Empty Churches

James L. Heft, S. M., served as professor and chair of the Theology Department at the University of Dayton for six years, Provost for eight years, and Chancellor and Professor of Faith and Culture for 10 years, before moving to the University of Southern California in 2006 as the Alton Brooks Professor of Religion and now the Founder and President Emeritus of the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies. He is the author, editor and co-editor of fourteen books, including Catholicism and Interreligious Dialogue (OUP 2011) and Catholic High Schools: Facing the New Realities (OUP 2011).Jan E. Stets is Professor and Director of the Social Psychology Research Laboratory at the University of California, Riverside. She is the former Director of the Sociology Program at the National Science Foundation, and a former co-editor of Social Psychology Quarterly.

• Preface: Robert M. McElroy, Bishop of San DiegoChapter 1: Introduction: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Non-AffiliationJan E. Stets, University of California, Riverside WHO ARE THEY?Chapter 2: The Many Meanings of Non-AffiliationNancy Ammerman, Boston University Chapter 3: The Many Meanings of the SecularJoseph O. Baker, East Tennessee State UniversityChapter 4: Lapsed Catholics and Other Religious Non-AffiliatesCarol Ann MacGregor and Ashlyn Haycook, Loyola University New OrleansChapter 5: Affiliates and Non-Affiliates in Later Life Vern Bengtson, University of Southern California, and Gabrielle Gonzales, Camille Endacott, and Samantha Copping Kang, University of California, Santa BarbaraWHERE DO THEY COME FROM?Chapter 6: Developmental Views on Youth Religious Non-Affiliation Sam A. Hardy, Brigham Young University and Gregory S. Longo, Eastern UniversityChapter 7: Religious Non-Affiliation: Expelled by the RightWilliam V. Trollinger, University of DaytonChapter 8: The Transformation of Religion: Drawn by the Left Matthew S. Hedstrom, University of VirginiaWHAT ARE SOME CONSEQUENCES?Chapter 9: Non-religiosity, Secularism, and Civil SocietyDavid E. Campbell, University of Notre DameChapter 10: Religious Non-Affiliation and Objections of ConscienceBernard G. Prusak, King's CollegeADDRESSING THE CHALLENGEChapter 11: Reports from Faith Community Leaders in the SouthElizabeth Kirkland Cahill Chapter 12: Cultivating Faith in Young AdultsKerry A. Robinson, Leadership RoundtableChapter 13: Understanding and Responding to Non-Affiliation James L. Heft, University of Southern CaliforniaEpilogue: Jan E. Stets, University of California, Riverside and James L. Heft, University of Southern CaliforniaNotesIndex

Prefaced by the Bishop of San Diego, this important interdisciplinary study co-directed by a theologian (James L. Heft) and a sociologist (Jan E. Stets) attempts to understand the phenomenon of religious disaffiliation which, after having affected European countries, manifests itself today in the United States, more or less spared on this point until now.