gathered: gender, ethnicity, politics, class, income, level of religious activity, trends within religions and between religious traditions, friendships and relationships with neighbors, measures of tolerance and inter-faith conversion. Interspersed between chapters cram packed with data and statistics are vignettes describing worship services for different faiths.

The sections on the interplay between religion and politics yielded some very interesting results as the authors clearly state "God in American history has not been a consistent partisan of left or right." They point out religion's influence on both ends of the political spectrum and provide some plausible explanations for why the political right seems to have such claim over religion in the public sphere today.

Being LDS, I was most intrigued by what the authors (one of whom is also LDS) concluded about Mormons. Some highlights:
* "Even among the most heavily Republican religious group in the country [i.e., Mormons] there is still some degree of political diversity, as 20 percent of highly religious Mormons identify as Democrats." [Another 10% claim political independence from either party - so as much as one-third of "highly religious" or "active" Mormons are not politically conservative!]
* "Mormon women are overwhelmingly opposed to women as (lay) priests, but Mormon men have more mixed views: 90 percent of Mormon women as compared to 52 percent of Mormon men. In short, Mormons, especially Mormon women, appear to be the only substantial holdouts against the growing and substantial consensus across the religious spectrum in favor of women playing a fuller role in church leadership."
* Regarding the results of a survey asking members of certain faiths their impression or "warmth level" toward those of other faiths: "Mormons like everyone else, while almost everyone else dislikes Mormons. Jews are the exception, as they give Mormons [the only!] net positive rating."
* One more note for my LDS friends: Elder Quentin L. Cook quoted some of this book's findings in his most recent General Conference address!

Some other reviewers have commented that Putnam and Campbell focus almost exclusively on Christian faiths. While I would have liked more info on Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs in America, the authors had to work with the data they had, and that shows that all of those "other faiths" together comprise a total of only about 3% of the population. They mention this in their introduction, explaining the limitations of their data: "Since the Faith Matters survey was administered to a randomly selected representative sample of the United States, it contains the correct proportion of each group. But the absolute number of these other faiths is too small to permit reliable analysis. We are thus limited in what we can report about these disparate faiths."

In short, American Grace demonstrates solid scholarship, interesting insights, and lots and lots of statistics.

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Feb 16, 2011 Wade rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: religion, politics

Robert Putnam and David Campbell present data analysis from their own comprehensive research to paint a detailed picture of religion in America, I really enjoyed their examination. They address a variety of measures to paint this picture including history, politics, public & private religiosity, literal versus metaphorical interpretation of scripture, civic involvement, charitable contributions, etc. The authors also intersperse throughout the book a number of qualitative case studies from i...more Robert Putnam and David Campbell present data analysis from their own comprehensive research to paint a detailed picture of religion in America, I really enjoyed their examination. They address a variety of measures to paint this picture including history, politics, public & private religiosity, literal versus metaphorical interpretation of scripture, civic involvement, charitable contributions, etc. The authors also intersperse throughout the book a number of qualitative case studies from individual congregations that include Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist, Baptist, Jewish, Mormon, and non-denominational mega-churches. “These vignettes complement the statistical story by bringing to bear much greater richness than is possible with the abstractions of aggregated responses to a survey, providing an opportunity to see how real people live their religions. Without these portraits of individual congregations- and the people who belong to them- you would get only half, and probably less, of religion's story.” p 32

Putnam and Campbell detail three events that have influenced significant shifts in society over the past half-century. First, the cultural and sexual revolution during the 1960's accompanied a societal trend away from religious participation. A backlash ensued resulting in an increase in religious involvement during the 1970’s and 80’s. The authors argue that the Christian Conservative movement was born from this aftershock, giving rise to a new association between religion and the political right. In the 1990’s a second backlash occurred as young Americans, feeling discomfort with the new perceived association between religion and the Republican Party, lead a cultural shift towards secularism which continues today. This evolution has resulted in our current state where “Americans are increasingly concentrated at opposite ends of the religious spectrum.” p 3

