What Americans Really Believe

Introduction

The Stability and Diversity of American Faith

Part I

Congregations

1 Church-going

Labels Matter

2 Church Growth

Competing for Members

3 Strict Churches

The Reasons for their Popularity

4 The "Scattered" Church

Traditional Congregations are not Going Away

5 Megachurches

Supersizing the Faith

Part II

Beliefs and Practices

6 Religious Experiences

God Told Me to Go to Church

7 Gender

Women Believe More, Pray More

8 Heaven

We are All Going There

9 God

Love Makes a Difference

10 Evil

Did Sin Cause the Hurricane?

11 Spirituality

Religion and Spirituality Are Not Mutually Exclusive

12 Giving

The Rich, the Poor, and the Widow’s Mite

13 Personality

Are We Hard-Wired for God?

Part III

Atheism and Irreligion

14 Atheism

Godless Revolution Never Happened

15 Credulity

New Age Believers in Big Foot

16 New Age Adherents

Well-Educated, Formerly Irreligious Elites

17 The Irreligious

Simply Unchurched--not Atheists

Part IV

The Public Square

18 Faith and Politics

Is There a Secret Plot of Evangelicals to Take over the American Government?

19 Merry Christmas, Jesus

It’s Okay to Put Sacred Symbols in the Public Square

20 Incivility

Talking about Faith in Public

21 Religious Media Consumption

The DaVinci Code Effect

22 Civic Participation

Faith as Social Capital

23 Going to College, Getting a Job

What Happens when Mom and Dad Take Their Kids to Church

Epilogue

The Institute for the Study of Religion

Contributors

Notes