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Religion and the social scientist.

Article Excerpt
WITH The Transformation of American Religion, ([dagger]) the distinguished sociologist and chronicler of the culture wars Alan Wolfe has written a curiously instructive book on the ways we Americans "actually live our faith." Wolfe writes as a social scientist who is himself an unbeliever, but who nevertheless expresses respect for the diverse religious commitments of the American people. He distrusts soi-disant liberals who deny the right of the religious-minded to bring their beliefs and "values" to bear on the pressing issues of the day. His book's argument is nicely captured in the title of its introductory chapter, "The Passing of The Old-Time Religion": informality is on the rise in worship, the nature of religious witness is changing, and doctrine is being de-emphasized. Through a series of well-crafted sociological portraits and vignettes that explore the ways in which Americans practice their religion today, Wolfe suggests that the lived reality of American religion has next to nothing to do with the stringent moral demands and doctrinal preoccupations of the religions of old.

Whether describing "megachurches" that downplay liturgy in any form, the "strange disappearance of doctrine from conservative Protestantism," as he puts it, or the omnipresence of therapeutic language in contemporary religious circles, Wolfe aims to demonstrate how religion has become an integral part of the culture of narcissism, one more avenue by which the modern self can find its way in the world. He is at his best describing the religious phenomenology behind this culture: the mix of insipid music and moral posturing that has come to be called "Kumbaya Catholicism"; the increasingly therapeutic character of American religion in which priests, ministers, and rabbis scrupulously eschew "judgmentalism" in all its forms; the relentless and uninspiring informality of contemporary religious services; the growing distrust of institutional religion even among the devout. Whether he appreciates it or not, Wolfe's descriptions serve to confirm Will Herberg's fear that Americans rest far too contented with "mancentered...

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