Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith in America

by Christian Smith

Is traditional American religion doomed?

Traditional religion in the United States has suffered huge losses in recent decades. The number of Americans identifying as "not religious" has increased remarkably. Religious affiliation, service attendance, and belief in God have declined. More and more people claim to be "spiritual but not religious." Religious organizations have been reeling from revelations of sexual and financial scandals and cover-ups. Public trust in "organized religion" has declined significantly. Crucially, these religious losses are concentrated among younger generations. This means that, barring unlikely religious revivals among youth, the losses will continue and accelerate in time, as less-religious younger Americans replace older more-religious ones and increasingly fewer American children are raised by religious parents.

All this is clear. But what is less clear is exactly why this is happening. We know a lot more about the fact that traditional American religion has declined than we do about why this is so.

Why Religion Went Obsolete aims to change that. Drawing on survey data and hundreds of interviews, Christian Smith offers a sweeping, multifaceted account of why many Americans have lost faith in traditional religion. An array of large-scale social forces-everything from the end of the Cold War to the rise of the internet to shifting ideas about gender and sexuality-came together to render traditional religion culturally obsolete. For growing numbers of Americans, traditional religion no longer seems useful or relevant. Using quantitative empirical measures of big-picture changes over time as well as exploring the larger cultural environment--the cultural "zeitgeist"--Smith explains why this is the case and what it means for the future. Crucially, he argues, it does not mean a strictly secular future. Rather, Americans' spiritual impulses are being channelled in new and interesting directions.

Why Religion Went Obsolete is a tour de force from one of our leading chroniclers of religion in America.

Genres: Religion, History, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Sociology, American History, Social Science

440 pages, Hardcover

Published April 8, 2025

About the author

Christian Smith is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame. Smith's research focuses primarily on religion in modernity, adolescents, American evangelicalism, and culture.

Reviews

[Beauregard Bottomley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author said sociology is interpretation and he uses the data to tell a story with anecdotes from representatives through interviews which documents the process that led to the irrelevance and obsolescence of religion.

Religion destroyed themselves through a thousand self-inflicted paper cuts. For example, the natural conclusion of having a ‘personnel relationship with Jesus Christ’ is to have no need of attending church. Thus, no re-enforcement of the church approved narrative. It’s as if they wanted to destroy themselves through there own foolishness.

The zeitgeist changed and religion disappeared through indifference. It became as relevant as typewriters with the young, or movies from the 1940s. The change happened starting in 1991, but it took events before to cement the inflection point and the events after led to indifference. The young don’t dislike typewriters or old movies, they are just indifferent as they are with religion.

I hoped that secular humanism would have become the default position, rather the spiritual became the stopping point. At least they aren't tied to hating gays, trans, or propping up white nationalism and patriarchy.

The author systematically tells the story as it unfolds. He started with five reasons why religion could be relevant, and showed each as not able to withstand the tsunami that was unfolding.

The author as sociologist interprets the data about the specific and generalizes the story such that the trends can be understood.

This book explains exactly why I’m becoming indifferent to religion within American society. The current forces are overwhelming while the make-believers and the deniers of reality are only being heard among themselves and are looking for legitimacy through debate. Who really wants to argue with someone who says the earth is flat, evolution is fake, or that Noah was real?

I like conclusions that use data to get at the concepts that come from general understanding. This book is remarkable in the rigor that it uses while still providing a narrative that explains reality.

[Greg Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book I will reference and cite for likely the next decade. A clear diagnosis and explanation of why traditional religion has waned in the last 25 years in the West. Puts some sociological data on Taylor’s A Secular Age. He rises above simplistic answers & provides a multifaceted and data informed answer. Well beyond his pale were any prescriptions for the church going forward, but they are certainly implied.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE MODERN DECLINE OF RELIGION

Christian Smith is a professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. He wrote in the Introduction to this 2025 book, “Over the past three decades, America’s historic religious traditions have suffered major losses. Rates of both belief and belonging are in decline. The number of Americans identifying as ‘not religious’ has increased remarkably. Calling oneself ‘spiritual but not religious’ is now commonplace… Each generation of Americans since [baby boomers] has been much less religious than the one that came before. Traditional American religion is caught in a spiral of decline…

