In The Course Of A Lifetime: Tracing Religious Belief, Practice, And Change

Book Summary

"Dillon and Wink bring their combination of sociological and psychological perspectives to this landmark study, making possible a fascinating series of individual portraits--and a fresh new window on how life and faith have changed over the last century."--Nancy T. Ammerman, author of "Pillars of Faith: American Congregations and their Partners, Building Traditions, Building Communities" "The rich findings in this landmark volume challenge many assumptions about religion and the life course while documenting the multiple ways, both direct and subtle, that faith relates to personality, social attitudes, community involvement, psychological well-being, and health. This is social science at its best - empirically rigorous and theoretically sophisticated for sure, but also deeply humane in its ability to convey so clearly the individual voices of the research participants, as they struggle to make sense of their lives in a rapidly changing world."--Dan P. McAdams, author of "The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By" "In the Course of a Lifetime "provides an unprecedented portrait of the dynamic role religion plays in the everyday experiences of Americans over the course of their lives. The book draws from a unique sixty-year-long study of close to two hundred mostly Protestant and Catholic men and women who were born in the 1920s and interviewed in adolescence, and again in the 1950s, 1970s, 1980s, and late 1990s. Woven throughout with rich, intimate life stories, the book presents and analyzes a wide range of data from this study on the participants' religious and spiritual journeys. A testament to the vibrancy of religion in the United States, "In the Course of a Lifetime "provides an illuminating and sometimes surprising perspective on how individual lives have intersected with cultural change throughout the decades of the twentieth century.

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