Christian Smith

A world-renowned sociologist argues that evangelical biblicism is impossible and produces unwanted pastoral consequences.

Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture

Bible Made Impossible, The

Michael O. Emerson

A revealing study of the radical attitudes of white evangelical Americans.

Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America

Divided by Faith

Hilary Davidson

Kari Christoffersen

Patricia Snell Herzog

In Lost in Transition, Christian Smith and his collaborators draw on 230 in-depth interviews with a broad cross-section of emerging adults (ages 18-23) to investigate the difficulties young people face today, the underlying causes of those difficulties, and the consequences both for individuals and for American society as a whole. --from publisher description.

The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood

Lost in Transition

Determining why, when, and to whom people feel compelled to be generous affords invaluable insight into many social practices. Organ donation, gift-giving, the funding of charities, and political views on taxation can all be illuminated by sociological and psychological perspectives on how American adults conceive of and demonstrate generosity. Focusing not only on financial giving but on the many diverse forms philanthropy can take, Christian Smith and Hilary Davidson show the deep impact - usually good, sometimes destructive - that giving has on individuals. The Paradox of Generosity is the first study to make use of the cutting-edge empirical data collected in Smith's groundbreaking, multidisciplinary, five-year Science of Generosity Initiative. It draws on an extensive survey of 2,000 Americans, more than sixty in-depth interviews with individuals across twelve states, and nuanced analysis of over 1,000 photographs and other visual materials. This wealth of evidence reveals a consistent link between demonstrating generosity and leading a better life: more generous people are happier, suffer fewer illnesses and injuries, live with a greater sense of purpose, and experience less depression. Smith and Davidson also show, however, that to achieve a better life a person must practice generosity regularly - random acts of kindness are not enough. Offering a wide range of vividly illustrative case studies, this volume will be a crucial resource for anyone seekingto understand the true impact and meaning of generosity.

Giving We Receive, Grasping We Lose

The Paradox of Generosity

A Son's Exploration of His Mother's Gift

Scientist and the Psychic

Radical Religion and Social Movement Theory

Emergence of Liberation Theology

Transmitting Faith and Values in Contemporary America

Religious Parenting

Paul Kennedy

Michael Emerson

Sally Gallagher

David Sikkink

“An excellent study of evangelicalism” from the award-winning sociologist and author of Souls in Transition and Soul Searching (Library Journal). Evangelicalism is one of the strongest religious traditions in America today; twenty million Americans identify themselves with the evangelical movement. Given the modern pluralistic world we live in, why is evangelicalism so popular? Based on a national telephone survey and more than three hundred personal interviews with evangelicals and other churchgoing Protestants, this study provides a detailed analysis of the commitments, beliefs, concerns, and practices of this thriving group. Examining how evangelicals interact with and attempt to influence secular society, this book argues that traditional, orthodox evangelicalism endures not despite, but precisely because of, the challenges and structures of our modern pluralistic environment. This work also looks beyond evangelicalism to explore more broadly the problems of traditional religious belief and practice in the modern world. With its impressive empirical evidence, innovative theory, and substantive conclusions, American Evangelicalism will provoke lively debate over the state of religious practice in contemporary America. “Based on a three-year study of American evangelicals, Smith takes the pulse of contemporary evangelicalism and offers substantial evidence of a strong heartbeat . . . Evangelicalism is thriving, says Smith, not by being countercultural or by retreating into isolation but by engaging culture at the same time that it constructs, maintains and markets its subcultural identity. Although Smith depends heavily on sociological theory, he makes his case in an accessible and persuasive style that will appeal to a broad audience.” —Publishers Weekly

Embattled and Thriving

American Evangelicalism

Jonathan Hill

Kyle Longest

Christian Smith, Kyle Longest, Jonathan Hill, and Kari Christoffersen examine the development of the religious and spiritual lives of American Catholic teenagers as they grow up, graduate from high school, and leave home.

Emerging Adults In, Out Of, and Gone from the Church

Young Catholic America

Along the way, Smith advances a sustained critique of rational choice theory, sociobiology, and other accounts of human social life drawn from the naturalistic, antimentalist, noncultural tradition of Western social theory as badly misunderstanding the character of the human animal. By contrast, this work argues that all people are at bottom believers whose lives, actions, and institutions are constituted, motivated, and governed by narrative traditions and moral orders on which they inescapably depend." "This approach - which has profound consequences for how we think about knowledge, culture, social action, institutions, religion, and the task of the social sciences - will be of interest to scholars in sociology, social theory, religious and cultural studies, psychology, and anthropology."--BOOK JACKET.

Human Personhood and Culture

Moral, Believing Animals

In recent years atheism has become ever more visible, acceptable, and influential. Atheist apologists have become increasingly vociferous and confident in their claims: that a morality requiring benevolence towards all and universal human rights need not be grounded in religion; that modern science disproves the existence of God; and that there is nothing innately religious about human beings. In Atheist Overreach, Christian Smith takes a look at the evidence and arguments, and explains why we ought to be skeptical of these atheists' claims about morality, science, and human nature. He does not argue that atheism is necessarily wrong, but rather that its advocates are advancing crucial claims that are neither rationally defensible nor realistic. Their committed worldview feeds unhelpful arguments and contributes to the increasing polarization of today's political landscape. Everyone involved in the theism-atheism debates, in shared moral reflection, and in the public consumption of the findings of science should be committed to careful reasoning and rigorous criticism. This book provides readers with the information they need to participate more knowledgably in debates about atheism and what it means for our society.

