What do you think?
Rate this book
American Religion: Contemporary Trends
The most authoritative resource on religious trends in America-now fully updated
Most Americans say they believe in God, and more than a third say they attend religious services every week. Yet studies show that people do not really go to church as often as they claim, and it is not always clear what they mean when they tell pollsters they believe in God or pray. American Religion presents the best and most up-to-date information about religious trends in the United States, in a succinct and accessible manner. This sourcebook provides essential information about key developments in American religion since 1972, and is the first major resource of its kind to appear in more than two decades.
Mark Chaves looks at trends in diversity, belief, involvement, congregational life, leadership, liberal Protestant decline, and polarization. He draws on two important surveys: the General Social Survey, an ongoing survey of Americans' changing attitudes and behaviors, begun in 1972; and the National Congregations Study, a survey of American religious congregations across the religious spectrum. Chaves finds that American religious life has seen much continuity in recent decades, but also much change. He challenges the popular notion that religion is witnessing a resurgence in the United States-in fact, traditional belief and practice is either stable or declining. Chaves examines why the decline in liberal Protestant denominations has been accompanied by the spread of liberal Protestant attitudes about religious and social tolerance, how confidence in religious institutions has declined more than confidence in secular institutions, and a host of other crucial trends.
Now with updated data and a new preface by the author, this revised edition provides essential information about key developments in American religion since 1972, plainly showing that religiosity is declining in America.
Most Americans say they believe in God, and more than a third say they attend religious services every week. Yet studies show that people do not really go to church as often as they claim, and it is not always clear what they mean when they tell pollsters they believe in God or pray. American Religion presents the best and most up-to-date information about religious trends in the United States, in a succinct and accessible manner. This sourcebook provides essential information about key developments in American religion since 1972, and is the first major resource of its kind to appear in more than two decades.
Mark Chaves looks at trends in diversity, belief, involvement, congregational life, leadership, liberal Protestant decline, and polarization. He draws on two important surveys: the General Social Survey, an ongoing survey of Americans' changing attitudes and behaviors, begun in 1972; and the National Congregations Study, a survey of American religious congregations across the religious spectrum. Chaves finds that American religious life has seen much continuity in recent decades, but also much change. He challenges the popular notion that religion is witnessing a resurgence in the United States-in fact, traditional belief and practice is either stable or declining. Chaves examines why the decline in liberal Protestant denominations has been accompanied by the spread of liberal Protestant attitudes about religious and social tolerance, how confidence in religious institutions has declined more than confidence in secular institutions, and a host of other crucial trends.
Now with updated data and a new preface by the author, this revised edition provides essential information about key developments in American religion since 1972, plainly showing that religiosity is declining in America.
- GenresReligionNonfiction
172 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
14 people are currently reading
66 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
Read
September 6, 2021probably one of the most readable demography-based books i've read in a while, whether due to the writing style or actually being decently versed in the subject matter.
January 21, 2025
A 2011 book so pre-Covid & pre-Maga. A good followup to 'Catholicism in Motion' as Chaves focuses strongly on the Protestant Church in America generally, but shows the divergence for Catholics Jews, & other Christian & non-Christian groups.
February 15, 2017
Concise, easy read.
January 26, 2023
just okay. he mainly focuses on Christian religion which was kind of a disappointment
January 29, 2013
American Religion by Mark Chaves contains little good news for America’s religious leaders. Subtitled Contemporary Trends, the book examines continuity and discontinuity in American religious belief and practice over the last 40 years. While there are significant points of continuity in this time period—of belief in God and weekly attendance at religious services, for example—overall, the trend is toward discontinuity. “The religious trends I have documented point to a straightforward general conclusion,” Chaves writes: “no indicator of traditional religious belief or practice is going up” (emphasis in the original).
