Those who say that American religiosity is experiencing a dramatic resurgence and those who say that it has declined dramatically are both wrong, according to Mark Chaves in his book American Religion: Contemporary Trends. There has, however, been a steady increase in the number of people with no religious affiliation, and there has been a matching steady decline in those claiming affiliation with liberal Protestant denominations.
The author’s observations are based primarily on the General Social Survey, which has data dating back to 1972, and the National Congregations Study, which has data from 1998 and 2006-7. One of the more remarkable features of the data is the high level of continuity with regard to religious attitudes, practices and beliefs. For example, the numbers of Americans who believe in God or a higher power, pray at least several times a week, and read the Bible at least once per week all remain essentially unchanged.
Americans have, however, become more accepting of religious diversity. The proportion of people claiming affiliation with a religion other than Christian or Jewish has risen from 1% in the 1970s to 3% today, largely as a result of immigration, although this proportion remains surprisingly small. White churches have become slightly more multi-ethnic, but the trend towards multi-ethnicity is very small and very slow. One remarkable change is that the number of Jewish people who say they believe in life after death has increased from 20% in 1970 to 63% in 2008. 60% of those with no religious affiliation also say they believe in life after death.
There is a limit to how interesting books about surveys can be, and the author recognises this and keeps the book mercifully short. Although the big losers in the survey trends seem to be the liberal Protestant denominations, the author states that this does not mean liberalism is on the decline; in fact religious liberalism as he defines it has been steadily gaining ground. However, I am not sure that “appreciating other religions, adjusting traditional belief and practice to modern circumstances, [and] rejecting biblical literalism” are the best indicators of the advance of liberalism without knowing what the respondents intended when expressing their views.
This book was the winner in the Christianity and Culture section of the 2012 Christianity Today Book Awards.