“Nonverts”? “Think ‘converts,’” this book’s publisher urges, “but from having religion to having none.” They’re a growing bunch: “one in four Americans belongs to no religion,” Rebecca Foster notes in her critique for Foreword Reviews, and that number keeps growing. “In his engaging book,” she adds, Britain’s Stephen Bullivant “unearths the stories behind these statistics….”
Library Journal explains, “The text draws together hundreds of hours of colourfully detailed interviews [with nonverts] to illuminate the national survey data, and gives readers a glimpse of the human realities underlying the numbers.” That the author would study contemporary non-religiosity—for which he’s received wide international coverage—is hardly surprising: Bullivant, who came from a family with no religion, but is now a practicing Catholic, holds doctorates in theology and sociology.
If his findings appear ominous—Christian America is slip-sliding away—a fact reported by Winnipeg Free Press “faith reporter” John Longhurst might help: “In an article in Church Times, an Anglican newspaper in the UK, Bullivant notes that while many people have left Christianity, a ‘creative minority’ of committed Christians remain. This group is strongly committed, he said, and, since they are ’swimming against the tide,’ [they] are often stronger in their faith.”
Nonverts: The Making of Ex-Christian America
By Stephen Bullivant
Oxford University Press, 2022
