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"Lisa D. Pearce and Claire Chipman Gilliland have produced a highly accessible summary of religious trends of the United States. In an era of increasing racial and religious plurality, they have provided a more realistic and accurate portrayal of our beliefs, affiliations, and practices, or lack thereof. It will engage today's students."—Jerry Z. Park, Associate Professor of Sociology, Baylor University
"Contributing both concise summaries of current knowledge and original analyses of religious trends among key subgroups, this informative and accessible book is a welcome addition to the literature on American religion. Suitable for classroom use, it will teach readers of all sorts much about recent developments in American religion."—Mark Chaves, author of American Religion: Contemporary Trends
"The demographics of a population matter. As this highly accessible book shows, race, gender, age, the presence of migrants, and more, all continue to shape where we do and don’t find religion and what kind of religion we find. This complicated picture provides welcome insight into America’s religious past, present, and future."—Nancy T. Ammerman, author of Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes: Finding Religion in Everyday Life
"Carefully uncovering major trends in American religion and revealing the ever-increasing diversity, this book is a delight to read. An ideal text for an undergraduate course."—Roger Finke, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Religious Studies, and International Affairs, Pennsylvania State University, and Director of theARDA.com
List of contents
List of Figures, Tables, and Text Boxes
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Racial and Ethnic Variation in Religion and Its Trends
2. Complex Religion in America
3. A Demographic Perspective on Religious Change
4. Change in America’s Congregations
5. The Long Arm of Religion in America
Conclusion
Notes
References
Index
About the author
Lisa D. Pearce is the Zachary Smith Distinguished Term Professor in Research and Undergraduate Education in the Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and coauthor of A Faith of Their Own: Stability and Change in the Religiosity of American Adolescents.
Claire Chipman Gilliland is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Summary
Written in an engaging and accessible tone, Religion in America probes the dynamics of recent American religious beliefs and behaviors. Charting trends over time using demographic data, this book examines how patterns of religious affiliation, service attendance, and prayer vary by race and ethnicity, social class, and gender. The authors identify demographic processes such as birth, death, and migration, as well as changes in education, employment, and families, as central to why some individuals and congregations experience change in religious practices and beliefs while others hold steady. Religion in America challenges students to examine the demographic data alongside everyday accounts of how religion is experienced differently across social groups to better understand the role that religion plays in the lives of Americans today and how that is changing.