“Traditional religion has lost much of its cultural influence. Religious organizations have been reeling from recurrent revelations of sexual and financial scandals and cover-ups. Public trust in ‘organized religion’ has declined significantly. American cultural norms and laws, especially regarding marriage, sexuality, and family, have been rewritten in ways that conflict with many traditional religious teachings… Until the 1990s, traditional American religion appeared in many ways to be alive and well… the United States was seen as the last bastion of religion in the industrialized world---the exception to the secularization that prevailed in western Europe. No longer. The tide has turned. Crucially, these religious losses are concentrated among younger generations, which means that… the losses… will accelerate as less-religious younger Americans replace older more-religious ones and fewer and fewer American children are raised by religious parents.” (Pg. 1-2)

He adds, “That much is evident. What is less clear is exactly WHY this is happening… This book seeks to … explain why Americans have lost faith in traditional religion… [It] argues that traditional American religion has become obsolete among younger generations and, increasingly, older ones. Something becomes obsolete when most people feel it is no longer useful or needed or because something else has superseded it in function, efficiency, value, or interest.” (Pg. 2, 4)

He continues, “in other eras … of American life, religious secularization was the result of powerful anti-religious activism… But not in the present case… [in] many ways … religion has been the agent of its own demise… very little of what caused American religion’s obsolescence was planned or intended by anti-religious agents.” (Pg. 7)

He notes, “church closings overtook church plantings in the latter 2010s… Mainline and liberal Protestant churches were hardest hit, but white evangelical and Black Protestant churches have also been losing congregations… But considering that this loss began before the COVID-19 pandemic caused 20% of Americans to reduce their attendance and as younger generations increasingly replace older ones in the population, the number of Protestant churches should continue to decline.” (Pg. 32)

He suggests, “another basic and powerful dynamic alienating especially younger generations from religion is a cultural mismatch… What matters is not whether the idea of God is plausible. The issues, rather, thrash around the semi-conscious subjectivities of young people… sensing whether or not things give off the right ‘vibe.’ … Life in this dimension is… always informed by the background zeitgeist. Cultural mismatch meant that, for most younger Americans, traditional religion did not resonate, so they discarded it.” (Pg. 64)

He notes, “All this had knock-on effect for Catholic primary and secondary schools. For generations, these had been staffed by priests and religious sisters and brothers who were committed to the Church… and relatively inexpensive to employ… Between 1965 and 2002, the number of priests, sisters and brothers teaching in Catholic schools declined from 114,000 to only 9,000---a 92% drop… The number of Catholic school students also dropped precipitously… a 46% decline in 20 years.” (Pg 105-106)

He asserts, “The rise of the Christian Right was shocking to many politically moderate and liberal Americans, to whom it seemed a regressive violation of the separation of church and state… For many Americans… the Christian Right looked early on like a return to medieval theocracy… The backlash against the Christian Right … turned out eventually to have sweeping consequences alienating even previously religious Americans from traditional religion generally.” (Pg. 120)

He points out, “After the Digital Revolution, Americans could sit at home on their screens interacting with countless others whom they had never met but considered friends…. There was no need to deal with difficult people, as in face-to-face communities. The autonomy, anonymity, flexibility, and convenience were astonishing. The implications for traditional religion are clear. Most Americans think that one of religion’s most important purposes is providing community. Online communities introduced entirely new ways to find connections, friends, support, and shared identities that were quicker, simpler, and more customizable than any real religious congregation… In short, the online communities … seemed preferable---even if in the long run they proved disappointing.” (Pg. 141)

He suggests, “It does not appear that the rapid increase in not-religious Americans after 1991… involved dramatic transformations of existing beliefs… Many who ‘became’ not religious were already religiously marginal and so already ‘at risk’… however, declaring oneself ‘not religious’ was associated in many minds with hard-core atheism and therefore was not a culturally popular option. The growing numbers of people identifying as nones increased its broader acceptability, lowering barriers for others to join in.” (Pg. 170-171)

He asks, “How did the New Atheism contribute to American traditional religion’s obsolescence? One thing it did not do was convince many religiously committed Americans to become atheists. If anything, it provoked a major critical response by religious apologists… Overall, the New Atheism … energized the already anti-religious minority, emboldening increasingly outspoken critiques… through the backing of bestselling intellectuals taken seriously by the media.” (Pg. 181)

He argues “Evangelicalism found itself in an impossible position… Backpedaling on the Bible as the source of ultimate truth was impossible. Continuing to insist on the Bible as the infallible word of God had become culturally incomprehensible… The evangelical highway to Truth turned out to be a culturally epistemic dead end.” (Pg. 261-162)

