The Transformation of American Religion: How We Actually Live Our Faith

Doctrine isn't the most important component in religion today, tolerance is. This point is nailed home by Wolfe, who details how people today live their faiths as well as preach about them. God is a friend to many and not an authority figure.

In 2005, Christian Smith coined the term "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism" to describe the beliefs of most American teenagers: exceedingly vague, it's a belief system more about providing therapeutic benefits to its adherents than matching any sort of doctrine. This wouldn't be a surprise to anyone who read (in 2003, when it was published) Alan Wolfe's "The Transformation of American Religion", which points out that this is extremely common among the religious of all ages, largely an effect of religious institutions' adaption to modern America and their almost capitalistic efforts to attract adherents. "Transformation" covers more broad ground than doctrine, however - the book handles several aspects of religion in turn. This leads to some repetitiveness, given the shared source of many of the changes, but each aspect has its own details. I worried a bit about Wolfe hitting every nail of the changes with his individualism hammer, but he picks out the different strains on occasion and the sourcing never really strains. Still, the book can actually get more interesting when it switches to a sub-topic, like smaller groups (Mormons, Buddhists) and immigrants where the central theme has more complicated results. Said theme being that churches - to stay alive and attract people - increasingly draw from individualism and pop culture, from the surge of some conservative denominations (such as Pentecostalism), to the weakening of doctrine and denominational differences even in more formal churches, to the very modernistic mega-churches, to a number of other issues. Wolfe leans very heavily on interviews and ethnographers, but while I would have liked more statistical grounding, there's enough here to stop it from falling apart. The only prose problem was he occasionally slips into writing from the perspective of the people he's talking about, which can be disorienting. His approach runs into trouble in the last chapter, though, where he misapplies the non-denominationalism into politics. Evangelicals may not have that much fixed doctrine, but they can be relied on to vote a certain way. Further, he misunderstands the anti-democratic nature of the courts blocking some religious populism as a bug, when it's a feature; they're a necessary check on populist approaches. This isn't to say there's not a complicated issue over the intersection of religion and politics; just that he fails to approach it correctly. "The Transformation of American Religion" could have used a little rebalancing of content, but is recommended for a look at the cultural background of current religion; just don't expect anything useful about the political side of things from it.

Scholars debate the number of "Christian" sects scattered across the planet. Wolfe doesn't attempt a count for the United States. Rightly so, the situation in that country is far too dynamic to pin down securely. If his chronicle is any indication, there may be more sub-forms of "Christianity" within those borders than can be found around the entire globe. Wolfe's travels and interviews are assembled here in a lively and descriptive account of why "Christianity" in the US precludes either definition or classification. It is, in many ways a ground-breaking and interesting book. It's certainly a stimulating read. Just keeping track of the breakaways and schisms, local or regional, is a mind-bending exercise. If the US prides itself on anything, it is the theme of "individuality". As a politically democratic heritage has demonstrated, ideals and beliefs there are too fluid for dogmas to take root effectively. In religious matters, although these are rarely studied in detail, the passion for individual decision-making is intense. Wolfe, who visited and interviewed countless ministers and adherents of various faiths, demonstrates that personal choice has both been expressed and addressed in highly varied ways. His account is as detached as possible, since value judgements on his part would be meaningless. A circumstance, he grants, that is partly due to his Jewish Hungarian background. Whatever his method was - and only one group demanded that he declare himself - it shows here as impersonal and highly effective. Given the broad sweep he had to make, gathering in Protestants of many stripes, Roman Catholics, Jews and Muslims, he's produced both a detailed and comprehensive account. By the time you've finished this book, you find that few, if any, of the interviewees duplicated the words of any other. Individualism, indeed! Wolfe opens the book with what many still believe is fundamental to "faith" - humans are depraved and only the "believers" can count on some form of redemption. In short, people are divided into those who are "saved" and everybody else. The "state of grace" endorsed by the early Puritans, was believed to have set some people apart. Wolfe argues that this separation is no longer valid - if it ever was - and that there are too many forms of "faith" accepted by too many people to sustain the idea of separation. In order to learn this, Wolfe surveyed the "fundamentalists", "evangelicals", "mainline" and "megachurch" leaders and members to obtain their views. He sat in churches, meeting halls, homes and any place where the faithful might gather. He also dealt with those few who remain apart from "organised religions" and spoke directly to their particular deity. He deals with such questions as "fellowship", "sin", dogmas - which label(s?) "doctrine" and "morality". All these "scare quotes" are needed because, again, similarity of views is lacking. If nothing else has been shed in religion in the US, it is any

The Transformation of American Religion: How We Actually Live Our Faith by Alan Wolfe is a fascinating study of how the faith of Americans has changed and is practiced in this 21st century. It is an objective sociological study by a self-professed agnostic and non-practicing Jew. Wolfe is not hostile to religion and admits admiring those with a strong belief. It is always a plus to come across a readable academic study. Professor Wolfe shows how faithful Americans, in the Judeo-Christian sense, have gone from a God focused practice of faith to a faith were the focus is on self and God is a tool for a kind of sentimental self-defined morality. The writer also covers the faith experience of new immigrants to the United States and does reflect on Islam and new religions like Mormonism. He observes the struggle for orthodox Islam against "Americanization" of that faith. What comes across in this study is that how people label themselves is not necessarily the faith they practice. This is probably not news to the keen observer of the "churched" but the book does one a service in verifying what one observes in scientific terms. My only negative about this work is that the author overlooks those bastions of serious orthodox study and practice of Judaism, Catholic and Reformed theology. Dr. Wolfe tends to think orthodox belief will be all but gone in a few years. I disagree, and believe this is where the future of Judaism and Christianity can be found. Overall I recommend this work for any serious student of religion in America.

This book is a must-read for any person who wants to take an intellectual look at modern American religions. I happen to be a "believer" in one of the analyzed faiths (Protestantism--both mainline and evangelical, Catholicism, and Judiasm) and I found his analysis to be insightful, occasionallly disturbing, amd very thought-provoking. Although Wolfe calls himself an agnostic, of sorts, he is respectful to the people and views he analyzes and uses an even handed tone to both praise and critique the current state of religious belief in the US. As a person interested in theology I found his discussion of modern doctrine, sin, and worship to be completely fascinating. This book does not set out to change anyone's core beliefs about God, but it very well may change your view about how the church approaches God, worship, and evangelism.Although I am a lay reader, I have read quite a bit of theology and was comfortable with some terms that Wolfe takes a bit for granted. A person who has trouble distinguishing between the terms "evangelical" and "mainline", or thinks that a church using rock music might be called "liberal" could have difficulty with the text. Wolfe could have included a short glossary at the end of his book; this may have made this important text more accessible to lay readers. I strongly recommend this book to any person studying religion or theology, or to any intellectually-minded believer in Christianity or Judaism.