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480 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 9 (1985)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0480 and id is 1 raw text is: PREFACE To assemble a collection of articles on the present state of American religion is at once challenging and frustrating. For sure, it is challenging considering the renewed interest in religion in the 1980s and the controversies now surrounding its role in American public life; yet it is frustrating because of the vast number of themes and topics that should, but cannot, be covered in such a volume. The present collection does not attempt comprehensive coverage, but rather is limited to looking at the major religious traditions, and recent developments within them, that broadly affect the beliefs, practices, and outlook of millions of Americans. Hence we look primarily at the religious establishment today and not at its fringes, at the mainline churches and synagogues rather than cults and sects or other more privatized expressions of religious and spiritual ferment. This more limited focus is justified. The vast majority of Americans claim some loyalty to the historic Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish traditions. Persons of virtually every persuasion-religious or otherwise-are influenced in one way or another by these majority religious cultures. Historically they have played a great role in shaping the values and norms, the life-styles and attitudes of the American people. So much a part of the nation's history, religious themes have molded the character of collective life and set the terms for public moral discourse. But some dramatic shifts in these historic patterns have occurred in recent times. There is good reason to believe that the decade of the 1960s was a watershed in American life, and that changes stemming from that time may have substantially altered long- standing relations between religion and culture. The late 1960s is remembered as the age of Aquarius and a time of countercultural new religions, and the mid- to late 1970s witnessed an evangelical, conservative religious resurgence. Consequently, by the 1980s the currents of change had rocked virtually all the mainline religious institutions, forcing them to adjust to new social realities, to grapple with unprecedented moral challenges, and to seek realignments of power and influence. The articles assembled here address these currents of change, both within the religious traditions and in the relationship between religion and culture. The articles are organized around several major themes. One theme is that of regrouping and reposturing. Martin E. Marty's lead piece on transpositions addresses the recent shifts in religious groupings, some of which would hardly have been anticipated even a decade ago. As his discussion suggests, the religious scene in America today is a whole new game-the same players but in quite new positions. Wade Clark Roof and William McKinney, concentrating particularly on denominational subcultures, examine the changing religious landscape since the 1950s. Both articles focus on broad changes in the nation's religious pluralism that cause the situation in the mid-1980s to be strikingly different, somewhat tense and unpredictable, yet also very interesting and full of possibilities. A second set of articles looks at changes within the major religious traditions. Benton Johnson explores the loss of energy and influence within liberal Prot- estantism over much of this century. He attaches a good deal of significance to the legacy of Reinhold Niebuhr's thought and the attacks upon popular middle-class 9

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