In the Course of a Lifetime

Michele Dillon, Professor of Sociology at the University of New Hampshire, is author of Catholic Identity: Balancing Reason, Faith and Power and Debating Divorce: Moral Conflict in Ireland. She edited Handbook of the Sociology of Religion. Paul Wink, Professor of Psychology at Wellesley College, has written extensively on adult development and is coeditor, with J. James, of The Crown of Life: Dynamics of the Early Post-Retirement Period.

• List of Illustrations Preface 1. The Vibrancy of American Religion 2. Meet the Parents: The Family Context Shaping Religious Socialization in the 1930s and 1940s 3. Adolescent Religion in the 1930s and 1940s 4. The Imprint of Individual Autonomy on Everyday Religion in the 1950s 5. The Ebb and Flow of Religiousness across the Life Course 6. Individual Transformation in Religious Commitment and Meaning 7. Spiritual Seeking 8. The Activities, Personality, and Social Attitudes of Religious and Spiritual Individuals in Late Adulthood 9. Spiritual Seeking, Therapeutic Culture, and Concern for Others 10. The Buffering Role of Religion in Late Adulthood 11. American Lived Religion Methodological Appendix: Measuring Religiousness and Spiritual Seeking in the IHD Longitudinal Study Notes Bibliography Index

"One can envision it inspiring a range of future research in either field, while at the same time encouraging a triangulation of methods and disciplines which can only improve our understanding of American religion. Dillon and Wink's work is highly recommended reading." -- Matthew Loveland Catholic Studies: An On-Line Journal