He concludes, “The goods in religion in the 1990s and 2000s were overwhelmed by a collective of injurious forces that led post-Boomers to turn their backs on religion. Not that they sat down and weighed the pros and cons---the shift transpired at the level of intuitive personal experience shaped by the pervasive public culture. That, it turns out, was a culture in which religion was becoming obsolete.” (Pg. 275) Later, he adds, “Religious obsolescence in the United States has not meant the disappearance of the sacred, spiritual… or divine. They remain alive and well. The sacred and ecstatic have migrated to new locations. The spiritual is reconstituted in new forms…” (Pg. 368-369)

This book will be of keen interest to those studying contemporary religion.

[Adam Metz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The decline of participation in traditional religions in recent decades is about as well known as any other sociological trend. Christian Smith sets out, in this important volume, to figure out why this has happened. Combining his research of interviews with his individuals, Smith attempts to place their responses against the sociological shifting cultural tectonic plates. These cultural shifts - technology, postmodern philosophy, public religious scandals, etc directly relate to the rise of the "nones" (those identifying as having no traditional religious affiliation).

I found Smiths arguments compelling - though on occasion he does seem to overstate some of his data or stretch his conclusions. In addition, his topic is about religion, but much of the book focuses specifically on conservative evangelicalism. This is because of its dominant position in society, but it did seem to be a little myopic at times.

Those critical observations notwithstanding, I can't think of another book that I have read that offers more justified evidence helping to make sense of the massive changes currently underway in the religious landscape of the US. It is certainly not a hopeful picture for those of us involved in traditional religions, but it is an important reality check.

[Kathleen]

Read a review in America Magazine - July/August 2025 - Reviewed by Mark Massa S.J. - Director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, MA.

The link: https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-...

The last 4 paragraphs of the review:

Smith’s larger point is nuanced but extremely important: Traditional religion’s concerns—with nurturing a vibrant spiritual life of inner peace and openness to transcendence; with finding a community of like-minded souls committed to living the good life and working to effect ethical change; with finding lasting values that can be passed on to the next generation; with finding answers to life’s most important questions—have not disappeared. It’s just that increasing numbers of Americans, especially younger Americans, no longer seek for answers to them in the teaching and structures of institutional religion.

There are, moreover, a number of surprising intellectual insights along the way as well. For instance: “far from representing failure, the decline of Liberal Protestantism may actually stem from its success. Liberal Protestants have lost structurally at the micro level precisely because they won culturally at the macro level.”

Or, on the relation of religion to politics in the United States: “American politics itself became increasingly invested with quasi-religious importance. Politics became sacralized on both the right and the left. Political struggle took on a quasi-religious fervor and, for those participating, a quasi-religious identity. The more this sacralization of politics occurred, the more American identities migrated from spaces of traditional sacredness, such as religion, to this other realm.”

On the importance of evangelical values in American culture itself, Smith writes: “The ironic migration of ‘personal relationship with God’ from evangelicalism to individualistic spirituality is emblematic of a larger unintended evangelical influence on American culture that also contributed to traditional religion’s obsolescence—namely, the valorization of individual subjectivity as the seat of authenticity and authority.”

[William Nist · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the viewpoint of a sociologist ironically with a given name "Christian", we have a thorough, evidenced based, and clear analysis of what happened to traditional Religion in American in the last 50 years. He characterizes the decline of religion as obsolescence, rather than, say, a turn to atheism. The book outlines the Cultural, Technological, and Economic changes in addition to the outright failures of religious institutions and denominations, as well as the cultural mismatches that explain why religion as been relegated to a minor role in our society (principally still found in the Boomer demographic).

The author brilliantly explicates the major historical moments in the transition, as well as the stories of the principal characters in this drama. Christian Smith does not see any return given the trajectory of these changes. This most illuminating book is a must read for anyone interested in this subject, or a member or former member of a religious sect.

[Aleph · Rating 5 out of 5]

The purpose of this review is to extract a few nuggets and narrative strands from the massive surrounding overburden of numeric ore that an academic sociologist feels required to accrete.

Genre matters. In the introductory chapter, the author declares his hefty tome to be "a work of historical cultural sociology."

