Religion in the Modern American West

Sociology of Religion, Summer, 2004 by Janet Bennion

Overall, I praise Szasz for his effective organization of material into chronological, practical categories. I applaud his rich multifaceted stories, profiles and cultural anecdotes. His character sketches are invaluable as are his helpful thematic summaries at the end of each section. For a historian, Szasz is surprisingly aware of the sociological impact of religious life on human structure and culture. Perhaps what is most compelling about Szasz's view of religion in the west is the sense of connection between practical social need and the creation of a new religious ethos that accommodates that need. His book sets the stage beautifully for a full-scale analysis of social adaptation theory. Individuals, typically immigrants to the U.S. and eclectic outcasts from the east, search for a means to alleviate the relative social, religious, and economic deprivation they felt in previous environments. They find that means in the forum of a flexible, pragmatic religion that allows them to access valued social resources.

One of the limitations of Szasz's history is the absence of theoretical explanation for his "themes." What are the factors that cause these patterns? What determines the nature of the unique western religious landscape? Further, Szasz neglects to provide a more thorough analysis of ideology, belief, and ritual. For a book about religion, the reader is left knowing little about the ideological differences between the Four Square Pentecostal faith and the LDS faith or neo-Evangelicalism and Southern Baptism, as interpreted in the western context.

In addition, some of the character sketches almost seem randomly selected and highly idiosyncratic, rather than representative of the wider western religious community. For example, Szasz writes a great deal about environmental philosopher, John Muir, who was not a religious leader, nor did he have any real following during his lifetime. It was only during the 1970s and 80s that his work began receiving the respect it deserved. Further, why in all the profiles is there no mention of a single LDS leader, yet in the end of the book, the LDS Church is mentioned as the fastest growing, most "Middle-Class" church? I recommend a more widely representative list of leaders who influenced western religious life.

In spite of these minor flaws, I highly recommend this volume to all students of the Western experience, whether they are interested in history, anthropology, or sociology. The cataloguing of events, the rich description of the personalities, and the vivid sociological foundation all make this book extremely important in understanding the true character of the West. As a history of a geographically distinct religious arena in the United States, this study of the religious west is both revealing and remarkable. Szasz's work is a highly readable and informative analysis of a unique category of people, still trying to model the distinct frontier spirit, deeply rooted in secularism and pragmatism.

Janet Bennion