Description: More than 20 percent of Americans are Catholic, and overall membership in the Catholic Church has remained relatively steady even as increasing numbers of people claim no religious affiliation. Catholics in America provides a contemporary social portrait of this large, increasingly influential group that clarifies who Catholics are and what they really believe. The book offers extensive empirical evidence to uncover the real story of today's Catholics, including their family behaviors, work and economic status, and beliefs. This book will be an important guide for anyone wanting to understand the personal and religious foundations of today's Catholics.
Review Quotes: "Keister (Duke Univ.) crafts a lively, accessible, contemporary social portrait of American Catholics drawn from solid demographic studies of this complex institution, not from anecdotal journalism." -- D. A. Brown, CHOICE
"As to whether to trust this book on the whole and what it tells us of American Catholics, I'm a proponent. It is solid in data, analysis, and contextualization, and its conclusions, albeit appropriately cautious, are grounded." -- Tricia C. Bruce, American Catholics Studies"I enthusiastically recommend this book to researchers of contemporary US Catholics, as well as researchers of US religion more broadly. .. I truly hope this book becomes a well-thumbed and dog-eared resource for researchers, as we access its many graphs, figures, and tables." -- Brian Starks, Social Forces