Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith in America

“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

“Smith’s book serves as a helpful tool for understanding the challenges Christians face as they seek to live faithfully in the modern age.” — Phil Davignon, The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal

“This is a masterly study, of genuine originality, marshalling hard data to show how, why and when our religious landscape changed.” — Paul Gifford, Irish Theological Quarterly

“With its combination of plausibility, readability, and rigor, Why Religion Went Obsolete stands out in the growing corpus of scholarship asking what happened to American religion.” — Jesse Smith, American Catholic Studies

“With its combination of plausibility, readability, and rigor, Why Religion Went Obsolete stands out in the growing corpus of scholarship asking what happened to American religion.” — Jesse Smith, American Catholic Studies

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).