Wuthnow, R. 2007. After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Wuthnow’s latest book provides a comprehensive look at how the socio-economic, political, religious, and spiritual profiles of the current generation of young adults compare to those of the baby boomers before them. Wuthnow identifies an important trend in the religious practices of young adults today—the significant decline in participation at religious services. But secularizing tendencies, surprisingly, cannot explain this trend; rather, as Wuthnow argues, the decline in participation at religious services can be explained by contemporary family patterns such as postponement of marriage and childrearing. Wuthnow also examines the myriad ways that religious involvement shapes the social and political identities of young adults, and how American religion is changing as a result of immigration and ethnic diversity. Wuthnow’s central argument is that today’s young adults are “coming of age” later than the baby boomers before them. With fewer institutional supports available to previous generations, these young adults are taking longer to accomplish the major developmental tasks of young adulthood—and some fail.