Chaves’ primary data sets are the General Social Survey (GSS) and the National Congregations Study (NCS), which he directed. Both surveys were conducted by the National Opinion Research Center of the University of Chicago. GSS has been conducted annually since 1972 and NCS in 1998 and 2006–7. Chaves is professor of sociology, religion, and divinity at Duke University, and his book is published by Princeton University Press. The book is brief (160 pages), but its data, author, and publisher make it an authoritative text whose conclusions religious leaders must wrestle with.
Here are some of those conclusions:
America is increasingly a religious diverse nation, with a rising number of religiously unaffiliated persons—the so-called “nones” (chapter 2).
Americans’ religious beliefs show remarkable continuity, except in the area of biblical inerrancy, which is declining (chapter 3).
American religious involvement, measured by weekly attendance at a religious service is stable but softening (chapter 4).
American congregations are shaped by “the same cultural, social, and economic pressures affecting American life and institutions more generally” and can be seen in six trends: “looser connections between congregations and denominations, more computer technology, more informal worship, older congregants, more high-income and college-educated congregants, and…more people concentrated in very large churches” (chapter 5).
American religious leadership is a career choice for fewer and fewer people, and its ranks are older and less esteemed as pressionals than they used to be (chapter 6).
Liberal Protestant denominations are declining but liberal religious ideas are increasing in influence. The decline in liberal Protestant denominations is not explained by transfer growth to conservative Protestant denominations. Rather, liberal Protestants are becoming “nones,” largely because of the increasing identification of religion and conservative politics (chapter 7).
American religiosity is increasingly identified with social and political conservatism. On abortion, the most religiously active become increasingly conservative. But on gay marriage, the most religiously active liberalize at a pace slower than the religious population. Either way, the most religiously active Americans are more conservative than the less religiously active (chapter 8).
Chapter 9 summarizes the book’s findings this way: “If there is a trend, it is toward less religion.” Chaves’ is ambivalent about whether this trend is good or bad for America as a whole. On the one hand, he writes, “Increased tolerance of, even appreciation for, religions other than one’s own, described in chapter 2, is good news for our increasingly pluralistic society.” On the other hand, “Countering this positive trend…is the increasing attitudinal difference between the more religious and the less religious.” He goes on to write, “It would be ironic and unfortunate if Americans’ increasing appreciation for religions other than their own becomes overwhelmed by increasing hostility between the more and the less religious.”
There is another danger in the trend of religious non-affiliation. Chaves writes: “If half of all the social capital in America—meaning half of all the face-to-face associational activity, personal philanthropy, and volunteering—happens through religious institutions, the vitality of those institutions influences more than American religious life. Weaker religious institutions would mean a different kind of American civic life.”
As I noted at the outset, there is little good news for America’s religious leaders in Mark Chaves’ book. The trend is toward less religion. One could accentuate the positives and say that less religion means less nominal religion and more authentic religion, and perhaps there’s something to that. But in accentuating the positive, we shouldn’t overlook the very considerable negatives, mainly, less religion and more political antagonism to religion.
Of course, the New Testament church faced even greater odds and nonetheless grew in size and influence. But they were converting pagans to the faith of Jesus Christ. Can we experience a similar revival in a post-Christian society? In my opinion, that’s the fundamental question the American church needs to answer. And if yes, how? That’s the fundamental challenge facing American religious leaders today.
Chaves’ primary data sets are the General Social Survey (GSS) and the National Congregations Study (NCS), which he directed. Both surveys were conducted by the National Opinion Research Center of the University of Chicago. GSS has been conducted annually since 1972 and NCS in 1998 and 2006–7. Chaves is professor of sociology, religion, and divinity at Duke University, and his book is published by Princeton University Press. The book is brief (160 pages), but its data, author, and publisher make it an authoritative text whose conclusions religious leaders must wrestle with.
Here are some of those conclusions:
America is increasingly a religious diverse nation, with a rising number of religiously unaffiliated persons—the so-called “nones” (chapter 2).
Americans’ religious beliefs show remarkable continuity, except in the area of biblical inerrancy, which is declining (chapter 3).
