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American grace : how religion divides and unites us

by Putnam, Robert D

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Robert D. PutnamRobert D. Putnam
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American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us Paperback – 21 February 2012
by Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy Robert D Putnam (Author), Professor David E Campbell (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 159 ratings

American Grace is "perhaps the most sweeping look yet at contemporary American religion. It lays out the broad trends of the past fifty years, assesses their sociological causes, and then does a bit of fortune-telling" (The Washington Post).Unique among nations, America is deeply religious, religiously diverse, and remarkably tolerant. In recent decades, however, the nation's religious landscape has undergone several seismic shocks. American Grace is an authoritative, fascinating examination of what precipitated these changes and the role that religion plays in contemporary American society. Although there is growing polarization between religious conservatives and secular liberals today, at the same time personal interfaith ties are strengthening. Interfaith marriage has increased, and religious identities have become more fluid. More people than ever are friendly with someone of a different faith or no faith at all. Putnam and Campbell show how this denser web of personal ties brings greater interfaith tolerance, despite the so-called culture wars. Based on two of the most comprehensive surveys ever conducted on religion and public life in America (and with a new epilogue based on a third survey), American Grace is an indispensable book about American religious life, essential for understanding our nation today.

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"[A] finely-grained and judicious study, sure to become a classic work of social analysis. . . . Riveting and sometimes disconcerting insights into the ways religion shapes and is shaped by the political and social currents of American life." -Foreign Affairs

About the Author

Robert D. Putnam is the Malkin Research Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University and a former Dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Nationally honored as a leading humanist and a renowned scientist, he has written fourteen books, including the bestselling Our Kids and Bowling Alone, and has consulted for the last four US Presidents. In 2012, President Obama awarded him the National Humanities Medal, the nation's highest honor for contributions to the humanities. His research program, the Saguaro Seminar, is dedicated to fostering civic engagement in America. Visit RobertDPutnam.com.

David E. Campbell is the John Cardinal O'Hara, C.S.C. Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame as well as a research fellow with the Institute for Educational Initiatives. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of several books, and his work has also appeared in the Journal of Politics, Public Opinion Quarterly, and the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. He lives near South Bend, Indiana.

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Ottocubano

5.0 out of 5 stars Acquistato per la tesi

Reviewed in Italy on 2 April 2023

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È un testo che mi è stato utile per la tesi, è scritto da una delle personalità americane nel campo della sociologia delle religioni che in questo si interseca con la scienza politica.

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Michael T. Ryan

5.0 out of 5 stars A Well-Presented Study

Reviewed in Canada on 20 November 2012

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This is an excellent sociological study of religion in America. It should be very helpful to all students of religion, and is filled with facts that will be especially interesting to clergy and other spiritual leaders.

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dr david m b hall

5.0 out of 5 stars high class science

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 January 2014

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I enjoyed Putnam's other major work, Bowling Alone. I'm a retired paediatrician in South Africa with an interest in the social side of medicine as well as the biological and so much of modern child health is related to social issues more than biological ones. So I more or less bought this book on sight and I was not disappointed. It is a scholarly and thoughtful discussion about religion in the USA and how it affects the social and political scene. Putnam's methodology is meticulous and his approach of examining all the results of research to look for pitfalls and for the direction of causality is impressive. X is related to Y. Does that mean that X caused Y, or Y caused X, or did Z cause both? This is in the best tradition of epidemiological research . If the title grabs you, it means that the topic is one that intrigues you - so buy it. And while you are thinking about religion, also buy Leaving Alexandria by Richard Holloway. I read these back to back - still mulling over the implications.

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Greg Smith (aka sowhatfaith)

5.0 out of 5 stars an insightful exploration of the shifting American religious landscape

Reviewed in the United States on 29 February 2012

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American Grace explores the religious landscape in America by considering shifts that have happened during the last half century, looking in detail at present beliefs and practices, and offering scholarly suggestions for what changes may mean over the next many years. The historical consideration, relying heavily on data from a variety of well known surveys like the General Social Survey, extends back some fifty years to show not only the nature but also the speed of change. The data regarding present beliefs and practices focuses on original research conducted via the Faith Matters surveys (3108 participants in 2006 then 1909 of that group in 2007). The possibilities of what changes will likely occur in the future are based on the continuation of current trends with a healthy and heavy emphasis on generational shifts.

The book's subtitle, How Religion Divides and Unites Us, provides the focus for the fifteen topical chapters. The first and last chapters offer insight into how people of varying religions and those with no religion have managed to get along together in a deeply religious nation during a time of transitions that have led to religious polarization and pluralism. Between these two are ten chapters examining specific shifts and three chapters that take readers into actual congregations for a look at how religion is experienced on the individual and congregational levels.

