Back-Pocket God

Abstract

What do the religious and spiritual lives of American young people look like as they reach their mid to late 20s, enter the full-time job market, and start families? In Back Pocket God, the authors provide a look beyond conflicting stories that argue that emerging adults either are overwhelmingly leaving religion or are earnest spiritual seekers maintaining a significant place in their lives for religion. Denton and Flory show that while the dominant trend among young people is a move away from religious beliefs and institutions, there is also a parallel trend in which a small, religiously committed group of emerging adults claim faith as an important fixture in their lives. Yet, whether religiously committed or not, emerging adults are increasingly personalizing, customizing, and compartmentalizing religion in ways that suit their idiosyncratic desires. For emerging adults, God has become increasingly remote yet is highly personalized to meet their particular needs. In the process, they have transformed their conception of God from a powerful being or force that exists “out there” to their own personal “Pocket God”—a God that they can carry around with them but that exerts little power or influence in their daily lives. God functions, in a sense, like a smartphone app—readily accessible, easy to control, and useful but only for limited purposes. Back Pocket God shows the changing relationship between emerging adults and religion, providing a window into the future of religion and, more broadly, American culture.