Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Northwest: The None Zone

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0759106258
• ISBN13: 9780759106253
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Altamira Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

An interesting analysis

I am a pastor in Idaho, which is not really covered within this volume. But, I read the book because I will be retiring to Vancouver, Washington in less than four years, because our area office is in Portland, Oregon, and because a lot of what happens on the West Coast seems to spread across the nation in a few years. At times it was slow reading, and at times I am not sure I got the exact intended point. A key point is that the physical nature of the land changes people who move to the Northwest. If they wish to remain religiously involved, individuals must work at it continually. Already in 1914 a conference was held by church folks to discuss what could be done about the problem of religiously active people moving to the Northwest and becoming religiously inactive. Although the subtitle (The None Zone) makes it sound as if most in the Northwest have no interest in religious matters, most have some fairly strong spiritual interest. That may not take the form of participation in a traditional church, but may be akin to earth worship through ecology. Often when I was reading the sections about those who are spiritual, but not involved in churches, the thought kept coming to me that these people worship the creature rather than the Creator (Romans 1). A teacher at seminary was fond of saying in 1970 that our culture is becoming more like that of the First Century than at any other time. It is encouraging to remember that it was into such settings that St. Paul first took the Christian Gospel and turned the world upside down with it. I was a little put off in the section of the book by James K. Wellman because he spoke of conservative evangelicals as if "conservative" and "Republican" are dirty words and educated people cannot by definition be conservative or Republican. Some churches are growing faster than the population of the Northwest. These are conservative with definite doctrinal and moral standards and who believe it is the task of every Christian to speak of his faith with friends and neighbors in an effort to make disciples of them. These churches are also very entrepreneurial and make much use of cutting edge media forms. If you are a Christian living in the Northwest, you really ought read this book.

Hit the Nail on the Head!

The authors of this book have named some very important truths about living the life of faith in the Pacific Northwest! Growing up in Seattle, I have understood the culture at a deep level, but these authors explicate the rationale for WHY it is this way making the implicit more explicit. Very well written and thoughtful!