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Guelph_Economic

5.0 out of 5 stars it is nice hard cover with nice

Reviewed in Canada on 31 May 2016

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daughter wanted the story, it is nice hard cover with nice price

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Gary Beauregard Bottomley

1,045 reviews · 630 followers

August 17, 2019

Are Trump supporters hateful fools because they support Trump, or do they support Trump because they are hateful fools? That question is at the heart of this book but the author writes the thesis in terms of religion in America in 2006/2007.

White non-Hispanic Evangelicals believe weird things. Putnam does his best to normalize the bizarre in the way he tells his story. Pastor Rick Warren is not rational in his beliefs. He believes the bible is the inerrant word of God and it is to be taken literally. Noah and the Ark and talking snakes and talking donkeys, and unicorns, zombies and acceptance of slavery (Exodus 21) and raping virgins if the bride price is paid and somebody vicariously paying your debt of imaginary sin by dying a horrible death and gays being an abomination are part of that belief. Everyone is entitled to their crazy beliefs even if they end up talking to imaginary friends and make me uncomfortable in the process, but I don’t have to act as if it makes sense or not believe that the burden of proof lies with the one making the crazy assertion.

Putnam lets his narrative normalize their hate. This book had shades of William James’ ‘Varieties of Religious Experiences’ within it by letting the story be told with the words of the people under consideration, a really horrible way to get at the truth. It would be as if one were to tell the story of Freudian psychology only with the voice of Freudians. Or to let Fox News explain Trumps latest absurdity of the day.

The author mumbled something about there were three reasons why hate towards homosexuals is on the wane 1) TV and culture have normalized gays, 2)HIV has given sympathy and 3)people through friends and family have become more familiar. I think a more important reason goes along the line that now days that rational people see Gays no longer as an act or behavior but they realize that people are born that way. That makes it no longer a choice but a gift from God or nature itself. When it was a choice, it was easy for the white non-Hispanic Evangelical who believes the bible is the inerrant word of God and is to be taken literally to hate the sin but not the person (as if you could separate the person from the ‘sin’). Being gay is not a choice just as being schizophrenic or autistic or gifted at music are not necessarily choices. Sometimes, people are just born that way.

I think it is books like this one that opened the window for Trump and his hate to take hold in this country. One of the biggest predictors of a Trump voter is if the person is a non-Hispanic White Evangelical (and scores high on the ‘religiosity’ scale). Those so called ‘value’ voters only care about values when it serves their purposes. Trump ‘grabbing women inappropriately’ or continuously cheating on his wife are justified by Franklin Graham who has recently said it’s nobody’s business but Trumps. The real question is that are religious people (non-Hispanic White Evangelical) hateful because their religion makes them that way or do they pick the religion because it aligns with their hate? Every time a Dad tells his daughter she’s going to hell because she’s gay a little needless hurt is entered into the world. Those kinds of people outsource their values to justify their cruelty as if cruelty can ever be justified!

As stated in this book, there were five people out of 3000 surveyed in the 2007 survey who were atheist. The world has come a long way from those days. The author really missed telling a better story than he did. There was a revolution going on in the U.S. at that time and the author kept the focus of his story in the wrong place.

The author made the statement that atheist don’t believe in an after live or spiritual realm. That is an error. An atheist only means one thing: no believe in a God. Take Neil de Grasse Tyson’s marvelous hosted 2 hour debate on ‘Are we in a simulation?’ Neil (an atheist) says that there is a 90% chance we are in a simulation. Maybe there is a chance we are in a Simulation and maybe we will be rebooted one day, maybe not? Who knows, but one can’t go from only knowing someone is an atheist to saying that they also believe in no after life without knowing other facts about the person’s beliefs.

Also, it’s funny that the author made the statement that among Evangelicals 54% of them have as a primary value they would not be able to support a Mormon, but after the book was published they ignored their value belief and let their hate of the others trump their values and most of them ended up voting for a Mormon rather than a black American. Hate will always trump values and this book pretended like values are why the white non-Hispanic Evangelicals believes such crazy things.

Marriage equality is another area the author misses out on because he sees the world in functional terms and just can’t put the pieces together properly. Betty Friedan in her book, ‘The Feminine Mystique’ gets this point when she comments on how ‘the women’s place is in the home’ was not necessarily the way it should be and the status quo is not evidence against change.

Overall, time has passed this book by and the author gives the white non-Hispanic Evangelical more rational credence then they deserve. When ones values are derived from hate of the other because they are the other (be it Gay, brown or black or non-white, or non evangelical Christian, or an imaginary threat that a wall between us and Mexico will magically fix) the choice of religion often is just a convenience in order to preserve ones hate. The author never gets that point. Trump does and pretends to believe it’s about values not hate.

Jeanne

1,042 reviews · 76 followers

February 20, 2017

Amazing Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us was written for data geeks like me. It is looong, but keeps the reader turning the page. Amazing Graceis an in-depth analysis of national surveys performed by Robert Putnam and David Campbell, often combined with data from Gallup, Pew, and others, to give us a richer story of how religion in the US has changed across time. These quantitative data are supported by a series of case studies of church congregations of a number of denominations, sizes, ethnic make-ups, and geographical locations.

