It takes a brave scholar to cast a steely-eyed look at religion in decline. More often the focus is on the agency of religious people as they creatively adapt to historical exigencies. Stephen Bullivant—comfortable with both social science methodologies and theology—tackles the question of what motivated decline in Catholic religious practices in Great Britain and the United States. Specifically, he has two concerns: First, to examine the people who once considered themselves Catholic but now do not. These are “former,” “ex-,” “post-,” “lapsed,” “fallen away,” “recovering” (or even “pissed off”) Catholics. Second, to understand the process of their disaffiliation. Some ex-Catholics have embraced other religious communities or spiritual practices and others see themselves as apathetic, agnostic, or atheistic regarding the supernatural. A decade into the new millennium, 44 percent of all British cradle Catholics and 35 percent of Americans no longer self-identify as Catholic (250). And, it is well-known, it is not only Catholics who have stopped going to church. Theologically liberal and moderate Protestants in the United States and in the Church of England have experienced the tomblike quiet of empty pews.
While the decline of church attendance in Europe and America (and the rise elsewhere in the world) is well-known, what makes Mass Exodus special is its ability to assemble and synthesize a broad range of social science data. It then provides a comparative analysis of the similarities and differences between two Anglophone nations. For instance, the number of British ex-Catholics who do not identify with any other religious community is twice that of Americans (29)—who prefer to switch religions. Not surprisingly, in both countries, women are less likely to disaffiliate and more likely to adopt a new religious identity. Still, women in both countries make up half of all Catholic disaffiliates (42). In Britain, the mid-1940s mark a clear “watershed” of decline, while in the United States there are two troughs: People born between 1950 and 1955 fell away when they became young adults in the 1960s and early 1970s. Another dip in affiliation occurred with those born after 1972 (46). Limited by existing polls and surveys, Bullivant's descriptions are not always evenly split between the two countries. Mass Exodus does not include original ethnographic data, although it does include the voices of ex-Catholics from previously published research.
As with politics, religious responses about why one stops going to Mass reveal the polarization of modern society. Some former Catholics believed the church went too far with the changes after Vatican II, and others believed the church had not modernized enough. Ex-Catholics in Trenton, New Jersey complained about unfriendly parishes and aloof priests (66) while studies of English Catholics showed a slow buildup of qualms culminating in a final trigger event (73). Hewing close to the data and rejecting simple attempts to “blame” disaffiliation on Vatican II, Bullivant concludes with a set of “self-evident truths” about the council (255). The council sought an impact and impact it did have. However, it is obvious that what the council hoped would happen—a strengthening of faith and participation—did not occur (257).
Historians of Catholicism will recognize in Mass Exodus a familiar story. In the decades prior to Vatican II, both American and British Catholics created tight-knit parish communities made up of social relationships, devotional practices, and knowledge systems. As late as 1958 in the United States, Catholics actively participated in parish life. Although Bullivant describes these mostly as urban, working-class communities, equally tight societies evolved in rural areas. During and after World War II, community life became more fragmented, diverse, and mobile. Catholics became comfortable with multiple truth claims. The Baby Boom generation was brought up differently from how their parents were reared and so they behaved differently regarding religion. To this already volatile social and cultural situation came the religious changes motivated by the Second Vatican Council. Bullivant argues that the council documents themselves were geared to “evangelize” this new generation, and the efforts of later popes like John Paul II continued efforts to stem the “leakage” of established Catholic communities (139). Neither liturgical experimentation nor the later acceptance of more traditional worship forms successfully plugged those holes.
While Bullivant does mention changing attitudes toward birth control (178) and the tensions with twenty-first-century gender norms (209), he might have strengthened Mass Exodus by laying out more clearly the historical role that women played in the process of disaffiliation. Women's energy—that of mothers and religious sisters—made parish life possible. By the 1970s, women had many other things on their minds and less time for religious life. Even in an era of changed sex roles, it is still mothers who set the religious tone in a family, and thus women's feelings regarding Catholicism will shape future generations.
No book on contemporary Catholicism can be written without attention to the expanding clerical sex abuse scandals. Bullivant's observation that the birth of the internet enabled the “scandal” to move from being a local problem to a global crisis is particularly important. Not only were Catholics no longer surrounded by those who “walked the walk and talked the talk,” but they were (and are) inundated with stories of monster priests and heartless bishops. In Dallas, Texas, for instance Sunbelt growth increased the Catholic population. Mass attendance rose by 85 percent between 1990 and 2017, but most of that increase occurred before the spread of the internet in 2002. At that point, the increase stalled (231).
Even in his brief epilogue, Stephen Bullivant provides no glimmer of hope. There is no shift to the southern hemisphere where Catholic “pews” are more crowded. Bullivant simply recognizes that the council's desire to become “mainstream,” accessible, and relevant did not reap very rich rewards (263). Bullivant might have also noted that the traditionalist's move to cultivate a more countercultural, mystical, and authoritative Catholicism has also not countered the downward slope of the curve. Mass Exodus is a tightly written and accessible study of a significant trajectory in religious history and is highly recommended.
