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Oxford University Press, USA
Inventing American Religion: Polls, Surveys, and the Tenuous Quest for a Nation's Faith
Inventing American Religion: Polls, Surveys, and the Tenuous Quest for a Nation's Faith
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Today, a billion-dollar-a-year polling industry floods the media with information. Pollsters tell us not only which political candidates will win, but how we are practicing our faith. How many Americans went to church last week? Have they been born again? Is Jesus as popular as Harry Potter?
Polls tell us that 40 percent of Americans attend religious services each week. They show that African Americans are no more religious than white Americans, and that Jews are abandoning their religion in record numbers. According to leading sociologist Robert Wuthnow, none of that is correct.
Pollsters say that attendance at religious services has been constant for decades. But during that time response rates in polls have plummeted, robotic push poll calls have proliferated, and sampling has become more difficult. The accuracy of political polling can be known because elections
actually happen. But there are no election results to show if the proportion of people who say they pray every day or attend services every week is correct. A large majority of the public doubts that polls can be trusted, and yet night after night on TV, polls experts sum up the nation's habits to
an eager audience of millions. Inventing American Religion offers a provocative new argument about the influence of polls in contemporary American society. Wuthnow contends that polls and surveys have shaped-and distorted-how religion is understood and portrayed in the media and also by religious leaders, practitioners, and
scholars. He calls for a robust public discussion about American religion that extends well beyond the information provided by polls and surveys, and suggests practical steps to facilitate such a discussion, including changes in how the results of polls and surveys are presented.
Author: Robert Wuthnow
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 10/01/2015
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.00w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780190258900
Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 08/10/2015
Library Journal 10/01/2015 pg. 65
Choice 02/01/2016
Christian Century 03/02/2016 pg. 37
Polls tell us that 40 percent of Americans attend religious services each week. They show that African Americans are no more religious than white Americans, and that Jews are abandoning their religion in record numbers. According to leading sociologist Robert Wuthnow, none of that is correct.
Pollsters say that attendance at religious services has been constant for decades. But during that time response rates in polls have plummeted, robotic push poll calls have proliferated, and sampling has become more difficult. The accuracy of political polling can be known because elections
actually happen. But there are no election results to show if the proportion of people who say they pray every day or attend services every week is correct. A large majority of the public doubts that polls can be trusted, and yet night after night on TV, polls experts sum up the nation's habits to
an eager audience of millions. Inventing American Religion offers a provocative new argument about the influence of polls in contemporary American society. Wuthnow contends that polls and surveys have shaped-and distorted-how religion is understood and portrayed in the media and also by religious leaders, practitioners, and
scholars. He calls for a robust public discussion about American religion that extends well beyond the information provided by polls and surveys, and suggests practical steps to facilitate such a discussion, including changes in how the results of polls and surveys are presented.
Author: Robert Wuthnow
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 10/01/2015
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.00w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780190258900
Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 08/10/2015
Library Journal 10/01/2015 pg. 65
Choice 02/01/2016
Christian Century 03/02/2016 pg. 37
About the Author
Robert Wuthnow is the Gerhard R. Andlinger '52 Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University. He is the author of numerous books on American culture and religion.
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