Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Northwest The None Zone

by Killen, Patricia O'Connell; Silk, Mark; Connell Killen and Mark Shibley, Patricia O'; Shibley, Mark; Soden, Dale; Wellman, James; Laird, Lance

• ISBN13: 9780759106253
• ISBN10: 0759106258
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-03-12
• Publisher: AltaMira Press

Summary

When asked their religious identification, more people answer none in the Pacific Northwest than in any other region of the United States. But this does not mean that the region's religious institutions are without power or that Northwesterners who do attend no place of worship are without spiritual commitments. With no dominant denomination, Evangelicals, Mainline Protestants, Catholics, Jews, adherents of Pacific Rim religious traditions, indigenous groups, spiritual environmentalists, and secularists must vie or sometimes must cooperate with each other to address the regions' pressing economic, environmental, and social issues. One cannot understand this complex region without understanding the fluid religious commitments of its inhabitants. And one cannot understand religion in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska without Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Northwest.

Author Biography

Patricia O'Connell Killen is professor of religion at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington Lance D. Laird teaches comparative religion at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington Mark A. Shibley is associate professor of sociology at Southern Oregon University Mark Silk is associate professor of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, and founding director of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity Dale E. Soden is professor of history and director of the Weyerhaueser Center for Christian Faith and Learning at Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington James K. Wellman, Jr. is assistant professor of western religion in the Comparative Religion Program, Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington

Table of Contents

PREFACE	5	(4)
Mark Silk
INTRODUCTION-Patterns of the Past, Prospects for the Future: Religion in the None Zone	9	(16)
Patricia O'Connell Killen
Religious Affiliation in the Pacific Northwest and the Nation-	21	(4)
Religious Self-Identification and Adherents Claimed by Religious Groups, National and Regional Comparisons
CHAPTER ONE-Surveying the Religious Landscape: Historical	25	(26)
Trends and Current Patterns in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska Patricia'O'Connell Killen and Mark A. Shibley with assistance from Kellee Boyer and Kellie A. Riley
CHAPTER TWO-Contesting the Soul of an Unlikely Land: Mainline	51	(28)
Protestants, Catholics, and Reform and Conservative Jews in the Pacific Northwest
Dale E. Soden
CHAPTER THREE-The Churching of the Pacific Northwest: The Rise of Sectarian Entrepreneurs	79	(28)
James K. Wellman, Jr.
CHAPTER FOUR-Religions of the Pacific Rim in the Pacific Northwest	107	(32)
Lance D. Laird
CHAPTER FIVE-Secular but Spiritual in the Pacific Northwest	139	(30)
Mark A. Shibley
CONCLUSION-Religious Futures in the None Zone	169	(16)
Patricia O'Connell Killen
APPENDIX	185	(2)
BIBLIOGRAPHY	187	(2)
INDEX	189	(14)
CONTRIBUTORS	203