Introduction
One of those things that were created to establish the world peace yet constantly provokes conflicts, religion has never been an easy discussion topic. Unlike one might have thought, the key problem is not only that the postulates of certain religions conflict with each other; in addition, the misconceptions within the adepts of a specific confession lead to numerous problems.
Adding several personal issues that one can possibly encounter during one’s own religious experience, one will get a concise portrait of the religious situation in the world in general and within the United States in particular.
However, some of the core religious problems in the modern American society can and must be solved; according to American grace: How religion divides and unites us, the book written by Putnam and Campbell, certain religious issues both on the individual and social scale have the solution. Analyzing the impact that the church and religion have on the American society, the authors decide whether faith offers solutions or contributes to conflict fomentation (Chaves, 2011).
Speaking of the genre of the given work, one must note that the book combines the elements of several genres. To be more exact, American grace: How religion divides and unites us, on the one hand, can be considered a science book, since it offers specific political, social and religious issues to a much wider audience.
However, the given work can also be considered a research paper, since it provides a hypothesis and attempts to prove the given hypothesis right. Finally, American grace: How religion divides and unites us helps the readers dive into the depth of the American history. Blurring the line between different genres, the authors stir the reader towards a conscious evaluation of the role that religion plays in the contemporary society.
The Authors and Their Methods
As it has been stated above, the key topic that the authors of the book focus on is the ways in which religion shapes the contemporary society and the changes that religion brings. However, as it has been stated before, the authors do not avoid taking a historical retrospective into the development of the American religious landscape.
Stressing the fact that the current religious backdrop of the American society is extremely diverse, the authors dwell on the changes that the religious society has undergone for the sake of maintaining tolerance and democracy and touch upon such issues as interfaith or same-sex marriage, etc.
Moreover, Putnam and Campbell take a closer look at the process of a religious identity shaping. Hence, the thesis statement that the given work revolves around can be summarized in the following way: despite the years of misunderstanding and misconceptions between the representatives of different religions in the USA, with the help of tolerant attitudes, religious misunderstandings are long gone.
In addition, with the help of their research, Putnam and Campbell seem to have been working towards encouraging more people to display tolerance towards other religions and religious traditions, therefore, spreading religious tolerance not only in the United States, but also all over the world.
Key Findings: Analysis
Along with the above-mentioned conclusion, Putnam and Campbell have offered a number of other peculiar research results. Despite the fact that the levels of tolerance have risen all over the country, there is still a significant amount of instances of intolerance in the United States. As the authors of the book claim,
93 percent of Americans believe America is divided along racial lines; 96 percent see divisions along economic lines; 97 percent say the country is divided along political lines (Putnam & Campbell, 2010, 516). Therefore, the religious conflicts as the reason for the citizens of the country to be separated are rarely taken into consideration, which might be the sign that the religious issues have, indeed, become the thing of the past.
Though the given point of view is rather disputable, the statistical data still shows that people do not witness many conflicts spawned by the religious issues or misunderstandings in the sphere of religion (Leiter, 2012).
Another peculiar conclusion that the authors drive and that gives a lot of food of thoughts is the fact that religion in the United States has gained a specific “civic” status (Gill, 2012).
Discussing the issue of religious diversity in the United States, Putnam and Campbell also bring up a very interesting and somewhat unsettling idea concerning people’s perception of religious diversity. According to the authors of the book, some people might actually not perceive the idea of religious tolerance, while fearing to display their disagreement.
A Putnam and Campbell explain, one can hardly dare to show lack of tolerance and the unwillingness to accept other people’s beliefs; however, deep inside, people might still refuse to put up with the fact that the ideas taken from other religions are manifested openly: “Who would dare admit that they are uncomfortable with diversity of any sort?” (Putnam & Campbell, 2010, 521).
Another result of Putnam and Campbell’s study that should be mentioned is the fact that there has recently been a tendency in the U. S. for people to change their religion; moreover, those who changed their religious beliefs also tried to convert their family members and friends into the new faith. As Putnam and Campbell commented, “Religious churn means that many Americans change religions, thus introducing family and friends to their new faith” (Putnam & Campbell, 2010, 523-524).
The fact that the people who change their religion try to convert the others means that the boundaries between various religions become blurred, which, in its turn, contributes to more tolerance towards different beliefs. All in all, the facts that Putnam and Campbell have offered to their readers seem to show the tendency in the American society to solve emerging religious misconceptions in a civilized manner, which has also been noted in other papers recently (Einstein, 2008).
In Search for the Truth
Evaluating the results of the research conducted by Putnam and Campbell, one should consider the methods that the authors resorted to in order to come up with the stunning results mentioned above. It is necessary to mention that the authors of the book conducted a thorough historical research, gathering the facts concerning the changes in the moods towards religion within the American society over the past several decades.
For example, Putnam and Campbell mention that “in 1960, presidential candidate John F. Kennedy had to reassure Protestants that they could safely vote for a Catholic” (Putnam and Campbell, 2010, 2).
With the help of historical evidence, the authors of American grace: How religion divides and unites us managed to address the attitudes that the American society has been displaying over the past few decades towards religious issues in general and religious diversity in particular.
In addition, Putnam and Campbell reasonably offered statistical data in their research, which meant that opinion polls and questionnaires were also used in the process of book creation. The aforementioned says that the authors approached a topical problem and considered the exact issues that have been on agenda of the American society for quite long.
Conclusion
Putnam and Campbell definitely should be given credit for their extensive and all-embracing work; however, it seems that certain issues could have been addressed in a different way, which would have made the book more engaging. First, it is necessary to mention that Putnam and Campbell devote only one chapter of their study to such an important issue as the relationships between politics and religion.
Thus, the authors lose the opportunity to compare the impact of two most powerful tools of controlling people, which is rather sad. Another important issue that is worth bringing up is that even in the present-day American society, religious conflicts are still a part and parcel of everyday reality, while the authors claim that the American population has reached the state of tolerance towards all kinds of religion.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the arguments offered by Putnam and Campbell in American grace: How religion divides and unites us are quite legit. Even though some points mentioned above raise questions concerning the veracity of the data that the authors provide, overall, this is a decent work with interesting conclusions.
Explaining how religion works in society, what function it performs and what place it takes in the life of an average American, Putnam and Campbell answer the questions that many people ask, which defines the book significance.
Reference List
Chaves, M. (2011). American religion: Contemporary trends. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Einstein, M. A. (2008). Religion and the politics of tolerance: How Christianity builds democracy. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.
Gill, R. (2012). Theology in a social context. Vol. 1. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company.
Leiter, B. (2012). Why tolerate religion? Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Putnam, R. D., & Campbell, D. E. (2010). American grace: How religion divides and unites us. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.