Why Religion Went Obsolete
The Demise of Traditional Faith in America
Published on 1. July 2025
Book
Hardback
440 pages
978-0-19-780073-7 (ISBN)
Description
Is traditional American religion doomed?
Traditional religion in the United States has suffered huge losses in recent decades. The number of Americans identifying as "not religious" has increased remarkably. Religious affiliation, service attendance, and belief in God have declined. More and more people claim to be "spiritual but not religious." Religious organizations have been reeling from revelations of sexual and financial scandals and cover-ups. Public trust in "organized religion" has declined significantly. Crucially, these religious losses are concentrated among younger generations. This means that, barring unlikely religious revivals among youth, the losses will continue and accelerate in time, as less-religious younger Americans replace older more-religious ones and increasingly fewer American children are raised by religious parents.
All this is clear. But what is less clear is exactly why this is happening. We know a lot more about the fact that traditional American religion has declined than we do about why this is so.
Why Religion Went Obsolete aims to change that. Drawing on survey data and hundreds of interviews, Christian Smith offers a sweeping, multifaceted account of why many Americans have lost faith in traditional religion. An array of large-scale social forces-everything from the end of the Cold War to the rise of the internet to shifting ideas about gender and sexuality-came together to render traditional religion culturally obsolete. For growing numbers of Americans, traditional religion no longer seems useful or relevant. Using quantitative empirical measures of big-picture changes over time as well as exploring the larger cultural environment--the cultural "zeitgeist"--Smith explains why this is the case and what it means for the future. Crucially, he argues, it does not mean a strictly secular future. Rather, Americans' spiritual impulses are being channelled in new and interesting directions.
Why Religion Went Obsolete is a tour de force from one of our leading chroniclers of religion in America.
Traditional religion in the United States has suffered huge losses in recent decades. The number of Americans identifying as "not religious" has increased remarkably. Religious affiliation, service attendance, and belief in God have declined. More and more people claim to be "spiritual but not religious." Religious organizations have been reeling from revelations of sexual and financial scandals and cover-ups. Public trust in "organized religion" has declined significantly. Crucially, these religious losses are concentrated among younger generations. This means that, barring unlikely religious revivals among youth, the losses will continue and accelerate in time, as less-religious younger Americans replace older more-religious ones and increasingly fewer American children are raised by religious parents.
All this is clear. But what is less clear is exactly why this is happening. We know a lot more about the fact that traditional American religion has declined than we do about why this is so.
Why Religion Went Obsolete aims to change that. Drawing on survey data and hundreds of interviews, Christian Smith offers a sweeping, multifaceted account of why many Americans have lost faith in traditional religion. An array of large-scale social forces-everything from the end of the Cold War to the rise of the internet to shifting ideas about gender and sexuality-came together to render traditional religion culturally obsolete. For growing numbers of Americans, traditional religion no longer seems useful or relevant. Using quantitative empirical measures of big-picture changes over time as well as exploring the larger cultural environment--the cultural "zeitgeist"--Smith explains why this is the case and what it means for the future. Crucially, he argues, it does not mean a strictly secular future. Rather, Americans' spiritual impulses are being channelled in new and interesting directions.
Why Religion Went Obsolete is a tour de force from one of our leading chroniclers of religion in America.
Reviews / Votes
This is an era-defining work. What Herberg's Protestant, Catholic, Jew was in the 1950s, what Lenski's The Religious Factor was in the 1960s, and what Wuthnow's Restructuring of American Religion was in the 1990s, Christian Smith's Why Religion Went Obsolete is to the early 21st century. It is a remarkable work of scholarship and essential reading for anyone keen to understand the perplexing status of religion in contemporary America. * James Davison Hunter, author of Democracy and Solidarity: On the Cultural Roots of America's Political Crisis * What has driven millions of Americans, especially the younger generations, to desert church pews? Drawing upon a rich multimethod body of evidence, Christian Smith presents an updated Durkheimian argument that American churches lost their core social functions during the late twentieth century due to both major historical events and complex societal developments. This readable study will provide fresh insights into reasons for the decay of religion in America, which has contributed to a fervent cultural backlash among the remaining faithful. * Pippa Norris, Harvard University * In this provocative new book, one of America's most eminent social scientists marshals a wealth of data and a lifetime of study behind a stunning argument: traditional religion became obsolete starting in the year 1991. Required reading for anyone who wants to understand the precipitous decline of religion in American society. * Philip S. Gorski, co-author of The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy * Why Religion Went Obsolete is not a book of theological reflection, but it should be required reading for theologians, pastors, educators, and lay leaders alike. * World * The work is well-researched, detailed, and offers those active in the American church an experience of ecclesial blunt force trauma. * People Need Jesus * Smith's book is a new and important way of understanding the fate of institutional religion in the United States. * Mark S. Massa, American Magazine * Why Religion Went Obsolete constitutes an important corrective to theories of secularization. * Guy Lancaster, Marx and Philosophy * Why Religion Went Obsolete constitutes an important corrective to theories of secularization. * Guy Lancaster, Marx and Philosophy * All students and scholars of New York City will remain indebted to Mike Wallace for generations to come. * Theodore Hamm, The Indypendent * Wallace's Gotham trilogy, now complete, is an ambitious, encyclopedic civic artifact that argues a single city can reflect the story of a nation. * Ryan Kailath, Gothamist *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 158 mm
Thickness: 36 mm
Weight
786 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-780073-7 (9780197800737)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2025
OUP USA
€29.49
Available for download
Person
Christian Smith is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology and Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame. Smith is well known for his research focused on religion, adolescents and emerging adults, and social theory. He has written many books, including Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America (with Michael O. Emerson), as well as Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (with Melinda Lundquist Denton).
Content
0. Introduction
I. Setting the Stage
1. What Needs Explaining
2. Religion Is Good When...
3. Some Complex Ways Culture Changes
II. Perfect Storms Converging
4. Long-Term Social Trends
5. The Developing Religious Environment
6. The 1990s: Beginning of the End
7. The 2000s: Obsolescence Assured
8. Religious Self-Destructions
III. The Aftermath
9. Contours of the Millennial Zeitgeist
10. Through the Exit Door
Conclusion
Appendix: Social Locations of Not Religious Americans
I. Setting the Stage
1. What Needs Explaining
2. Religion Is Good When...
3. Some Complex Ways Culture Changes
II. Perfect Storms Converging
4. Long-Term Social Trends
5. The Developing Religious Environment
6. The 1990s: Beginning of the End
7. The 2000s: Obsolescence Assured
8. Religious Self-Destructions
III. The Aftermath
9. Contours of the Millennial Zeitgeist
10. Through the Exit Door
Conclusion
Appendix: Social Locations of Not Religious Americans