The authors describe this polarization not to dwell on differences but rather to set the context for a unique phenomenon that occurs in our complex and nuanced society. America is the most religiously devout, diverse, and yet tolerant country in the world. There is an increasing cultural fluidity that has created what the authors refer to as the Aunt Susan Principle. Everyone has a friend or “Aunt Susan” who despite belonging to a different religion (or perhaps no religion at all) is one of the kindest, most generous people they know. If anyone is going to heaven, Aunt Susan is. Our social networks expose us daily to diverse perspectives and viewpoints; in America pluralism has produced tolerance. “Most of us live by, are friends with, or are even married to people of other faiths. As Americans build bridges across religious divides in different domains of their lives, they become more likely to accept those with different beliefs... America is graced with the peaceful coexistence of both religious diversity and devotion.” p 495
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Mar 29, 2013 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

It’s thick, but readable, an analysis of contemporary American religion that blends ethnography with careful quantitative analysis. The authors paint a “historical backdrop” that’s sort of a Hegelian thesis-antithesis pendulum: moving from the “shock” of alienation of Baby Boomers from conventional religion (1960s through early 1970s), to the first “aftershock” of the rise of Evangelicals and the Religious Right (1970s and 80s), to the second “aftershock” of many Americans moving in a non-religi...more It’s thick, but readable, an analysis of contemporary American religion that blends ethnography with careful quantitative analysis. The authors paint a “historical backdrop” that’s sort of a Hegelian thesis-antithesis pendulum: moving from the “shock” of alienation of Baby Boomers from conventional religion (1960s through early 1970s), to the first “aftershock” of the rise of Evangelicals and the Religious Right (1970s and 80s), to the second “aftershock” of many Americans moving in a non-religious direction (1990s and 2000s). Against this backdrop, the authors paint the stories of particular faith communities and interpret survey data.

Things I learned (or at least imagine that I learned) from the book:
*It wasn’t until the 1980s that the political platforms began to address issues of personal morality, with Republicans explicitly opposing abortion and Democrats supporting abortion rights. Slowly, Republicans grew to be perceived as the party of the “religious” and Democrats the party of the “secular.”
*Today, young Americans who support causes such as full equality for homosexuals have increasingly rejected not only the Republican political agenda but also the religion associated with it.
*Social networks in faith communities have tremendous power to influence their members to be more generous, more civically active, more trusting, and to influence political perspectives through subtle cues (overt politics at church still is the exception rather than the rule).
*The most religious believe that religious people are more tolerant and selfless than the most secular, and the most secular believe that secular people are more tolerant and selfless. Data supports the interpretation that each is half-right: Religious people are more selfless but less tolerant, and secular people are more tolerant but less selfless.
*Religious tensions in America are not as severe as they might be because Americans are intimately acquainted with people of other faiths, and therefore more likely to accept them and believe they have a place in God’s economy. ”America’s grace” is summarized as “devotion plus diversity minus damnation equals comity.”
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Aug 17, 2011 Jhfrancis01 rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was enthralling. I found the authors' research to be intriguing, irritating, enlightening and not without a glimmer of hope for the future. As they admit, there is something here to piss off everyone regardless of religious ideology. Ultimately it is a fascinating look at religion in America and its role in politics. Be prepared - if you have a very strong belief that your religion is "right" and that other views are wrong, chances are you will find yourself railing at the authors.

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May 03, 2011 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, spirituality

A wonderfully researched book with all kinds of facts, figures and charts. It does not feel biased toward certain conclusions, and the conclusions seem logical and believable given the statistics. I ended up skimming through a lot of it because it is thick and scholarly - although very readable. I liked the vignettes - glimpses into beliefs and lifestyles of a variety of belief systems. I wouldn't mind buying my own copy to be able to reference when specific topics come up - a good resource for...more

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About Robert D. Putnam

Robert David Putnam is a political scientist and professor of public policy at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is also visiting professor and director of the Manchester Graduate Summer Programme in Social Change, University of Manchester (UK). Putnam developed the influential two-level game theory that assumes international agreements will only be successfully broke...more

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