This is another in my series of books trying to understand the 2016 presidential election, although I was less clear with this book about what I was looking for. In some ways the US has become more liberal (e.g., opportunities for women, gay rights), which is true for most of the US and, to a lesser degree, for the most religious of us. We, especially younger Americans, are also becoming more conservative and less likely to support abortion rights – although Putnam and Campbell speculate that this is because abortion means different things for people in their 50s and 60s (i.e., coat hangers) than for people in their 20s, who have always had available birth control. Immigration is an issue that is unrelated to religiosity. People who attend church regularly are more generous with their money and time – in church and out – than people who do not. People who are religious see people who are low in religiosity as intolerant and selfish – while people low in religiosity see people high in religiosity as intolerant and selfish. Politics is not commonly discussed in most churches, with Black Protestant churches an exception. In sum, Putnam and Campbell provide a fascinating portrait of America.

What makes Amazing Grace fascinating is that Putnam and Campbell do not only describe religion in America, they also try to understand it. They recognize and control the various confounds in their data to tell a clear and compelling story. For example, what about church makes religious people more generous? They explore several hypotheses, finally concluding that it is not faith or religious beliefs that cause religious people to be generous, but that they attend church: attending church and having church-going friends predicts altruistic behaviors, even among people who are more secular.

Amazing Grace does not use its vignettes as well as those in Our Kids, which I loved. That is an unfair comparison, though, as Our Kids is a spectacular analysis of parenting, race, and class. Regardless, Putnam and Campbell tell great stories about their data. If you are interested in understanding the US, love data, are curious about religion, or just love good stories, this is a book for you.

nonfiction read-2017

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Nick Klagge

744 reviews · 64 followers

January 22, 2011

Having been a big fan of Putnam's "Bowling Alone", I have to say that I was not that impressed with "American Grace". For one thing, it is incredibly long (550 pages), and its conclusions are mildly interesting at best (to me). BA addressed issues that I hadn't thought about too much, whereas AG addresses things that are all over the media all the time. It's true that the authors turn up some findings that contradict the conventional wisdom, but they don't make for the incredibly forceful type of argument marshalled in BA.

I actually would have given this book two stars but for two sections. First, all of the "vignettes" where they leave the statistics and profile a few congregations are pretty interesting. Second, I was very interested by the findings in Chapter 13, "Religion and Good Neighborliness". (I would have appreciated reading it as a scholarly article rather than one chapter in a 550-page book, though.) Unsurprisingly it is the chapter most closely related to the subject matter of BA. The authors first find a high correlation between religiosity and various measures of community involvement, giving, and general niceness. I think that result in itself was reasonably well established before this book. What I found particularly interesting, though, is that the authors dove into the statistics to tease out what specific aspects of religiosity drive these things. And their finding, which they present fairly unambiguously, is that statistically speaking, the driver of all those nice things is specifically social connections with people in your religious congregation. This is in contrast to either social ties with "just anyone" (which make a difference, but not nearly as much), as well as strength of religious convictions (for example, that you should follow the Ten Commandments) and frequency of individual religious practice (such as reading the Bible or praying). Interestingly, religious convictions and individual practice have no effect on civic engagement once you control for congregation-based social ties.

I think this is a fascinating result, and one that resonates with positions of Stanley Hauerwas that I have come to identify with. Specifically, Hauerwas contends that the only legitimate way of practicing Christianity is by practicing and living it out in a community informed by the story of Israel and Jesus (and I don't think it's too great a leap to extend this general principle to other religions). It is important that the Kingdom of God is a community and you can't really live it out on your own.

The authors note that it's possible that this finding doesn't necessarily only apply to religion per se, and that it is possible that a similar effect could obtain from other communities where social bonds have a serious moral foundation; but they also note that there are few if any good examples of such other communities in practice.

Both of the above observations are reasons why I recently have started going to church again, so it did make me happy to read that the data are on my side!

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Jason Cecil

50 reviews

July 18, 2017

I had hoped this book would be a more mainstream narrative with facts rolled in. Instead, I found the book to be an extended dissertation that dissects a nationwide survey for Faith Matters from 2006 in mind-numbing statistical detail. There are some nuggets in here, like the nature of American religion (it's a marketplace), and how it relates to partisanship, and how we are in the middle of a second backlash against the first backlash that was against the 60s. Much more of a statistical academic read. I was disappointed.

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Brian Eshleman

846 reviews · 109 followers

June 7, 2017

I got what was promised, I guess. I got a lot of numbers describing the religious and the irreligious. I even got some isolated narratives. There just weren't a lot of gems that will stick with me now that the book is finished.

audible faith

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