The bold title and the bulk of the prose mostly obscures the good news that leaps forth in the book's conclusion:

While traditional religion has declined in the United States, it has not been replaced by sheer secularism. Religious obsolescence in the United States has not meant the disappearance of the sacred, spiritual, magical, enchanted, supernatural, occult, ecstatic, or divine. They remain alive and well. (368)

Another striking point emerges in a chapter that assembles 34 distillations of perception and attitude that outline the "contours of the Millennial zeitgeist." At the outset of his study, Smith exhibits the quantifiable sharp divergence of Millennials (born 1981-1996) and Gen Z (born 1997-2012) from the preceding generations.

A contradiction emerges out of the affective and individualistic tendencies of the "spirituality" and "occulture" that epitomize Smith's perception of a "re-enchantment of American culture." (330) Post-Boomers surprised the investigator with expressions of their desires "to belong to real communities." (315) Perhaps traditional American churches have gone into demonstrable decline in the measure that their communities have become unreal?

At the heart of the book, two chapters propose that the two decades surrounding the turn of the millennium are, first, the "beginning of the end" and second, "obsolescence assured." At the front of each of these two decades stand signal events. The 1990s started with the dismantling of the Soviet Union. Godless communism collapsed, and the United States thus lost the antithesis that defined national identity for about two generations. Then, "ascendant neoliberal capitalism" began to roam the globe. The 2000s started with 9/11. That direct attack on the United States led to a perceptual yoking of "religion" with violence, a conjunction that, in the longer term, blew back on American religion itself.

In a separate section, Smith gives an account of the impacts of The Digital Revolution (138-149). The judiciousness and proportion of this treatment obscures the import of this particular arena. Because digitality probably constitutes the single overwhelming technological factor in the shift that Smith studies. As dwellers within it, we scarcely can see it.

A primary manifestation of the digital shift is the supplanting of "centralized, top-down administration" by "network structures [that] transform people's cultural expectations of relations, work process, and behavior." In consequence, "experiences and expectations shaped by network models and practices" – this is especially true for Millennials and Gen Z – make "traditional religion" seem "archaic, clunky, overbearing, weird, and frustrating." The network model associated with newly emergent spiritual communities tends to operate without possession of particular physical space. (148-149)

Smith closes the introduction to his book with "Last Thoughts" that turn to his hope "to speak to religious audiences." There Smith identifies "two common but problematic tendencies ... among Christians":

"Theological idealism" is "the usually invisible assumption – perhaps particularly common among religious intellectuals, educators, authors, and some clergy – that if only people could get their doctrinal and ethical ideas right, then they could" ... etc etc.

"Program idealism" is "more common among pastors and other ministry people with boots on the ground: if only they could implement the right programs, then they could" ... etc etc.

Smith deems both of these outlooks "sociologically naive."

[Ryan Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent and richly sourced text, both quantitatively and qualitatively. While it leans toward the quantitative, with numerous charts in each chapter demonstrating the decline of religious participation in American life, it also incorporates snippets of interviews offering insights into the lives of those represented in the graphs. I found myself on multiple occasions taking photos of the endnotes, which provide extensive citations outlining the sources behind the theories and evidence.

Smith walks a fine line, showing sympathy for what has been lost through these changes while simultaneously refusing to moralize. This is particularly true regarding Gen Z and Millennials, whom he argues, multiple times, are simply part of the cultural milieu that Boomers created. He also clearly explains the conundrum many religious institutions face in a section titled “Damned If It Do, Damned If It Don’t.” This section frames the argument that there is no simple explanation for the decline in religious affiliation, and therefore nothing churches could have done to prevent it.

Some of the theories Smith explores are familiar even in popular literature, but others are much more theologically and culturally specific in ways I found fascinating. For instance, he examines the Evangelical turn toward a “personal relationship” with Jesus, and how this emphasis eventually raises questions about the need for church infrastructure at all. One of the book’s particular strengths is the way it examines theories from both the right and the left, exploring how each contributed to declining participation. Notably, Smith argues that mainline Protestant churches fell victim to their own success, molding culture around them and thus losing relevance.

Smith also situates these changes within secularization theory, noting that religious institutions are not merely competing against secular alternatives but also with the ways the “spiritual” is being reconstituted. He highlights the growing number of Americans who identify as spiritual but not religious.

Finally, many recent surveys point to a cultural shift in America, with people becoming more open to religion and spirituality. Smith’s volume encourages readers to remain curious about what this change looks like in practice, not just in private belief.

