Dr. Roger Finke is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Religious Studies at Penn State University and Founder of the Association of Religion Data Archives.His PhD is from the University of Washington and his current work is a series of projects that explore the relationship between religion and the state. Dr. Finke co-wrote a widely read with Dr. Rodney Starke called “The Churching of America, 1776-1990: Winners and Losers in our Religious Economy.” This book is the focus of today’s episode and remains an incredibly valuable resource for tracing the history of Christianity in North America. It’s popular for many people to look back at America’s past with rose-colored glasses and to imagine a time where everyone went to church and cared deeply about Christian values. This, it turns out, is simply wrong. Finke and Stark used archives, census data, church denomination reports, and other primary sources to reveal a much different picture. The truth is that in America’s early days, very few people were involved with organized religion at all, and church attendance steadily grew for most of American history, peaking in the 1980s.

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