What Atheism Can't Deliver

Atheist Overreach

Bridget Ritz

Michael Rotolo

"How do religiously-observant American parents pass on their religion to their children? Sociologist Christian Smith and his team sought to answer this question by interviewing over two hundred parents from across the U.S. affiliated with religious congregations of various types. The book presents the voices of parents from diverse socioeconomic and religious backgrounds interested in passing on their religious convictions and practices to their children, with the focus on why they think this matters, and how they do it. What Smith and his team found was surprising. Almost all the parents interviewed- whether Catholic, Evangelical, Jewish, Muslim, Mormon, or Hindu, and whether politically or theologically conservative or liberal-view the transmission of religion in much the same way. Most religious parents do not expect professional clergy and youth ministries to play a large role in imparting to young people a taste for continued religious affiliation and participation. Rather, they expect to do this work themselves, viewing their children as ongoing "projects". Moreover, very few of these religious parents regard what we might call the "truth" of religious claims-beliefs in salvation or the trinity (for example), the afterlife, heaven, etc.-as important reasons for the centrality of religion in their lives and the lives of their children. For nearly all, including the most conservative, religion is almost always about community, morality, and a sense of purpose, all of which lead to a better quality of life for themselves and their children in the here and now. Smith and his co-authors ground their discussion of religious parenting in a broader set of theoretical claims about the way in which religious transmission occurs. Drawing on cognitive anthropology and inspired by work in cognitive science, the authors present and describe the background "cultural models" that American religious parents hold and use to inform their parenting"--

A comprehensive analysis of the Protestant evangelical movement in contemporary America, drawing from a three-year national study, offers insights into the surprisingly diverse goals and values of the men and women who comprise this religious group.

What Evangelicals Really Want

Christian America?

Patricia Snell

Based on candid interviews with thousands of young people tracked over a five-year period, this book reveals how the religious practices of the teenagers portrayed in Soul Searching have been strengthened, challenged, and often changed as they have moved into adulthood.

The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults

Souls in Transition

A groundbreaking new theory of religion Religion remains an important influence in the world today, yet the social sciences are still not adequately equipped to understand and explain it. This book advances an innovative theory of religion that goes beyond the problematic theoretical paradigms of the past. Drawing on the philosophy of critical realism and personalist social theory, Christian Smith explores why humans are religious in the first place—uniquely so as a species—and offers an account of secularization and religious innovation and persistence that breaks the logjam in which religious scholarship has been stuck for so long. Certain to stimulate debate and inspire promising new avenues of scholarship, Religion features a wealth of illustrations and examples that help to make its concepts accessible to readers. This superbly written book brings sound theoretical thinking to a perennially thorny subject, and a new vitality and focus to its study.

What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Matters

Religion

Amy Adamczyk

"This book is about how American religious parents approach the handing on of their religious practices and beliefs to their children. We know a lot about the importance of parents in faith transmission and factors that influence its effectiveness. But we know much less about the actual beliefs, feelings, and activities of the parents themselves when it comes to the intergenerational transmission of religious faith and practice"--

How Parents Pass Their Religion on to the Next Generation

Handing Down the Faith

"Smith provides the reader with a powerful new framework for assessing the secularization of American public life, including a wealth of new insights and historical evidence on religion in American institutions. For those interested in religion's changing role in the public arena, this is essential reading, certain to have tremendous impact."—Roger Finke, Professor of Sociology and Religious Studies at Penn State and coauthor of Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion "Finally a much welcome sociological study of secularization that eschews assumptions of inevitability in favor of flesh-and-blood institutional histories, from the fields of education, journalism, and law to science, medicine, and even religion itself."—Ronald L. Numbers, Hilldale and William Coleman Professor of the History of Science and Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and author of The Creationists "Secularization has long been talked about as if it were the inevitable product of vast impersonal forces operating above our heads. In this fascinating collection, the authors descend from the stratosphere to investigate the power struggles that actually brought about secularization in education, law, and journalism. A wonderful, arresting book that gives secularization a human face."—Nicholas Wolterstorff, author of John Locke and the Ethics of Belief "This book is sure to evoke debate, agreement, contention, and future research by historians, sociologists, political scientists, and scholars of American religion."—Rhys H. Williams, editor, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion

Power, Interests, and Conflict in the Secularization of American Public Life

The Secular Revolution

American evangelicalism has recently experienced a new openness to Roman Catholicism, and many evangelicals, both famous and ordinary, have joined the Catholic Church or are considering the possibility. This book helps evangelicals who are exploring Catholicism to sort out the kind of concerns that typically come up in discerning whether to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church. In simple language, it explains many theological misunderstandings that evangelicals often have about Catholicism and suggests the kind of practical steps many take to enter the Catholic Church. The book frames evangelicals becoming Roman Catholic as a kind of "paradigm shift" involving the buildup of anomalies about evangelicalism, a crisis of the evangelical paradigm, a paradigm revolution, and the consolidation of the new Catholic paradigm. It will be useful for both evangelicals interested in pursuing and understanding Catholicism and Catholic pastoral workers seeking to help evangelical seekers who come to them.

How to Go from Being a Good Evangelical to a Committed Catholic in Ninety-Five Difficult Steps

Michael O Emerson

Passing the Plate shows that few American Christians donate generously to religious and charitable causes. This eye-opening book explores the reasons behind such ungenerous giving, the potential world-changing benefits of greater financial giving, and what can be done to improve matters. By illuminating the social and psychological forces that shape charitable giving, Passing the Plate is sure to spark a much-needed debate on a critical issue.

Christian Smith

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