Religion in a Free Market: Religious and Non-Religious Americans
Title:
Kosmin, Barry A., and Ariela Keysar. 2006. Religion in a Free Market: Religious and Non-Religious Americans. Paramount Market Publishing, Inc.
Rating:
8/10
Review:
Religion in a Free Market is actually quite simple in its aims: The religious marketplace understanding of religion is used as a theoretical framework to analyze the American Religious Identification Survey 2001 data (a.k.a. ARIS; a very large, nationally representative sample of American adults). For those unfamiliar with the religious marketplace understanding of religion, the basic idea is that religion in some societies (particularly the US) is basically unregulated, allowing for both competition between religions and pluralism (the existence of many religions). A religious marketplace also affects the nature and primary activities of religions in the sense that religions must market themselves to particular niches and change to meet market demands.
Religion in a Free Market uses the above understanding of religion to analyze the ARIS 2001 data, covering a wide range of topics, from religious attendance to variations in household size by religious affiliation to differences in the adoption of technology by denomination. Those familiar with the sociological study of religion won’t find much new in here – Jews make the most money and are the least religious; conservative Protestants and other conservative religious groups (e.g. Mormons and Muslims) are the most religious and most traditional in family structure and function. One could consider it a criticism of the book that there isn’t much new here, but that’s probably not the right way to think about the contribution of this book. Basically, it uses new, representative data to confirm previous findings in the sociology of religion and it combines all of those findings into one book, which makes it easy to find and easy to reference. This is probably the biggest contribution of the book.
There are a few other tidbits in here that are worth noting. For instance, few scholars who employ the religious marketplace approach note that Adam Smith, one of the earliest scholars of capitalism and an advocate of free markets, actually examined religion from this perspective. That was something I learned from the book.
The book notes that the free market of religion has resulted in a large supply of religion: over 200 organized denominations and lots of independent groups combine to form over 350,000 individual religious congregations from which people can choose.
The book also provides evidence that the religions are fully aware of the fact that they are competing for religious consumers and that they plan and adjust accordingly, “The dynamic church growth movement began with Donald McGravan’s 1955 book, The Bridges of God. It was written for overseas missionaries but its ideas were adapted by local pastors who were encouraged to engage their local communities by treating potential worshippers as consumers.” (p. 11).
Another finding that is interesting though possibly not as well explained as it could be is the decline in Protestant denominationalism, “the estimated number of self-described “Christians” rose from 8.1 million in 1990 to 14.2 million in 2001 while the number of “Protestants” declined from 17.2 million to 4.7 million during this period” (p. 30). The authors attribute this to re-labeling, which is accurate, but also not quite the whole story: people are relabeling themselves not because they no longer consider themselves Protestants but because they don’t realize that they are Protestants.
Finally, there is one assertion in the book that I found problematic as it really should have been softened. The authors conclude that, “The great Scottish economist Adam Smith correctly observed that in the religious sphere, competing sects generate a ferment of activity and increased level of belief, whereas state churches or controlled and highly regulated religious markets produce indifference. We find, in the tradition of “rational choice theory” scholars, that the competition for “market share” in a religious free market seems to strengthen all of the competitors.” (p. 269). While the mostly unregulated religious marketplace of the US has likely contributed to the higher levels of religiosity in the US compared to other developed countries, there are plenty of other factors that have and continue to contribute to the higher levels, though the “high levels” of religiosity should not be exaggerated. For example, it is pretty well-established that Americans have lower levels of existential security than do Europeans (i.e., they don’t feel like they have social safety nets), and levels of security correlate with religiosity – higher security, lower religiosity and vice versa. It’s also important to keep in mind that we are not actually that religious in the U.S. – less than ¼th of Americans are in church on any given day of worship and large percentages of Americans donate very little or nothing to churches. Yes, a lot claim to believe in god and/or affiliate with a religion, but in terms of the influence of religion on peoples’ lives, it’s seems apparent that it has much less influence than it used to. Ergo, the U.S. is more religious than some countries, but the reason isn’t exclusively because of religious pluralism.
Overall, this is a great resource book for statistics on the religious makeup of the U.S. The statistics are solid and based on a reliable survey; the explanations are clear, simple, and well-founded; and the basic arguments are well-rooted in the Sociology of Religion (even though the arguments could be slightly better developed). I recommend this book for anyone who needs a good reference book for religiosity statistics on Americans.