American religious involvement, measured by weekly attendance at a religious service is stable but softening (chapter 4).
American congregations are shaped by “the same cultural, social, and economic pressures affecting American life and institutions more generally” and can be seen in six trends: “looser connections between congregations and denominations, more computer technology, more informal worship, older congregants, more high-income and college-educated congregants, and…more people concentrated in very large churches” (chapter 5).
American religious leadership is a career choice for fewer and fewer people, and its ranks are older and less esteemed as pressionals than they used to be (chapter 6).
Liberal Protestant denominations are declining but liberal religious ideas are increasing in influence. The decline in liberal Protestant denominations is not explained by transfer growth to conservative Protestant denominations. Rather, liberal Protestants are becoming “nones,” largely because of the increasing identification of religion and conservative politics (chapter 7).
American religiosity is increasingly identified with social and political conservatism. On abortion, the most religiously active become increasingly conservative. But on gay marriage, the most religiously active liberalize at a pace slower than the religious population. Either way, the most religiously active Americans are more conservative than the less religiously active (chapter 8).
Chapter 9 summarizes the book’s findings this way: “If there is a trend, it is toward less religion.” Chaves’ is ambivalent about whether this trend is good or bad for America as a whole. On the one hand, he writes, “Increased tolerance of, even appreciation for, religions other than one’s own, described in chapter 2, is good news for our increasingly pluralistic society.” On the other hand, “Countering this positive trend…is the increasing attitudinal difference between the more religious and the less religious.” He goes on to write, “It would be ironic and unfortunate if Americans’ increasing appreciation for religions other than their own becomes overwhelmed by increasing hostility between the more and the less religious.”
There is another danger in the trend of religious non-affiliation. Chaves writes: “If half of all the social capital in America—meaning half of all the face-to-face associational activity, personal philanthropy, and volunteering—happens through religious institutions, the vitality of those institutions influences more than American religious life. Weaker religious institutions would mean a different kind of American civic life.”
As I noted at the outset, there is little good news for America’s religious leaders in Mark Chaves’ book. The trend is toward less religion. One could accentuate the positives and say that less religion means less nominal religion and more authentic religion, and perhaps there’s something to that. But in accentuating the positive, we shouldn’t overlook the very considerable negatives, mainly, less religion and more political antagonism to religion.
Of course, the New Testament church faced even greater odds and nonetheless grew in size and influence. But they were converting pagans to the faith of Jesus Christ. Can we experience a similar revival in a post-Christian society? In my opinion, that’s the fundamental question the American church needs to answer. And if yes, how? That’s the fundamental challenge facing American religious leaders today.
January 18, 2012
Chaves reviews the current state of religion generally (though weighted towards Protestantism, both mainline and evangelical, due to the particular survey data he is examining). It is a thin volume where he makes survey results fairly interesting, but there is nothing truly enlightening here if you have been following American religion and its survey at all in recent years (a few moments of increased clarity for me). His conclusions are not sanguine - an actual "softening" of religious adherence due to generational change and increasing educational attainment (among other things) seems to some like increasing religious influence due to evangelical involvement in conservative politics and increasing congregation size.
September 10, 2013
Religion plays a very important role in the US. Understanding how it is changing and how it affects the society, i think, is important to better plan for the future of the country and the world.
This book gives some very interesting facts about the trends and makes some remarkable conclusion. The most important of which is that religion is playing more important role in politics today than ever before, while people are becoming less religious.
This book gives some very interesting facts about the trends and makes some remarkable conclusion. The most important of which is that religion is playing more important role in politics today than ever before, while people are becoming less religious.
August 9, 2013
Excellent analysis of American religious life, 1970's to present. Surprisingly, things are not changing as much as we might have been told. Worth reading.
February 15, 2021
Read for school. Wasn't an overly enjoyable book, but highly informational.
September 22, 2014
A very concise and readable account of American religious trends over the past 40 years.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews