|
|
|
Reviews
Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Northwest: The None Zone
|
Edited by Patricia O'Connell Killen and Mark Silk
|
Rowman and Littlefield, Charlotte, N.C., 2004. Tables, bibliography, index. 204 pages. $19.95 paper.
|
Reviewed by Ferenc M. Szasz
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
|
|
|
| Whenever one studies the nineteenth-century history of the Pacific Northwest, one meets representatives of the major religious traditions: Jason Lee (Methodist), Dr. Marcus and Narcissa Whitman (Congregationalist), Sheldon Jackson (Presbyterian), and Joseph Cataldo (Roman Catholic). Vital though these denominations still are, they no longer even begin to shape the religious contours of the region. In fact, a whopping 62.8 percent of people who live in the Pacific Northwest are listed as "nones," that is, not affiliated with any organized religious group. This statistic reflects the highest percentage in the nation, and its explanation involves a very convoluted tale. |
1
|
|
The nine essays in this slim volume go a long way toward explaining this situation. The book is the first in a projected nine-volume series designed to analyze the role of religion in shaping each of the major regions of the nation. A blend of history and sociology, the essays all draw heavily from two massive sets of recent statistics: a national survey of members as claimed by the various American denominations; and another extensive telephone survey that allowed people to self-identify by responding to the question, "What is your religious tradition, if any?" Interestingly, the two sets of data do not exactly match. Far more people claim to belong to a tradition (say, Baptist) than are listed by the churches themselves. The meaning of this rather pronounced discrepancy is not precisely clear. |
2
|
|
Rather than go denomination by denomination, the authors divide the region into four overlapping religious "clusters": mainline Protestants, Catholics, and Jews; the sectarian entrepreneurs who meld an exclusivist evangelical theology with modern organizational and communication techniques; people of the Pacific Rim, which includes Native Americans and Asian immigrants; and the "Secular but Spiritual" group that constitutes the vast majority. |
3
|
|
Taken together, the authors have crafted an intriguing portrait of a region locked in religious transition. Dale Soden shows how the relatively small mainline groups have been crucial in establishing schools, colleges, and hospitals and in leading crusades for racial justice and economic equality. These groups have also been active in marshalling protests against intolerance, war, and nuclear armaments. James Wellman, Jr., analyzes the saga of the new, dynamic Protestant church leaders who have created mega-churches and command a great deal of newspaper publicity. He suggests that their insistence on having an experience of grace, their doctrinal certainties, and their strict rules of life have great appeal in an "anything goes," postmodern world. Lance D. Laird argues that the Native faiths — both traditional and syncretic — remain vital today, while the various Asian temples and churches function much as the settlement houses of an earlier century: venues that help keep both language and ancient faiths alive for Pacific Rim immigrants. |
4
|
|
Mark Shibley's extensive discussion of the secular but spiritual segment is genuinely path-breaking. He maintains that relatively few of this group are actually atheists or even agnostics. Instead, he suggests that the vast majority have launched on a search for the sacred on their own terms, outside — sometimes quite far outside — the traditional bodies of organized religion. |
5
|
|
Because no religious group holds anything close to a majority, the various faith traditions can influence local, state, and national politics only by forging shifting alliances, what James Madison once termed "factions." The faction with the most political potential seems to involve an alliance to protect the awesome natural physical environment itself. Whether the Pacific Northwest, with its majority of "nones," is a prototype for the national future or a blank slate ripe for religious entrepreneurs remains to be seen. This fascinating collection of essays belongs on the shelf of anyone who hopes to understand the changing role that religion has played in creating the social world of the Pacific Northwest. |
6
|
|
|
Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.
|