Spiritual, but not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America 1st Edition

There is a very well done review here by Bryan Carey which outlines Fuller's main focus with this book so I won't do the same thing.I am far from an American history scholar, but this is my second read of Fuller's and I find his style to be helpful to someone wanting to learn but not extremely well versed in this field. Plenty of historical background information is provided while supporting his thesis throughout the book.I have seen Dr. Fuller interviewed several times on various shows on The History Channel and that is what initially drawn to his books. I found his detailing of the popularity and role of magic in colonial times to be especially fascinating.I have recommended this book several times to friends.

The book was my introduction to the research and thinking of Robert C. Fuller. The confident and competent scholarly writing was very helpful to my research as a clergy seeking an advanced seminary degree. Being an unaffiliated clergy, I seek to have interfaith organizations acknowledge the "unchurched" as part of the total spiritual population. It was refreshing to read a book at last, that seems to also count the unchurched, one written with scholarship, clarity and neutrality. The author has consummate knowledge of his topic, yet writes with the requisite emotional distance few religious scholars enjoy. I believe this book could figure prominently in any seminary program which investigates the spiritual and religious history of America without judgment of each unchurched school of spirituality. Non clergy who lead a spiritually independent (unchurched or nearly unchurched) life, would benefit from reading about the extraordinary and often unsung clergy and spiritually gifted who have added so much to the spiritual landscape of America since colonial times.

It is a fascinating book...it attempts to answer the questions about the premise about why choose not to attend church and the term unchurched...it is a must READ!

Excellent

It's not that this book isn't great, but the author, Robert C. Fuller, is too proud to acknowledge the real father of the "Spiritual, but not Religious" phenomena. If you want a book that goes deeper and was published long before Mr. Fuller, see the real original SBNR: Sven Erlandson (Original Author): http://www.amazon.com/Spiritual-but-Not-Religious-Revolution/dp/059501108X. If I could say something to Mr. Fuller I would tell him to do the right thing and do what he would tell his students to do: GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE!!! If you are going to steal something, at least do it with some dignity.

It may be difficult to believe that "I couldn't put it down" would be a description for a reader's reaction to a book of this genre, but it certainly was mine! I even found myself flipping to the references every page to something. I read it for personal interest, but started taking notes for better retention, and ended up with almost 20 pages of notes. I will read it again, and probably also buy other books by Mr. Fuller on this subject. Bravo!

Quite frequently, when someone talks about religious life in America, it is common to hear news that sounds somewhat negative. "America is not quite as religious as was in the past", experts say. "They don't have the commitment to religious places of worship like they once did and they don't follow the strict moral code of their ancestors".Author Robert Fuller is a professor of Religious Studies at Bradley University and he has studied extensively about this "flight" away from traditional religion. But what Fuller has found is that Americans are still believers in a higher being and they still consider themselves moral beings. The difference between now and then is that today, Americans tend to express their religious feelings in a more inward way, and they don't participate actively in organized religion. This is the new face of religion in America, and it is examined in this book, "Spiritual, but not Religious: Understanding unchurched America".Fuller points out some revealing statistics that shows the movement of Americans away from tradition houses of worship and over to a more personal relationship with God. Americans don't like the standardized formula that is so prevalent in most churches. They want to express themselves in their own, unique way. And they want to rely more on the power of their own minds to get in touch with spiritual feelings.Fuller writes mostly about the history of spirituality in America and the trends of the past two centuries that have gotten us where we are today. He doesn't dwell much on the present state of spirituality and why Americans are increasingly attracted to this as an alternative to traditional religion. This is one of the drawbacks of the book, in my opinion. It's good to know about the history and how we got where we are. But I would like to know more about the present- day spiritualists and why they feel so strongly about their mode of practice.Fuller presents some good, thought- provoking material on the history of spirituality in America and what we can expect in the future. The nation is becoming more and more diverse all the time, and that includes diversity in religious beliefs as well as in cultural backgrounds. Churches will need to find more and more ways to accommodate these "drifters" who prefer their own method of religious practice to that of customary churches. If churches ignore this, Fuller predicts that they will continue to lose more and more members. Something must be done if American churches hope to grow and thrive in the new century.

Fuller's study if a helpful introduction to Boomer spirituality, though he insists on a perhaps sharper distinction between religion and spirituality than exists for many SBNR in everyday life, who continue to engage with institutional religions in a variety of ways.