[Maelen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is generally well done and extremely interesting. The author shows how the cultural universe has slowly evolved in a direction that has become less and less friendly to the assumptions of traditional religion, with the result that each generation has become less religious than the one preceding it. There is little that the religious establishment can do to counter these changes, since most of them do not even realize they are happening. Priests and ministers gird themselves against the attacks of the irreligious, but as the author points out, these challenges have been no more than a secondary feature in the decline of religion. Religion in the United States has not been disproved or refuted -- it has simply become obsolete. It no longer serves critical social functions. You can still use an electric typewriter to write a letter, but it doesn't matter, the rest of the world will be sending e-mails. Those who cling to the obsolete do not go extinct, but they do appear quaint, boring, and a shade ridiculous.

One area where I think the author falls short is in his evaluation of the tangled mass of vague "spiritual" beliefs and half-baked imports that many people use to fill the space that traditional religion has vacated. He takes "spirituality" and "occulture" far too seriously; they are indeed widespread, but as shallow as puddles. The author tells us that 19% of the population believes that werewolves exist, but I very much doubt that even 1% of that 19% fear going outside on a night with a full moon. Such beliefs are as insubstantial as ghosts.

The whole confused blob of "spirituality" does not have the institutional presence and reasoned out structure that traditional religion did; indeed, distaste for that kind of presence is one reason why people have rejected traditional religion. It is thus no more than tinsel on the tree. A student browsing the Canon of Changes or a housewife worried about her karma is participating in those traditions at such a shallow level that it is essentially inconsequential except for the fact that this marshmallow faith is taking up the room that traditional religion used to occupy. By doing so, it prevents the return of other forms of religion, and keeps its devotees happy enough, I suppose. But it is most definitely not some "remystification" of the world. It is spiritual junk food, indulged in because those who dabble in it have decided (with considerable justification, we should add) that the much-vaunted "great questions" of traditional religion deserve nothing better.

-----
Technical note (Kindle edition): The book is easy to read, but has two annoying defects in its formatting. The first is that trying to highlight a sentence in one column when in double column format can randomly include material elsewhere on the page in a very puzzling manner. The second is that some of the tables are formatted in ways that make them virtually impossible to read easily because in two-column format, the type is far too small.

[Philemon - · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent study. It covers not only aspects of organized religion, mainly U.S. Protestantism, that turn off potential churchgoers, but also high-level American socioeconomic trends that have made joining a church a less appealing or feasible option for individuals, notwithstanding the social isolation that many Americans feel that might otherwise tempt them to join.

The data set from 209 extensively interviewed subjects seems rich, and the statistical breakdown of responses quite revealing; the data shows a progressively increasing misfit between organized religion and post-Boomers with each new generation becoming more disaffected, and a striking adverse inflection point around 1991 that Smith analyses in detail.

Smith cites three early-nineties developments that amplified the shift: 1) the end of the Cold War, which deprived Americans of a common "godless" enemy; 2) neoconservatism's triumph in the business place, leading, among other things, to dissolution of the labor-management compact that allowed workers to have long-term, humane careers; and 3) advent of the internet and digital age, which over time has proved an isolating time sink.

The concluding chapters stress that organized religion's decline doesn't reflect lack of interest in spirituality; it's just that the latter is becoming more individualized. Church-resistant younger people can achieve "re-enchantment," Smith finds, by pursuing activities that matter most to them, such as yoga, meditation, nature walks, etc., thus side-stepping crusty dogma and reclaiming time that would be spent in church for personal use.

This individualized prescription seems mostly centered on solitary activity in the present, in contrast to religion, which typically offers community within traditional structures going back many generations. In Smith's socio-historical terms, it remains to be seen how much staying power a self-constructed / -consumed spirituality can generate. Smith doesn't appear to address this point.

[James S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some things here that gave me pause:

1. The author has a smug and condescending tone towards younger generations (which for him means anyone under 50). Here's an example:

What matters is not whether the idea of God is plausible. The issues, rather, thrash around the semi-conscious subjectivities of young people who rove about their lives with fine-tuned antennae sensing whether or not things give off the right “vibe.” Does it “resonate?” Does it give off “good energy?” Life in this dimension is sorted out in realms of tacit, intuitive, instinctive knowledge and response—always informed by the background zeitgeist.

