American Grace

Some time ago, I was managing the programing for a convention and someone suggested Robert Putnam for a speaker because of his seminal book on social connections, Bowling Alone.  At the time his office assured me he was probably already booked and charged $10,000 for a one hour speech based on his research (that is, his book).  Well, our group did book reviews all the time for free, and I found a member willing to do a break-out session.

However, when I heard that he was appearing in NYC with no ticket charge, I was ready to go.  He has a new book which was published in October, and it should be as important as Bowling Alone, and since it deals with religion, it could even be much more prominent.  American Grace discusses the most comprehensive survey ever done of Americans and their religious lives.  He and his co-author, David Campbell, make a number of startling discoveries.

American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us involved a survey of three thousand Americans in 2006 and a repeat survey of the same people in 2007 plus stays of one to two months with about a dozen congregations of all kinds spread around the US.  He found (as have others) that we are an exceptionally religious people.  We are also exceptionally diverse.  In most countries those conditions lead to civil war.  But it seems, we are also exceptionally tolerant especially in our personal lives.  Although religious piety is predictive of political division to an unprecedented degree, in our personal lives we are deeply connected.  Eighty per cent of us see some good in all religions.  More than half of us marry outside of our religious group, and a large number change affiliation over their lifetime.  And on the whole religious people are just nicer than the non-religious.  There is, of course, much more.

One can agree or disagree, but he has almost 700 pages of data, charts, argument and citations to back up his points.  If you can't get Putnam to explain it all to you, I suggest the book, for I believe we will be talking about this for a long time.  There is a lot of text, but Putnam is a fairly easy read in that you can get a lot from the graphs and headings.  It is solid but clear.

Highly recommended.