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Religion and Public Life
The Saguaro Seminar has been analyzing the results of 15 in-depth studies of diverse American congregations, two groundbreaking surveys in the United States on religion and public life in America, and parallel surveys in England, Ireland, and Northern Ireland. The US findings on the impact of religion and public life appeared in American Grace, co-authored by Robert Putnam of Harvard and David Campbell of Notre Dame, in 2010. Among the many discoveries, we find: a remarkable level of religiously bridging social capital constrains America’s high level of religiosity from leading to intolerance; religious Americans are happier and better citizens than non-religious Americans; and many American young people are leaving organized religion entirely—in part because of distaste for the Religious Right—though they constitute a potential “market” for a less politicized religious experience.
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