2. I get the feeling that the author is a member of a traditional faith group. That in itself is not necessarily an issue for a book like this, but it could be if the author never acknowledges how his own beliefs might change the way he interprets the meaning of his findings; he never seems to do this, as far as I could tell.

3. He downplays the extent to which universal education in scientific thinking could have played a role in the demise of religion. The most he will acknowledge on this point is to say that science and religion are not mutually incompatible, and while this may be true, it is also true to say that in general the more one understands about science, the less one can accept the worldview and precepts of religion.

The author does an adequate job of providing an overview of some of the enormous ways that American society has changed in the last 60 years, but he never stops to consider one basic fact: maybe the reason people aren't religious is that all religions are bullshit (to paraphrase George Carlin).

[David Carlson · Rating 2 out of 5]

The amount of items that form the thesis is overwhelming. I was looking for him to mention the kitchen sink itself

The use of statistics to make the case looks objective, but they lack rigor. For example frequently citing the raw NUMBER of Google searches year by year, but not accounting for the acceleration over time of the increase in all searches.

Traditional Religion in this book is used two ways. Chapter 2 describes a positive or negative evaluation of civil religion. (my label.) Other places speak of beliefs, creeds,practices of the religious adherents. His main concern is the positive or negative views of the unconvinced.(eg.p. 181 "Who really mattered...")

Generations ( Boomer, Gen X etc treated as real and firmly established, also decades p. 280). It's like how Maslow's hierarchy or Kubler-Ross's stages of grief are often treated as established realities.

The Millennial Zeitgeist ( ch 9) is particularly subjective.

On negative views of religion, how about religious wars from the Crusades to be the Irish Troubles? How is 1991 unique? See also Enlightenment, Evolution, Psychology, state Religion.

Therefore two stars.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellently researched and written book, and all the more depressing for its excellence. The author makes the case that traditional religion in the United States is now obsolete, especially among Gen Zers and Millennials. Religion has not, for the most part, been replaced by secularism but by "spiritual but not religious" feelings, belief in what the author calls "occulture," and by suspicion of anything that claims to be objective truth about morality or belief. All while people are lonely, confused, and in need of the community, comfort, and guidance that traditional religion provides. Of course, traditional religion in many cases hastened its own demise through scandals and hypocrisy. C.S. Lewis got a lot right in The Screwtape Letters.

[David Garnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was riveted by this book written by a Notre Dame University Sociology professor and active researcher, but as an active Presbyterian pastor I found it pretty depressing. Religion in America has declined across the board for a wide variety of mostly big societal and cultural reasons. The big turning year was 1991, he argues, not long after I started in the ministry. The book includes quotes from surveys with a number of Millenials, who talk candidly about why religion has become irrelevant to them. The author does not offer much hope for change in the years ahead.

[Jared Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book hits a lot of major issues on the decline of religion in the West, particularly America, it fails to acknowledge at the end that the re-enchantment is leading people Away from Occult and back towards more traditional forms of religion.

This book does a great assessment of how we got to where we are as a culture or pop-culture. But it is missing on something because I think some of it is too small to notice yet, or at least to make books about. I think we’ll find his conclusion chapter off the mark.

[Craig Bergland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe Sociologists shouldn’t write books. Slogging through the studies he cites and his conclusions would put an over-caffeinated, manic speed freak to sleep. It’s not that I disagree with the author’s conclusions. It’s that his writing style is cold and dull. Writing a paper for the academy is one thing. Writing a book for popular consumption is another. This book is dry enough to mitigate a flood.

[Tamara D · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author is a professor at the University of Notre Dame and culls tons of data into a readable explanation of the drop in church membership and connection over the past 40 years or so. His conclusions are broad and documented and he takes no side about the good or the bad of religion. Very interesting book for anyone interested in the topic.

[Kelly Brill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sobering, important, well-researched, scholarly, thought-provoking. My full review is here:

https://www.kellyboytebrill.com/minis...

[Marina Brungardt · Rating 5 out of 5]

So depressing but an essential read

[Charlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting stats, though I definitely skimmed in places. I feel like this provides a broad perspective on some of the forces impacting faith involvement in America.

[Chris Halverson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It puts numbers to what, at least as a Millennial Pastor, I have intuited and experienced. The book is an accurate account of the myriad of forces that have staggered American Christianity, one of the most powerful being the American Christians themselves.
Here is my longer review.
https://luthermatrix19.blogspot.com/2...