Contrary to popular opinion, religiosity is not on the decline in the United States but enjoys “persistent and exceptional intensity,” according to groundbreaking new research.
In an analysis of recent scholarship, Glenn T. Stanton notes that while moderate religion is indeed slipping in the United States, intense religious belief and practice, especially among Christians, is holding strong and even increasing.
A report last month by scholars from Harvard and Indiana Universities suggests that the secularization taking place in many advanced industrialized societies does not in fact hold for American culture, and that religiosity in the United States is growing ever more exceptional in comparison with the rest of the world.
“The secularization thesis asserts that as a result of ongoing modernization and the advance of science, religion will become increasingly irrelevant in public and private life,” state researchers Landon Schnabel and Sean Bock. Whereas this pattern seems verified in several advanced industrial societies, there are notable differences in the United States.
Rather than symmetric decline across all levels of religiosity, they assert, “religious change in the United States could be driven by a decline of moderate religion,” the writers contend.
Moreover, although religion in America may be following the trend of other countries on average, “we suspect that intense religionists will increasingly define religion in the United States and that this religious makeup is—and will continue to be—unique compared to other wealthy, secularizing countries,” they said. READ MORE
