Book Review: "American Grace"

American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us by Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell (Simon & Schuster, 2010), hardcover, 688 pages

If you were to ask people who are active in the life of their local congregation what a church is supposed to do, they probably would look back in puzzled silence.  The boldest might offer that churches are supposed to introduce people to God and teach them about God in order to save their souls.  But if you made the reasonable point that many, if not most, people in church worship already know a lot about God and salvation, these too would probably get a little fuzzy on what churches are supposed to do.

If, though, you pushed through the silence and the tentative answers, you probably would end up with some discussion of the church as a community of faith.  (Some might even talk more intimately, using New Testament language, of a religious family of faith.)  This is a good answer, given that most congregations strive to create an environment where people can deepen their relationships with God through shared worship, education, service, and fellowship.

The difficulty in putting this into words, however, stems from changes in most congregations over the past century.  For many generations, a church was a central institution within a community, where neighbors would gather for religious events -- this is still the image of church most often depicted in movies and on television.  In recent years, though, many cultural trends have altered this nature of the community in most churches, where people drive -- maybe as long as an hour -- to attend churches they choose to attend, passing countless other faith communities coming and going.

Religious leaders have been slow to explore the impact that these gradual cultural changes have on congregations and, more broadly, on religion in American life.  Recently, though, Robert Putnam, a well-respected political science professor at Harvard University, has turned his attention to the subject.  Drawing on years of research into the nature of political communities and the impact of communal associations on politics -- most famously in his best-selling book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community -- he collaborated with others, including Notre Dame professor David Campbell, to create an extensive survey to examine the nature of religious communities in the United States and the state of religion within the broader American culture.

The results of the extensive Faith Matters surveys, added to the findings of several other surveys over the past 50 years, and coupled with some onsite evaluations of several religious communities, provide the raw data undergirding Putnam's and Campbell's analysis in American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us.  From this research, the authors describe trends and offer assessments in three growing areas: the nature of religious affiliation over the past 50 years, with significant attention to the growing number of interfaith relationships (romantic and otherwise) in American culture; the role of gender and ethnicity in religious practice; and the relationship of religion with political and communal affiliations.

In many ways, the findings of American Grace should not offer too many surprises to those who have been observing changes in religious groups over the recent decades.  Conventional wisdom regarding the declining numbers of young people regularly attending worship services, the increasing involvement of women in leadership roles in religious communities, and the self-imposed racial segregation of most religious groups is generally confirmed by survey results.  The depth and breadth, though, of the investigation offers key findings related to the impact of younger generations upon religious groups, the significant growth of people unaffiliated with any religious community, and the ever-increasing religious pluralism of the United States.

Since about 1990, Putnam and Campbell notice a sharp change in the involvement of those under age 30 in churches.  In a nutshell, a sharply growing percentage of this generation have disengaged from religious institutions.  With growing suspicion about religious authority, the uneasy relationship between church and state, and years of bad press, many of these people are not attending religious services and a noticeably higher percentage of this generation claim no religious affiliation or preference.  The generation gap extends to those in the younger generation who do participate, in some way, in religious institutions, though: they have demonstrably more permissive attitudes on social issues, such as homosexuality, premarital sex, and interracial marriage, than religious people of older generations.

More shocking than this shift in the culture wars, though, is the growing percentage of "the Nones" in all age groups.  While over 25% of those born since 1982 claim no religious preference on recent surveys, they are not alone.  In the 1950s, barely anyone responded to questions about religious preference with "none of the above."  Since 1990, though, the percentage of such survey responses has more than doubled to about 16% as of the 2008 survey.  This dramatic rise in less than a generation is certainly a warning flag to religious institutions, many of whom are struggling with declining participation and financial support already.  Interestingly, many of these "Nones" are not unbelievers, as demonstrated by questions about the existence of God or heaven (though the surveys identify a growing number of atheists and agnostics too), but they are disaffected and detached from religious institutions.

If the impact of the younger generation and the growing number of "Nones" seems threatening to most religious people, there is some comfort in Putnam and Campbell's exploration of religious pluralism in the American context.  The influx of religious immigrants over the past 50 years could have inaugurated a period of crisis for American religion, where religious differences led to conflict and division.  Instead, the surveys show a general toleration, and growing acceptance, of such differences.  Largely, this is due to the ever-increasing number of people who develop interdenominational and interfaith relationship with neighbors, co-workers, and as part of their extended families.  While there is evidence pointing to certain types of division, there is much more data demonstrating acceptance and cohesion, which is the finding that inspired the book's title, American Grace.

While the tone of the book is generally optimistic, this thorough study offers a fairly nuanced vision of religion in the United States during the past 50 years, offering data across a wide range of subjects, including politics, gender, ethnicity, and age.  It amply demonstrates that religious belief and practice are much more diverse than usually presented in either recent journalism or popular entertainment, but it also clearly shows that cultural perceptions have had noticeable impacts on religious belief and practice.  Those interested in such a comprehensive picture of religious practice will find American Grace fascinating, frustrating, and ultimately insightful.