God, Grades, and Graduation: Religion's Surprising Impact on Academic Success by Ilana M. Horowitz

Abstract

Reviewed by: God, Grades, and Graduation: Religion's Surprising Impact on Academic Success by Ilana M. Horowitz Robert Benne God, Grades, and Graduation: Religion's Surprising Impact on Academic Success. By Ilana M. Horowitz. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. 240 pp. The author, Ilana Horowitz, has as interesting a history as the subject matter of her book. She was born in the Soviet Union of non-religious Jewish parents who had to hide whatever Jewish rituals they had left. After immigrating to the United States she went to non-religious Jewish schools and continued her agnosticism. She entered an elite university, Stanford, and earned a Ph.D. in sociology. It was a great surprise to her to live in a neighborhood where many Christian families were devoutly religious. She began wondering how their religious intensity affected the educational outcomes of their children. Finding little research on that subject, she plunged into extensive empirical research and produced this book. [End Page 112] Her research shows that an "upbringing of religious restraint" leads to better educational outcomes for young people. By "religious restraint" she means that such young people are taught to be disciplined, respectful of elders and teachers, and devoted "to live a life that is pleasing to God" (15–17). They have higher grades and rates of graduation than similar young people who are not seriously religious. This difference is particularly true of working- and middle-class youngsters. There is not such a large difference between religious and secular children of highly educated upper-middle and higher-class parents. While the religiously intense young tend to do better with regard to grades and graduation in the lower grades and high school, they do not aim at elite education beyond high school. They do not aspire to go to the top schools. On the surface, this seems odd, but there are interesting reasons why the religious do not aim for the highest ranked schools. First, they do not pursue elite levels because that has little to do with living a life pleasing to God. They think they can get as well prepared for their vocations in nearby schools that are not so highly ranked. Second, as elite colleges exhibit more "wokeness," the religious young—reinforced by their parents—shy away from them. The author thinks this is a shame because such students would add religious and viewpoint diversity to those elite schools (177). Another interesting finding is that "abiders"—another word she uses for the seriously religious—tend to make less money than their secular counterparts. One reason is that they want more time with their families than high octane work allows. Another is that they like to live in areas that are more religious rather than the highly secular environs of large cities where more money can be made (179). There are other goods associated with the religiously intense. "They are significantly less likely to experience emotional, cognitive, or physical despair. They feel less anxious, healthier, and more optimistic about life" (179). They are content with social order, including traditional gender norms (181). The author even suggests that the decline of religion among young people is less than fearful Christians believe (11). Perhaps most encouraging to religious adults is that these young people take their Christianity into their public, secular lives (173). [End Page 113] All and all, this book offers some hope to Christians in a world that seems to be becoming more hostile to religion, especially orthodox religion. I found it very encouraging. While the book is very comprehensive, there is one gap that I wish she would have covered. How many serious young Christians are now home-schooled or go to Christian schools? There seems to be an ever greater number taking those routes, partly because their families believe that public schools are increasingly under the sway of anti-Christian ideologies. The author seems oblivious to those developments. Nevertheless, this is a very substantial book that should bring some satisfaction to Christians who worry about the decline of Christian faith and life in the next generations. Robert Benne Institute of Lutheran Theology Brookings, South Dakota Copyright © 2023 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.