One Nation Under God: Religion in Contemporary American Society

The National Survey of Religious Identification (NSRI), conducted in 1990 by the Graduate School of the City University of New York, asked some 113,000 Americans ``What is your religion?'' Although the survey was about religious self-identification, not the specifics of belief, it nonetheless raised many questions. The authors of this report, both staff members at City University, shape a religious profile that highlights the importance of religion in America and the differences reflected by geography, age, education, ethnicity, family, gender and politics. One of the most interesting conclusions about this religiously diverse nation is that there is a process of Americanization at work on all its religions, and there exists what the authors describe as ``the possibility of assimilation into a Protestantized American consensus.'' These statistical findings provide rich material for interpretation of the uniquely American religious experience. (Nov.)