American Religion: Contemporary Trends

Abstract

American Religion is Mark Chaves's description of the major trends in American religious life from primarily the early 1970s to the first decade of the 2000s. Drawing on General Social Survey and National Congregations Study data, Chaves clearly and concisely highlights the stability and changes in Americans' religious affiliation, beliefs, and participation, congregations' size, diversity, leadership, and use of technology, and the relationship between religion and politics over the past several decades. Chaves overtly states that his goal is description, not explanation or theoretical interpretation; he offers very few reasons for why the trends look the way they do. In fact, there are only a few places where Chaves does a small amount of explanation, but these explanations are mostly technical in nature and inform the reader about the importance of things like cohort effects and birth rates on religious trends. More often than not, however, Chaves leaves the reader to address the issue of why what is happening is happening.