So Little Change, So Much Difference

The announcements continue unabated that our society is becoming ever more secular, while evidence accumulates to the contrary. The pertinent data and arguments were recently brought together in Unsecular America (Eerdmans), edited by this writer. Now priest-sociologist Andrew Greeley joins the discussion with a helpful little book, Religious Indicators 1940-1985 (Harvard). Looking at the survey research on religion over almost half a century, Greeley concludes that the continuities are ever so much more striking than the discontinuities.

In 1940 about two-fifths of the American people were quite religious, praying daily, going to church every week, participating in religious organizations. Another two-fifths were somewhat religious. They prayed and went to church, but not so regularly; they accepted the doctrinal teachings of their churches but were not active in church organizations. And then there was the one-fifth that rarely prayed or went to church and, while most of them did believe in God, were not sure about the divinity of Jesus or about life after death. What was true in 1940 was true in 1985 and, one may safely assume, is true in 1989.

RJ

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Richard John Neuhaus

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The announcements continue unabated that our society is becoming ever more secular, while evidence accumulates to the contrary. The pertinent data and arguments were recently brought together in Unsecular America (Eerdmans), edited by this writer. Now priest-sociologist Andrew Greeley joins the discussion with a helpful little book, Religious Indicators 1940-1985 (Harvard). Looking at the survey research on religion over almost half a century, Greeley concludes that the continuities are ever so much more striking than the discontinuities.

In 1940 about two-fifths of the American people were quite religious, praying daily, going to church every week, participating in religious organizations. Another two-fifths were somewhat religious. They prayed and went to church, but not so regularly; they accepted the doctrinal teachings of their churches but were not active in church organizations. And then there was the one-fifth that rarely prayed or went to church and, while most of them did believe in God, were not sure about the divinity of Jesus or about life after death. What was true in 1940 was true in 1985 and, one may safely assume, is true in 1989.