Influenced by the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War, Baby Boomers permanently and dramatically altered America's civic landscape. But while scholars have thoroughly documented the religious and political trends of this now aging generation, Robert Wuthnow reminds us of the importance of a lesser-studied segment of the population: today's young adults. The result is a detailed portrait of the religious experiences of this sizable and changing group of Americans — a group that ultimately will have just as profound an impact on the nature of religion and politics in the United States as did the Boomers.

Unlike with the World War II cohort or the Baby Boomers, Wuthnow purposely shies away from the use of similar generational terminology, noting that today's 20- and 30-somethings cannot easily be classified by major historical events or birth rates. Rather, Wuthnow chooses to reference young adults, or those “who were between the ages of 21 and 45 in the years from about 1998 to 2002” (6). This binning of birth years is intended to capture people who are in roughly the first half of adulthood and is used to set up most of the empirical analyses that appear in subsequent chapters.

The theoretical core of the book revolves around the notion of religious “tinkering.” The term is not meant in a pejorative sense, however, but rather to reflect Claude Levi-Strauss' conceptualization: living in periods of societal uncertainty, the tinkerer comes up with resourceful solutions to problems that stretch beyond standard approaches. In the same vein, Wuthnow argues that today's young adults tinker in religion (and in life more generally), but notes that this orientation to the world reflects practicality rather than superficiality. Responding to changing life circumstances, young adults patch together spiritual worldviews that are drawn from accessible, available resources, including religious organizations, formative personal experiences, conversations with family and friends, and media-supplied information. Wuthnow ably organizes “the changing life words of young adults” into seven key trends, among which are the tendency of younger adults to delay marriage, their tendency to have fewer children, and their tendency to begin their families later in life.

In the remainder of the first half of the book, Wuthnow examines the decline in church attendance among young adults, the distribution of age groups within the religious marketplace, and aggregate fluctuations in orthodox religious beliefs. While the data — much of it coming from the General Social Surveys — are well-presented and the arguments made forcefully, the linkage between the “seven key trends” and the decline in regular church attendance among young adults is a bit oversold given the statistical evidence. That being said, these chapters still represent careful handlings of the questions posed. A highlight comes in Wuthnow's argument for the cautious use of categories of religious affiliation, as such an approach tends to dovetail with the view of a marketplace pitting evangelicals against mainline Protestants (ultimately promoting popular misconceptions). Indeed, Wuthnow expends a good deal of effort dispelling several myths about evangelicals in the religious economy, noting (among other trends) that the portion of young adults who are evangelicals actually has decreased slightly in the past 30 years, that the majority of evangelical recruits are drawn from Catholicism rather than mainline Protestant denominations, and that in terms of market share, evangelicals really can only be considered “winners” if the standard is organizational maintenance rather than absolute growth.

Chapters 6 through 8 dovetail nicely with one another, and together constitute the portion of the book likely to be of greatest interest to political scientists. Chapter 6 focuses most directly on the nature of spiritual tinkering, and Wuthnow presents evidence for his theory by weaving together reports of young adults “church shopping and hopping” with an investigation of their friendship networks. Ultimately, he describes a process that for many — but certainly not all — involves the development of a cohesive spiritual worldview through a combination of organizational seeking and interpersonal discussion. Chapter 7 further investigates the consequences of congregational involvement by linking church attendance to opinions and issue stances, and the follow-up in chapter 8 documents attitudes toward civil religion, levels of political tolerance, and the growing polarization between young evangelicals and young non-evangelicals on issues such as abortion.

Those who study political behavior — and civic participation more broadly conceived — will find Wuthnow's general approach to religion appealing. As in his previous works (e.g., Loose Connections), he takes an organizational tack toward religion and emphasizes the communal dimensions of faith.

Unfortunately, as Wuthnow discusses the mechanisms of “tinkering” and the attitudinal consequences of belonging, a picture begins to emerge of an underdeveloped dialogue between sociology and political science. While scholars of religion and politics will still benefit greatly from reading this book, it is clear that the work could stand to be informed by a large body of established political science research, particularly on churches as contexts and on the evolution of religion, issues, and party politics. Additionally, some of the discussion seems a bit stale in light of continued dispelling of the culture wars in the political science literature, and one gets the distinct impression that gender deserves further scrutiny — certainly its own chapter.

Nevertheless, Wuthnow's book stands out as a timely, comprehensive, and thoughtful effort. Mixing a tremendous amount of empirical survey evidence with detailed qualitative interviews, the book covers a lot of ground, including emerging issues pertaining to immigration and new technology. Posing a number of smart questions that are ripe for political science answers, it is a sophisticated and yet accessible commentary on the future of American religion that is more than deserving of a place on bookshelves.