Robert Wuthnow, God and Mammon in America. Free Press, 1998.
Referenced in: Giving and Financial Stewardship
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
While the data behind this text is almost 20 years old (collected in 1992), I suspect the findings are no less true now than they were then. Wuthnow, a renowned sociologist of religion, presents the results of the Economic Values Survey (1992) which was constructed collaboratively with 175 professionals in ministry, social science, and history, and administered to a statistically significant sampling of more than 2000 Americans. The survey was designed to answer the question of how far religious convictions really influence economic behavior, including material acquisition, consumption, career choices, social justice, etc.
Wuthnow found that religion does not necessarily make adherents less materialistic, and may in fact lead them into justifying their wealth. On the other hand, religion tends to make them more ethical, happy on the job, charitable, and environmentally conscious. There is also some ambivalence in that while faith influences economic behavior, the religious also work harder and longer to gain more materially while enjoying it less. In this respect, there is little distinction between those who are religious and those who are not. In one sense, they fall into the dilemma Jesus cautioned against, loving both God and mammon, and thus feeling divided and ill at ease.
Wuthnow does more than report his findings. Like Loren Mead in Financial Meltdown in the Mainline, he also chides American religious leaders for accommodating the consumerist currents of society.
The book is well-researched. The appendices present the methodology for review, which will appeal to academics. Yet it is written in a style that is accessible to ministers and other practitioners whose roles involve stewardship development.
From the Publisher
Drawing on a new survey of more than two thousand working Americans, the author of Christianity in the 21st Century explores the relationship between religious faith and attitudes toward work and money to examine Americans’ ambivalence toward materialism and consumerism.
About the Author
Robert Wuthnow is the Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor of Sociology at Princeton University. He has published widely in the sociology of religion, culture, and civil society. His recent books include After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion; America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity; and Saving America? Faith-Based Services and the Future of Civil Society. He is currently working on a book tentatively titled Boundless Faith: The Global Outreach of American Churches.
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