Back-Pocket God
Religion and Spirituality in the Lives of Emerging Adults
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $29.99
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- $29.99
Publisher Description
More than a decade ago, a group of researchers began to study the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers. They tracked these young people over the course of a decade, revisiting them periodically to check in on the state -and future- of religion in America, and reporting on their findings in a series of books, beginning with Soul Searching (2005). Now, with Back-Pocket God, this mammoth research project comes to its conclusion. What have we learned about the changing shape of religion in America?
Back-Pocket God explores continuity and change among young people from their teenage years through the latter stages of "emerging adulthood." Melinda Lundquist Denton and Richard Flory find that the story of young adult religion is one of an overall decline in commitment and affiliation, and in general, a moving away from organized religion. Yet, there is also a parallel trend in which a small, religiously committed group of emerging adults claim faith as an important fixture in their lives. Emerging adults don't seem so much opposed to religion or to religious organizations, at least in the abstract, as they are uninterested in religion, at least as they have experienced it. Religion is like an app on the ubiquitous smartphones in our back pockets: readily accessible, easy to control, and useful-but only for limited purposes.
Denton and Flory show that some of the popular assumptions about young people and religion are not as clear as what many people seem to believe. The authors challenge the characterizations of religiously unaffiliated emerging adults -sometimes called "religious nones"- as undercover atheists. At the other end of the spectrum, they question the assumption that those who are not religious will return to religion once they marry and have children.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this illuminating work, the culmination of a decade-long study, Denton (A Faith of Their Own), and Flory (The Rise of Network Christianity) sociologists at, respectively, the University of Texas and the University of Southern California take stock of changes in the perceptions of and engagement with religion for American young adults based on surveys and interviews conducted with nearly 4,000 individuals between the ages of 23 and 28. In a key finding, the authors identify a lack of interest in, rather than an animosity toward, religion among their sample group. They argue this intriguing development mirrors the current ideological divide within American culture: emerging adults who identify with any religious tradition seem inclined to stay engaged with their religion, while an overall trend shows declining religious participation and engagement, which is "hollowing out the religious middle," or those who are religious but not especially devout. While numerous tables present data on topics including participants' declining attendance at religious services, increasingly negative views of organized religion, and general beliefs about God and heaven the authors balance extensive research findings with engaging stories from interviewees and opportunities to read participants' responses in their own words. Sobering and enlightening, this analysis offers much for religious institutions to ponder as they work to attract and retain younger members.
